Books Precision Rifle Handbook: Buying A Scope Frank Galli July 13, 2026 Join the Conversation At RECOIL, we review every product fairly and without bias. Making a purchase through one of our links may earn us a small commission, and helps support independent gun reviews. Read our affiliate policy. Find out more about how we test products. You went out and bought a new precision rifle, and you want to purchase a new optic. But there are so many choices, from Athlon to Vortex, Nightforce to Zeiss. Where do you start? How do you wade through the hype and get down to the meat and potatoes of the questions? MISSION What is your intended use? It’s that simple. Do you only have access to a 200-yard range, and plan on putting it on your .308? Are you interested in shooting competitively in Precision Rifle Series? Just plinking? You need to be honest about your intended use for the scope. This scope tool checks tracking, reticle focus, cant, and demonstrates proper parallax adjustment. To reach 1,000 yards with a .308 rifle, you want at least 40 minutes of angle (MOA) of useable adjustment from a 100-yard zero. If you have a scope with 60 MOA, plus or minus, of adjustment, you are in good shape. You do not need a scope with 32 mils of adjustments if you can only reach 600 yards at your local range. The cartridge you are shooting matters too. By understanding your caliber choices, you can determine the best scope for your given application. Magnification has very little bearing on how far you are shooting, but it matters depending on what you are shooting at. If you are shooting F-Class on paper, you want to see the X-Ring, so these shooters use very high magnification scopes. But the tradeoff is less elevation adjustment. You don’t want a 55x optic for your .338LM if you plan on shooting to one mile. These days every damn scope looks good out of the box. There are only so many suppliers of raw glass, and the difference actually lies in the coatings. More magnification usually limits your total travel. Most field shooters stick to scopes that hover around 25x or less. Many are shooting them below 18x, enjoying the increased elevation adjustment. Magnification is a double-edged sword in the field. Magnification increases problems in the air, like the mirage. Yes, you can shoot 1,000 yards with a 10x scope, but most will use between 12x and 18x to maintain a good field of view and clear sight picture. You do not need a 32x scope to shoot 1,000 yards on steel. You want 25x or less. I love, and use, a ton of 16x scopes. BUDGET Super important: What is the top end of your budget, and is it worth holding off a bit to take the next step up? If your budget is $2,000, you might want to wait until you have $2,500. If your budget is $1,500, you might be better served spending $1,250. It used to be the top-of-the-line Leupold Mk 4 cost $1,250; now that is a low-end scope regarding money spent. If that is your budget, there is nothing wrong with it, but accept the fact you’re now looking at the lower end of the spectrum. Yes, you get what you pay for, so be careful when someone says it’s a Giant Killer. The odds are, your $1,500 scope is really only competing with other $1,500 scopes. If it were really a Giant Killer, it would cost the same as the big names. Companies can certainly OEM an optic from the major players, but that does not mean the spec is the same. NATIONAL ORIGIN ISN’T QUALITY Today, you are not going to win by simply choosing a country of origin. Scopes made in Japan, probably the most plentiful of the bunch, are excellent. Consider this: the majority of great cameras come from Japan. Nobody bitches about Nikon or Canon coming from Japan. What is your intended use? It starts that simple, but you need to be honest. It’s all in the specs, as they have the same machines we do, which can hold very respectable tolerances. It comes down to what the vendors want to pay, and how much quality control goes into the scope. An example of this is the Vortex Gen 2 Razor. It’s a widely popular, very reliable scope that is also marked “Made in Japan”. Vortex specs them out a certain way, then when they arrive in the U.S., Vortex tears them apart. Yes, that scope is cheaper to get it into the country complete, after which Vortex replaces the internals to ones made here in the U.S. It’s not enough to change the country of origin, but it is an important reason why those scopes work so well. GLASS QUALITY These days every damn scope looks good out of the box. Manufacturers have learned enough over the last 50 years to make outstanding glass. The optical prescription and how they spec them is such that we can barely tell the difference when all else is equal. The glass is subjective. No two users see through the scope the same way. Especially if it was not properly adjusted for the shooter’s eye. There are only so many suppliers of raw glass, and the difference actually lies in the coatings. The problem with coatings is durability. While your cheap, budget-minded scope “looks just as good as my friend’s S&B,” in two years your coatings will be worn down and not nearly as nice, and his glass will be the same as the first day he bought it. Things like sunlight can wear on coatings over time. So just showing up at the range with a scope can degrade it. I think people tell themselves how good something is just to justify the purchase they weren’t sure about in the first place. After that, it’s a case of misery loving company. Coatings are what gives a scope it’s “look,” and that look is the same as asking your friend what his favorite color is. They design the coatings and the look for a specific set of results. That usually means outside in the sun, which