I’m fascinated by all the new scopes & features available. Almost makes you dizzy just looking at all the spec’s. The prices can make you dizzy too! But I’m a believer in you get what you pay for. I get buying multi-thousand dollar scopes for long range competition. The night stuff is expensive too & really looks like fun. Big boy’s toys cost & are worth every penny if that’s your game.

Now to the point. I’m a simple sort of guy that hunts deer mostly. I like variable scopes with 4x or 6x on the low end & 16x on the upper end seems enough. I don’t need the extra adjustment of a 30mm tube - a 1” tube is just fine. I don’t need a 50mm objective requiring high rings to shoot in super-low light. I don’t need turrets that stick-out an inch for adjusting on the fly. I like to set the scope & put caps on it. As for reticles, I don’t want dots everywhere & I don’t need anything lighting up. NO batteries please! The good ol’ duplex reticle works fine & I subscribe to a mid-range trajectory sight-in.

What I DO WANT is very good glass so I can tell the finest details on an animal’s head or body out to 400+ yards.

So here is the question. Who makes the best, no frills scope where your money goes for the glass & not the engineering or features?

TIA for your opinions!

Steiner GS3 is a great hunting riflescope. German optics assembled in Colorado

Meopta Meopro is also a great hunting scope made in the Czech Republic

Think the part that is going to cause you an issue is the "...can tell the finest details on an animal’s head or body out to 400+ yards".

No issue doing that with my STX, tougher to do with my SLC 15s, and will not happen with my eyes using a Swaro Z5, Leopold VX6HD, nor a Razor LH.

I'm both a Meopta and a Steiner fan. I've only got one Steiner, a Predator Xtreme, but I've got at least 4 Meoptas.

For me that answer was always Nikon. They are getting out of the scope business now but some really good deals are there on them now. I've never ever had to send a Nikon in for any service, repair, or replacement. Your requirement though about seeing the finest details at 400+ that won't be easy because most of the scopes that can do that have features you said you don't want.

If you can get around your problem with a dot, you might look at a Trijicon Accupoint. I have one of those. It does have an illuminated center dot but there are no batteries, buttons or switches it's all automatic - you'll see the details with a Trijicon.

Earl

buy slightly used





here

I would take a look at Leica

Thanks guys, some good suggestions here. I was always a Leupold buyer & thats the only scope brand I considered. Then to save a $100, I bought a Pentax Lightseeker 6x-24x-44mm & surprisingly it's clarity & adjustments beat my more expensive Leupold 6.5x-20x-40mm hands down. That was years ago & the Lightseeker are no longer available except a used one will show up on ebay now & again. I'll definitely take a look at Meopta as I'm not familiar with their scopes.

Swarovski would be damned hard to beat in the "money goes into glass, not frills/features" category

16x from a riflescope may or may not get you what you are looking for in detail.

I think Roughneck is spot on in terms of glass quality over gadgets and set it/forget it scope with the Swaros. They do have the ballistic turret which might be good for ya because you could do a 100 yard zero and just set the three turret rings to 200, 300, 400

Here would be a mighty fine solution:
https://texashuntingforum.com/forum...6675/swarovski-z5-5-25x52-bt#Post7806675

Meopta has really good glass for the money.

Swaro is the answer for best glass with no long range capability.

The best compromise of great glass and a reticle that allows long range is the ATACR 4-16. I looked through one last year and it was hands-down one of the best hunting/LR optics that I've ever seen. Glass was really excellent, with good features too, and can be had for less than the top-end swaros.