Best long range scope . What is the best long range scope on the market?
Don’t you just love it when you aim at a distant target and actually take an accurate shot? This is the most exhilarating feeling ever! This guide is to help you, an experienced shooter, an occasional hunter, or even a newcomer into the scope world, find the best long range scope that will cater to your needs.
Here is a quick list
| PRODUCT | IMAGE | PRICE |
| Swarovski X5i 5-25×56 |  |
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| Zeiss Conquest V6 5-30×50 |  |
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| Primary Arms PLx 6-30x56mm |  |
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| Schmidt & Bender PMII 5-25×56 |  |
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| Vortex Optics Viper PST Gen II First Focal Plane Riflescopes |  |
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| NightForce ATACR 5-25x56mm |  |
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| Leupold Mark 5HD 5-25x56mm Riflescope |  |
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| Athlon Optics , Argos BTR, Riflescope, 6-24 x 50 First Focal Plane |  |
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| Burris Xtreme Tactical XTR II 8-40x50mm Precision Rifle Scope |  |
Best Long Range Scope Review
Steiner PX4i 4-16×56
Steiner is a brand that offers value for money. As one of the best long range scope on the market, this scope comes with a plethora of features that help you in your shooting or hunting escapades. For starters, it comes with an illuminated reticle. If you are a regular or professional hunter or shooter, you understand how important an illuminated reticle is to a rifle scope. An illuminated reticle coupled with an extended illumination area helps to accurately engage a target in distances even in low light conditions. This scope is also lightweight and compact making it easily portable. This scope’s windage and elevation knobs are solid and firm, enabling military accuracy and precision. This Steiner PX4i 4-16×56 is the best long range scope to handle the worst conditions you might face, be it rock slams or deep cold thanks to its rugged construction. The scope’s tubes are pulverized with high-grade aluminum stock so it no seams or welds. This makes the scope very strong and therefore durable. Features
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Swarovski X5i 5-25×56
As one of the best long-range scopes in the market, the Swarovski x5i offers a lot of features. This scope is equipped with a large field of view which helps in faster target acquisition over a long distance. This Swarovski x5i scope offers the highest optical quality with its high contrast reticle. Swarovski built this scope with high-quality material and undergoes rigorous quality control checks. The scope’s main tube has thicker walls, integrated steel parts in the turrets and, also an inversion system. These capabilities help in delivering maximum stability even when using powerful calibers. The spring retention system makes it possible for the scope to reach a higher adjustment range of up to 116 MOA. Features.
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Zeiss Conquest V6 5-30×50
Zeiss is a world-renowned company that is known for producing one of the best long-range scopes in the market. The conquest v6 scope comes fitted with a zoom range so wide that it guarantees maximum flexibility. This scope also has a lean design and is lightweight. This means it is very portable. This scope is built with light transmission capabilities of 92%, up-to-date multi-layer coatings, fluoride lenses, and a wide field of view. This means the image clarity and quality you will experience is top-notch even in harsh conditions and environments. For long-range shots, a high magnification factor is obtainable. These state of the art optics are secured by an anodized aluminum housing constructed to withstand harsh environments. The distinct LotuTec lens coating that wards off dust or water is a feature that makes this rifle scope stand out from the rest. This scope is fitted with an ultra-fine illuminated reticle that enables a marginal coverage of the target. This scope has very high-quality precision even on smaller targets at the greatest distances.
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Primary Arms PLx 6-30x56mm
The primary arms PLx 6-30×56 mm riflescope is one of the scopes joining this list of best long range scope on the market. It is built with high-quality Japanese glass and top-notch material. The superior glass clarity coupled with the 56 mm objective lens delivers images of high quality. This scope comes with a lifetime warranty which helps in putting the buyer at ease. This scope comes with a full red reticle illumination that makes it possible to use the scope at night and during the day. The turrets on the PLx5 can also be reset to zero allowing future adjustments to be easily tracked. What is more, this scope has a 6-30x magnification range which makes it great for shooting past 600 yards. As one of the best long-range rifle scopes in the market, this scope is fitted with the first focal plane Athena BPR MIL reticle that enables extremely precise ranging and target engagement at ranges beyond 1000 yards. The crosshairs are optimized for accurate range assessment at extended ranges. This scope enables both set-and-forget zeroing and also audible and repeatable 0.1 MIL click adjustments. You have the option of choosing whichever you prefer. Features:
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Schmidt & Bender PMII 5-25×56
The Schmidt and bender PM II 5-25×56 model is so good that it is the preferred scope among the police and the military. The high performance and a great range of magnification make it a very popular scope. As one of the best scope for long range shooting, it comes with reticle designs in the first or second focal plane and you are free to choose whichever you prefer. At the lowest magnification, the reticle is still satisfactory. The scope is equipped with cutting edge optical coating and uses top quality glass to maximize its light-gathering abilities. This means high resolution regardless of low light conditions. This scope also produces high-quality images and contrast. The double turn elevation turret offers a visible rotational indicator. This indicator changes color to signify one full rotation from black to yellow. Features.
