Which scope would you choose?

[jakerz]

I'm going to be putting together a 308 bolt gun and have my mind made up on most of the parts except the scope. I plan on doing most of my shooting 600 yards and in, but hope to make that 1k shot one of these days. The things I wanted most are mil/mil and FFP. I've been doing a lot of homework and have narrowed it down to the 2 below:

HDMR g2
viper PST

Pluses and minuses of each (personal opinion, from what I have read mostly):

HDMR G2
+ absolutely love the reticle
+ lockable turrets
+ decent glass
+- middle of the road on my price budget
- no zero stop (although I feel that I wouldn't necessarily need it with the reticle.)
- non illuminated (although I would rarely use it)
- customer service is a joke from what I have read

Viper PST
+ zero stop
+ price ($300 cheaper than the HDMR which would allow for a nice base and rings right away)
+ illuminated reticle (it's nice that it's there)
+ Stellar customer service
- the reticle is okay and will definitely get the job done, but I like the G2 better

Experience with any of the scopes above would be very valuable.

Thank you for your time and knowledge,

Jake

 

[ok_general]

I have been very happy with my Vortex Viper PST. The glass is awesome. Turrets feel great and track perfect. I have shot out to 600 with it so far and it returns to zero perfectly every time.

 

[jakerz]

I think I'm going to scratch the SS and narrow it down to the PST and HDMR. There is a $300 difference between the two scopes. I've had a PST before and I did like it. If only the PST came with the G2 reticle...

 

[MoBoost]

Get the one you really want (G2) - don't worry about the price: either scope has great resale value.

Personally, I am not a big fan of these new "uber" reticles (G2 or H37): you got exposed knobs for a reason - you should be able to count clicks as fast as them hashes. Of course they always show demos of multiple targets at known distances and memorized hold-overs - but seriously how realistic is that, and how hard is it to do with simple mil-dot?

For precision work - hold over is used for last second (minimal) windage adjustments once you got your reticle "there"; if you just trying to "ring steel" - do you really need a $1000+ scope if $200 10x40 Elite will do just as good?

Of course there are cheaper scopes that don't track worth a damn and you don't touch the knobs - but obviously this is not the case here.

 

[jakerz]

^^^ I don't know. If you know your distance holds in mils, you should be able to hold at different ranges and fire, just like a ballistic reticle. Then you would only have to worry about wind. I would like to use this rifle for steel and for hunting.

 

[brandt9913]

Vortex seem to make some damn good glass for the money. You will really like the zero stop feature. I shoot a Zeiss without it, a friend of mine has a night force with zero stop. He never has to think twice about whether his elevation know got bumped and he didn't notice.

 

[jakerz]

I ended up finding a hell of a deal on a used Bushnell 6-24x elite with FFP and the G2 reticle. Thanks everyone.

 

[MoBoost]

Do a review when you get it, if you don't mind.
Thanks.

 

[NikatKimber]

I believe Dustin has had both of the scopes in your original post.

But I see it doesn't matter now.

 

[jakerz]

Do a review when you get it, if you don't mind.
Thanks.

Will do.