by beltbuckle » Mon Jun 28, 2010 9:18 am
I have a nikon on one of my hunting rifles. It's a 4-16x42 with a mil dot reticle.
IMO it's a well made scope for it's price range. It's certainly not overpriced for what it is. While it's not as nice as some of my upper end scopes it will serve it's purpose. I would say it's very comparable to the corresponding leopold's
Honestly you'll probably never use it to it's full potential anyway. Most people set their 0 at X# of yards and forget all about the knobs, few people actually use the elevation/wind age knobs for anything else. So the important thing is going to be clarity, and the reticle you choose. Nikon and Leopold both have good clarity and good reticle options in their mid range optics. Personally I love the mil-dot. I dont think I'll ever own anything different. Even if you dont ever get around to learning how to actually use the dots, I bet you'll like them.
Here's a couple brands I like; Nikon, Leopold, night force, US optics, Meopta, Swarovski. There's so many different options even with a certain brand, you kind of pick and choose what features you like.
One other question. Have you decided on a zoom? 9x? 16? If you hunting with it you need to be aware of your minimum, I wouldn't go anything above 5 under any circumstances and 3 or 4 is much better. 3-9x is perfect for most hunting situations, my personal preference is 4-16 for my purposes.