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Factors to Consider when Buying the Best Long Range Scope
Magnification
Your magnification settings have a huge impact on your target accuracy, especially in long-range hunting. The best long range scope will have magnification settings of about 20x to 30x. The magnification of a scope can be either fixed or variable. A fixed magnification simply means the long-range scope has only one magnification setting while a long-range scope that is capable of flipping through zoom levels is termed as a variable.
A variable magnification comes highly recommended for the ability to draw back your sight and see more of your target. Nevertheless, if you happen to get a scope with a magnification power setting that is perfect for your needs, then there is no problem with you buying it. You might also consider a scope with good glass in addition to magnification. A good quality glass will make your targets clearer. There is no need to have a scope capable of high magnification powers but the glass looks foggy.
Objective lens
A big objective lens helps in allowing maximum light collected by the scope. This in turn creates a high image quality and affords a wider field of view. The objective lens directly influences the amount of light allowed in your scope’s tube. Meaning, a wider lens will accommodate more light hence a brighter image for you to see clearly. Conversely, big lenses are bulkier as compared to rifle scopes with smaller objective lenses.
A huge lens might be a limiting factor for the kind of weapons you can mount on a scope. A big objective lens can also change the weight of your firearm which makes it heavy and not ideal for some hunting escapades. While bigger, in this case, is better, be careful to not purchase a scope that will be too big for your rifle.
Eye relief
The ideal eye relief is 3.5 mm. Make sure to get a scope that can afford you that. This prevents eye injuries like bruises when you lean in to take your shot.
Illuminated reticle: Most of the long-range scopes in the market have been equipped with illuminated reticles. This is a great feature because it means you can make accurate targeting even in low light conditions. When you get a scope long-range scope with an illuminated reticle, be sure to check how many brightness settings they come with. Different settings let you tweak the reticle to suit your eye.
Lens coating
The ideal long-range scope has multi-coated optics. This has the advantage of improving the light that gets into the scope. Meaning, the more light that gets into the scope, the better the image quality you get. There is a particular type of coating known as Armortek coating, scopes with this layer of coating make it more durable as it prevents quick scratches on the optics. A multi-coated scope will have both light transmission capabilities and also durable.
It is however worth noting, multi-coated scopes are priced higher than scopes with a single layer.
Illuminated reticle: Most of the long-range scopes on the market have been equipped with illuminated reticles. This is a great feature because it means you can make accurate targeting even in low light conditions. When you get a scope long-range scope with an illuminated reticle, be sure to check how many brightness settings they come with. Different settings let you tweak the reticle to suit your eye.
Parallax adjustment.
What is parallax? Parallax is an optical effect that occurs when the reticle seems to shift once the head is moved, making the target’s position appear offset from the reticle center.
Some rifle scopes come with parallax set up internally and locked up in place for all magnification ranges. Even though these scopes are mostly built for short-range shooting, it important to be able to adjust parallax in long-range shooting.
The ability to adjust parallax is important for long-range shooting. The best long range scope allows you to easily make parallax adjustments. This is vital in helping to remove optical illusion while aiming. This helps in making aiming easier and also improves your shooting accuracy. Without it, you can blunder taking important shots.
If parallax is adjusted properly, while shooting long-range, the reticle will be locked in place regardless of how you shift your head.
First focal plane and second focal plane.
In simple terms, the first focal plane basically means that the reticle is placed towards the front of the optic. This means when the magnification is increased, the size of the reticle increases with it. For the second focal plane, the reticle appears to stay the same even when magnification is adjusted upwards or downwards.
The placement of the reticle within the scope is vital for long-range shooting. Most long-range shooters prefer the first focal plane as when the reticle changes with magnification adjustments
Conclusion
Long-range shooting is a thrilling experience. A good scope makes the experience even more worthwhile. We hope this review makes finding the best long range scope a little less of a daunting task.