The TRUTH about SCOPES! w/@PrecisionRifleNetwork

Nice topic. But how is the tracki g accuracy of the turrets? How robust are the two scopes? How is the fitand finish?

Leupold Mark 5HD! Best scope period!!

The scope thing is super simple. No need to complicate it.
A cheap scope will NEVER match the quality of a fine reputable scope. Not ever.
So if Joe Blow says it does, let him think so. We don’t have to shoot his rifle & we know he is full of shit & we don’t have to care what he does, says or thinks.
NOW –
Scope quality depends on your own expectations & what you intend to do with your rifle.
Wyoming hunt – We spend good money on a hunt. We aren’t going to compromise our hunt on a cheap scope.
Shooting squirrels 3 miles from my house, a cheap-o is fine.
Prairie Dogs – We will have our eyeball pasted to that lens all damn afternoon. A cheap scope won’t work, your eyes will go buggy & you will get a headache.
Shooting gophers here & there, cheap-o is fine.
Target practice – it doesn’t matter as long as you can see the bullseye.
Match shooting – I prefer a good scope, but I can limp by on a cheap-o until I can recover financially, from buying that damn expensive custom rifle.
It all depends on what I intend to do with a given rifle.
That’s my thoughts, for me on the matter & it has worked well for 45 years.

I'm shooting that speaker, not a movie.
For the application….the cheap scope works just fine.

If you have identical hunting rifles, and the same budget, if you buy a $700 scope and $1300 worth of quality hunting ammo for practicing and hunting over the years, you will always outshoot a $1700 scope and $300 worth of budget ammo for practicing and hunting. You don't need that extra 5x at the upper range for a lightweight hunting scope. One thing I would have liked him to touch upon though is low light performance. Some hunting is done near dusk, and this is where high quality glass DOES make a noticeable difference, to the point where you may be confident enough to take the shot with positive target identification vs going home empty handed.

This is the first video I’ve seen on the swampfox 5-25

I find it very odd that you didn’t go over the mechanical adjustment, it’s precision and durability and well as repeatability. These things will make a much bigger difference than slightly better or worse quality glass.

Well said 👏. I will consider this for my next scope.

Good stuff. Learned a lot. Thanks!

Would like go see this same video on say tangent theta of ZC vs say a Nightforce atacr

buy once cry once quality that will track and still take a beating (nightforce, swfa or trijicon)

I honestly hate the fact that glass has gotten so much better for cheaper. I also love it. Haha I love my atacr and my gen 3 rzr, but for the price I love my arken and riton! I have these cheaper scopes that I'm not babying afraid to get a scratch on them. The fact the the glass in these optics are amazing for sub 500 bux and you get everything with them!

Never look through glass you can’t afford.

Good review, thanks. I have a lightweight Leupold riding my 10/22. At $400, it's good enough for me. Then again, I'm just a run of the mill shooter with a limited budget. A $1700 scope is like serving champagne to an alcoholic.

For me. My skills and range availability near my area won’t be surpassing the scopes I am using. My one and only one goal was to be able to get at least one higher mid range or high end scope just to satisfies my “want” aspect. Now that I got it accomplished. Im back to the economical scopes market. I did see the differences in light transmission between low, mid and high end scope, now that I’ve tried all 3 classes.

The returns definitely go way down past vortex gen 2 razor. The amount of money you can go up past the razor is not worth it in my opinion. I like to see even better eye chart and a razor gen 2 against the 3-4 scopes that cost more than gen 2. See if they could help u read some extra letters or not.

Great video, thank you!

one word…. LIGHT

With a $1700+ scope you can and will still get beat by shooters that have a MUCH cheaper scopes. Additionally these 50mm+ Obj lenses are driving me crazy. There's no need for a SUPER big objective lens UNLESS you are specifically shooting in very low light. The large side by side images could be affected by the parallax settings especially when you consider that one scope as a 50mm lens, and the other is a 56mm lens. The Toric scope had Chromatic Aberration as well, it was just shifted.

Another scope that is worth checking out is the new Bushnell Match Pro ED 5-30×56 that's sold direct from Bushnell for $699.99.

I'd sure like to see a head to head using the $450 Arken EP5 5-25×56 vs the Vortex Razor gen 2 4.5-27×56 and the Tract Toric ELR 4.5-30×56. The Arken EP5 is cheaper than the Swampfox. There are some people who actually claimed their Arken EP5 was clearer than the Vortex Razor gen 2 and Nightforce NXS and Maven RS4.

Awesome, thanks, now do all of them and create a excel with ranks, then share it for free. Thanks:)

From my experience, $600-$800 is about the point where the average shooter won’t benefit nearly enough from the increased features or better parts of anything in the next tier of glass to justify the extra expense.

For most people a $700 scope is also a high-end optic. This would be far more interesting if he used a $150 scope.

Great video.. insightful..id still go for the 1700..

Build a 1500 gun..why put a 700 scope?

With my old eyes at 71 now, I need to see the extra money paid for the Tract Toric 4-20x when new at 3+ years ago worth every penny. I loved Tract Toric so much, I purchased the Tract Toric spotter that is after the purchase of Vortex razor spotter. The old eyes, man!

I can appreciate your comment Joel, relating to "keeping it in the proper context" to me that's what it's all about. The tool for the job you are doing. I'm just a plinker and hunter. If the scope will help me at 300-500 yards, then it works for me.

Joel this is a really fair breakdown. Thank you. I fall under the sub $1000 optics category. This is not because I don't have the money (my wife would argue), but because I am a better tactical than precision shooter. I really admire good precision guys. Great job.

The cost to benefit ratio is directly tied to the shooter skill level. If you suck at shooting a 2k+ scope is no better than a $400 scope.

Selecting a scope is a lot like selecting a rifle caliber. What do you want to shoot and how far do you want to shoot it? For the average hunter shooing at game a few times a year out to a few hundred yards the lower cost makes sense. If I’m shooing matches for money or prizes I’m spending more money because it is an investment.

I think it depends on who is using the gun and what for. Most people probably don't need a complete christmas tree

Hello. Where did you get your target at?
Thanks.

Equipment means nothing without the skill to back it up. Unless you are shooting extremely far distances, which most don't, half of what is in these things is unnecessary. I use a cheap leupold with nothing but the standard crosshair. Never needed an advance scope because I've never once taken a shot that needs it.

Tbh, I personally will not spend more on the optic than I paid for the rifle.

VERY good vid

Sounds to me like lower priced optics hitting the market are hurting the higher priced ones that had a monopoly for years. I dont need one that can make out the backside of a fly on a horse's ass at 800 meters.

The source material is the same from vendor to vendor. There is no manufacturer that makes its own mirrors and lens everything is sourced and in most cases like Leupold to Leapers to Vortex to Simmons all get their electronics and mirrors and lenses from the same source just like Stanley manufactures Black and Decker, Craftsman and Pronto just like computer parts the difference only comes through batch quality control. If you think thats a 1000$ worth of difference the picture doesn't show it but its your money.

The parts of the USAF-1951 are properly referred to as "groups" and "elements". This is a great tool to take to your local gun shop and have them hang out up across the shop.

Context and application matters. If lives are on the line, spare no expense. For sportsman and hunter's, especially on a budget, it's not that big of a deal. Had this video been made 20 years ago. The differences would have been very pronounced. Manufacturing techniques and advances in technology have a really close the gap. So the more expensive optic is better. But it's not a $1000 better.

Fantastic video

I'll say this. Budget scopes are improving WAY faster then expensive scopes are..