I know I know save a little more money. But looking for recommendations for a 20" barrel ar in .308. My goal is to be able to reach out to 500 yards plus or minus a few. I would like to keep my budget under 650.00. I have looked at the Nikon m-308. but what are some other recommendations? Main purpose for this rifle will be hunting and semi-long distance shooting. Thanks in advance.

you might want to check the SWFA and Cameraland sample lists to stretch your budget, a regular price $800 scope, might be available within your budget.

Tough to do on that budget.

Most bang for your buck, right here.

http://swfa.com/SWFA-SS-3-9x42-Tactical-30mm-Riflescope-P50716.aspx

It's not my area of expertise but this one from the sample list seems to fit
http://www.samplelist.com/Vortex-4-16x50-Viper-PST-Rifle-Scope-DEMO-B-P72433.aspx

It's a very good scope, indeed, and I considered adding the link to that one. Everything about it is very nice except that it's second focal plane. I went first focal plane long ago, and now that's all I'll use. The Vortex will work very well, but you'll have to remember that a Mil is only a Mil at one magnification setting (probably max magnification) , and that matters when holding wind.

Im definitely no old hand at the long range scope game, but it seems to me that you will only need to hold for wind at extended ranges and at those ranges you would be using your max power?

I got SFP because I wanted my reticle to stay the same size and not get thicker as magnification increased. Ive always had trouble with scopes in the past that the X of the crosshairs covered up too much of the target you wanted to aim at and didn't want that again especially when the intent was long range where your target will appear small to begin with.

Wind needs to be allowed for 200 and out. Aim small hit small. My large targets are two MOA 4" at 200 yards, 6" at 300 yards, 8" at 400 yards 10" at 500 yards. Wind has to be allowed for at all of them. Those are too small? Not if you're a predator hunter. I don't want to hit the coyote or bobcat, I want to hit the coyote or the bobcat in the vitals, so that's why I say shoot that small at distance. I've got 1 MOA targets right next to the 2 MOA and those hurt everyone's feleings including mine. As a competitor and a hunter trust me when I say FFP is superior. I've yet to feel handicapped with it, shooting precision rifle from 5 yards to a mile.

I'm not a long distance guy, but I did just get myself a Viper PST 4-16 FFP and I like it very much. We will see (but I haven't yet) how it does out to 500. I think it'll be great, and the illuminated reticle gets me all giggly. Those pigs and coyotes will be SO surprised. But that's more money than you want to spend. Another option, and much cheaper, that you might consider is a used Leupold VX-3 in 4.5-14 and send it in to Leupold for the TMR reticle. They've added that to one scope of mine and I like it better than the MRAD reticle on the Viper PST. So maybe $500 or less for the used scope and $150 or less for the TMR reticle and you're good to go. It's SFP, but that's no big problem. Until lately, that's all I ever used for hunting and I haven't starved.

But...the TMR won't be illuminated, and that was a big selling point to me on the Viper PST. For the Viper PST SFP, that price isn't far out of your range.

You could probably snag a Vortex 2.5-15 for that price. But that is low magnification for the distance

15x is plenty to go 1k, if desired. The professional killers did it with a fixed 10X for many years.

In order to find a scope that I think that you will never out grow and function properly, this will be hard to do. Reason being, this style of Scope (Magnification + Exposed turrets + Mil style Reticle + FFP) are in high demand right now, because it makes ranging and DOPE correction almost instantly easy because everything works together in your favor.











This is an excellent choice.

Another I would entertain is the 3-15 SS.