Quote:
Originally Posted by Guymullins
I have a theory that much money is often spent needlessly on rifle scopes in Africa. I am interested in what the rest of you feel.
Most of the high priced scopes that are available here in Africa (Swarovski, Leica, Zeiss etc) make great play on their lens coatings and light gathering qualities.
These qualities are very desirable for Northern Hemisphere hunting, where the winter days are very short and the light really poor for much of the day. In Africa, especially South Africa, our winter days are extremely bright with swift dusks and dawns. We seldom have rain or even clouds for all the hunting season, so the only time low light hunting occurs is on baited leopard, when the norm is to shoot at times of minimal light. So, my theory is that we generally dont need many of the costly features that are so desirable for European hunters. What we would prefer is a super-robust scope that can take a bashing on bad roads and from heavy recoil that we tend to get with our bigger calibres. Comment?
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Nikon Monarch 2-7x32. Oddly some of their fixed power scopes don't handle the abuse over the long term. Some background, first (I catch crap for this) I jb weld them on, sometimes red locktite. On many mt. Lion hunts there is a 3 or more hour drive over boulders in a 88 Toyota 4x4, top speed if lucky is 5mph. Boulder fields slower. Then there is climbing, falling, high and low temps (highest 112f' lowest -5f -33f wind chill), wet, and lots of banging. Most shots are in low light, many borderline. This scope has never let me down at 4x up to 400yrds. Since Bobcat and fox are on the menu as well it has to be damn accurate. It's used with a 22-250 (yes it kills lions) .243 and .30-06's with hornady's most powerful flat flying rounds (light mag or newer superformance 150gr for example in 06). I have used some of the optics you mentioned for short to medium range (Kentucky windage) but prefer the above mentioned scope for that purpose.
Durability...shot out the 22-250 in two years and that scope was transferred to another one, that was 12years ago and being rolled on by an ATV...from the low deserts of Arizona to the rocky mountains of montana. Still works just fine. The old rifle is being saved for a gunsmith in az.
For the mid four hundred dollar range, an excellent part of the package (pro discount less)
Excuse the writing, on an Android...hope that helps