is one color on the spectrum chart, or to break down shadows so you can see your prey through the camouflage. If you want low-light performance, you get a large objective lens and reduce the power to open up the exit pupil. If you test your scope on 25x at night, you will be disappointed. Try turning down the power. Same goes for the elevation. If you want to see the best sight picture, the erector has to be centered. You cannot crank 50 MOA on one scope and compare it to scope that is centered. It’s like testing a scope indoors with fluorescent lights when it’s color corrected for daylight. All will make a scope look bad. Bay window reviewers are plentiful on the internet; some of the best-written reviews come from owners of safe-queen rifles. Glass is discrete and controlled by the Abbe number. Schott, Hoya, and Ohara are brands, not a quality value. Each brand has its equivalent model with a matching Abbe number. In fact, there are versions of Ohara glass which outscore similar Schott models. The bird watchers and star gazers have this down to a science. They can tell what lenses are combined in their optics to get the desired effect, and neither favors one brand over another. They understand what the Abbe number means and how the design is impacted by the choices made in optical design. Bottom line: don’t get wrapped up in the glass. The scope companies have taken care of this for you. Today, glass quality is more so a byproduct of your budget than your choice in brand. In many cases, you need a machine to tell the difference. FEATURES TO LOOK FOR Elevation adjustment is attached to main-tube size. Most common are 30mm to 34mm. The erector inside is the same, so you are not getting more light out of a 34mm versus 30mm. The brightness of the scope is determined by other factors. If you are putting the scope on your .338LM, you want 100 MOA, or more, of elevation. That is equal to more than 26 mils of adjustment. For Extreme Long Range (ELR) shooting, you want a scope with 28 to 36 mils of adjustment. If you are using your .308, you can get away with 15 mils or less. That is about 60 MOA. I do recommend getting more elevation than you think you need; you might decide to swap it over or travel to a location with more distance. Add more weight to total adjustment when considering a new scope. Zero Stops is a feature worth having. Zero Stops prevent you from being off a turn. Some scopes allow you to set them at a specific point; other scopes are set at the factory. I always like to have a tiny bit, about 1 MOA of down, below the zero stop. FOCAL PLANES The reticles in first focal plane (FFP) scopes appear to get larger when the magnification is increased, and smaller when decreased. This allows the reticle to retain proportion with the size of the target. The result is holdover points remain the same, regardless of magnification. Reticles in the second focal plane (SFP) stay the same size throughout the magnification. As magnification increases, the size of the target appears to increase, but the reticle does not. If you are a dynamic shooter, field shooter, PRS shooter, or even a hunter, you want an FFP scope. This might increase the cost. If you plan on shooting F-Class, benchrest, or if you shoot by yourself, you want to get an SFP scope, which is considered a more durable design and will be a bit cheaper compared to an FFP scope. For this reason, you see guys shooting ELR distances and heavy recoiling rifles using an SFP scope. You can use half the power on an SFP and double the reticle value giving you more range when holding at extended distances. RETICLES, RETICLES, AND RETICLES Reticles are like shoes; you get the pair that fits well and is suited for your desired use. You don’t buy sneakers to match your business suit. You get sneakers to run in, hiking boots to hike in, and dress shoes to look good, but feel uncomfortable. Same with reticles. Reticles take understanding and training. We use reticles today like very few did before. The biggest consideration is to match the reticle to the turrets. Mils for mils and MOA for MOA. If you don’t need all the clutter, don’t get it. Nobody I know of has won an F-Class match with a Horus Reticle holding over. It’s a tool. One that might not be necessary for your type of shooting. Our brains like focus; we like a defined intersection, and the holdover reticles are designed for speed and big targets. Sure, given time and opportunity, we can get very precise with them, but they can also block the impact causing us to hesitate and have to think about what just happened. When an expected outcome doesn’t happen, some people lock up. Also, under stress with limited training, some people hold the wrong line, repeatedly. Practice is important. But they are just mils, so they do work as advertised. They also add more money to the scope. The Horus Reticle adds $400 to the cost, that is the license fee that is passed on to the end user. Look at the schematics of the reticles you are considering, get to know them first and understand what they provide you and what they don’t. You have to wear the shoes, I don’t. This article is an excerpt from the Precision Rifle Handbook, available at GunDigestStore.com. It has been edited for the space and format. Why you can trust RECOIL Since our founding in 2012, RECOIL remains the premier firearms lifestyle publication for the modern shooting enthusiast. We deliver cutting-edge coverage of guns, gear, accessories and technology. We go beyond basic reviews, providing no B.S. buyer’s guides, hands-on testing and expert analysis on everything from firearms and survival equipment to watches and vehicles. 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