As a hunting scope, what are the pro's & con's of a 1 inch scope tube compared to a 30 mm tube? Not talking long range target or hunting arena but 300-400 yd. Thanks

30mm tube provides more travel for the elevation turret.

There is absolutely no benifit in the hunting scenario you describe. Also if you are looking for more elevation just having a 30mm tube doesn’t mean much. Many companies were guilty of putting their 1” internals in 30mm tubes giving no additional travel.

For what you’re doing pick the scope you like and run with it.

inside 300-400 not much. There should be enough travel inside 1 inch.

Although a lot of 1in tubes have turrets that are capped and rely on the reticle for elevation adjustments.

I would also say generally speaking higher quality glass goes into 30mm tubes but that is not a universal rule IE vortex hunter has good glass but 1 inch tube. Interestingly if they had a better reticle in there I would consider it for a basic inside 300-400 yard scope. One of the nice things about reticles is that since they are not mechanical the failure rate is lower than turrets. And the only way the fail is by getting out of alignment which is easier to see then a turret that is off/not returning to zero

Well, not quite 100%. Having a 30mm tube allows for more elevation travel over a 1" tube. There are MANY times this is needed. For example, I have mounted and shot many rifles with the high end Swarovski scopes. They run a 1" tube and these scopes were big, like 5x-25x or 6x-30x power. These 1" scopes with this much magnification have only about 40 moa of travel. If you zero this scope on a straight base (Zero moa base), it "theoretically" on paper puts your reticle dead center of 40, which allows for 20 moa up and 20 down. This creates 2 problems. Some scopes had the color coded adjustable turrets. Once your base, rings, and scope are mounted, sometimes they are not perfectly level, and you do not get the 20 up and 20 down. You may get 5 moa up. So when zero'd in "reality", there is not enough elevation travel to get beyond about 300 yards. This has happened. I have also had some shooters once everything got installed, they could not get a 100 yard zero because they didn't have enough down travel. This is why many are now going to 30mm, and some 34 and 35 mm. More elevation and windage adjustment!!!

So, most of the time, a 1" tube is fine for basic hunting and sighting in. But there are certainly cases where a 30mm tube would help allow for more elevation to avoid these issues. If you plan out your scope and bases with a zero moa base, there should be no problem with most scopes. But you can certainly get into some issues depending on your scope size.

Chad I did not factor in error in equipment. You’re right though, although it’s never happened to me it does happen.

Depending on the scope, glass, and lens coating, it *might* be possible that you get more light through a 30mm tube.

20 MOA rail will help with elevation, I always seem to have better light with a 30mm and lots more with a 34mm, possibly due to being better scopes.

I’m not in the bigger tube more light camp. Or FOV.

I am. Look thru a Leupold euro 30 and a Leupold VX-II of the same age. Same internals just a bigger maintube, no comparison in clarity at dusk and dawn.

Same glass and objective? I have no idea.

Lol! I can assure you of two things!

#1. I’m no expert

#2. Leupold was exposed on this exact scope for calling it “30mm” when it had 1” internals.

From what I understand, the amount of light emission and perception of glass quality is solely a function of the lens itself (duh) and the objective size. The tube diameter has nothing to do with how much light a scope can or can not capture. This at least makes sense to me.

A couple of Pros of 30mm vs 1 inch tube other than increased elevation/windage range:
- Increased field of view at similar magnification
- Increased durability

Cons
- Increased weight/bulk
- increased cost

Of course the above are generalities and are not always the case depending on manufacture.

I’m almost certain FOV is directly related to the length of the scope vs magnification. Not tube size. Where skyler when you need him?

I have a vortex viper gen 1 4x16 44mm and a 20 year old leupold 3x9x40 vxII. The leupold is a better low light scope.

I think for what your asking about in a hunting scope pick either and run with it and you will likely never know the difference.