I’m building an SPRish type rifle (upper is an 18" Noveske) and I’m trying to decide on a scope. It’s not so much a paper puncher as it will be more of a plate ringer at medium ranges 200-500ish (don’t have anywhere to shoot beyond 500 at home). I carried a Mk12 for a limited time when working with a team from STA during my recent tour, and I didn’t think much of the Leupold on it. While I can use a mil-dot reticle, I’m so used to a BDC style reticle from being behind an ACOG that my mind is confused as to what I want.
Basic features desired:
Rugged
Lightweight
Good glass
did I mention durable? I’m a Marine and we tend to break shit…
a velocity style reticle of some sort if possible
I’ve been considering the NF NXS 1-4x and 2.5-10x, the SWFA SS 1-4x and 3-9x. Would 1-4x be suitable to my needs or use the higher power? Are there other scopes looking into that would meet? Should I just say screw it and put an ACOG on it since that’s what I’m used to?
I know this is a lot of questions, I just need some help thinking about the options. Thanks for any advice/knowledge.
It would seem that if those are the features you want, and those features are inherent in the ACOG, and you’re already used to running an ACOG…than you should probably stick with an ACOG which are about as simple to use as it gets.
Mil-dots are a bit more versatile in the loads/configurations you can choose but they will require more investment in training and ammo.
Additionally I’m not sure why you’d either go high-end with an NF or low-end with a SWFA but not consider anything in between.
I put a Vortex Viper 6.5-20x50 on my Mk12 build. I really like it. The glass is great. Real clear. They have other versions avaliable like the Viper 1-4x24. I really want to pick one of these up too. I had it out once so far on quite a windy day and very cold. I was getting 1" and less groups with Blackhills 77gr.
Ok cool, mil-dot reticle or something else? I definitely prefer mil-dots for anything not an ACOG. If you have the hands on then the hard part is really over and so your options aren’t really limited to those optics.
I think you can do better than the SWFA and there are a lot of scopes that will serve you as well as NF. You can certainly go to a Vortex or IOR/Valada scope without any significant differences between them and the ones you mentioned at a bit of a cost savings from an NF.
I’d consider getting Mil turrets with a Mil-dot reticle.
Actually an excellent source of information is to talk to Scotty at Liberty Optics. He’ll help you make the right decision, tell him you were recommended by us here and he might even cut you a deal. The only downside is that he doesn’t carry NF, but he carries Leupy, IOR, Trijicon and Voretex. He also carries pre-loved optics.
With scopes, I’ve only used mil-dots. I never used them for ranging cause I suck at it, I’d just use it as a makeshift BDC reticle. I’ll check out the offerings at Liberty, thanks man.
The mil-dot ranging thing isn’t hard to do, it just takes practice and application. A good precision shooting class should get you up to speed in a couple of days. Likewise a good ballistic computer (like KACs BulletFlight available for you smart phone - there’s an app for that ) can do a lot of that for you.
The nice about mil-dots, especially when coupled with mil turrets, is that you can quickly adjust your fire especially with the help of a spotter.
Checking out Liberty’s website is a good thing to do, but definitely give a call and talk to Scott, he won’t oversell and he can properly assess your needs/skill level.
) can do a lot of that for you.