Scope for my hunting rifle

Sasquatch

Sasquatch

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I've got a decent collection of black rifles, but this year I my first bolt-action rifle in 308. It's a Thompson/Center Compass in 308. They guarantee <1 MOA out of the box (and a lot of reviews prove it to be so).

I have bought several scopes over the years, and need to decide which is best to put on it. I plan on using it for hunting <200 yards, but it might be fun to do some medium target shooting, 350 yards or so.

Of these, which would you recommend:

Burris Fullfield E1, 3-9x40 (right now it is mounted on my 3-gun AR)
Bushnell AR/223, 3-12x40
Nikon M223, 3-9x42SF

Opinions?
 
While I am not a scope guru, I would not select a scope with a .223 bdc for a .308.
 
Never cared much for BDC reticles since it's a challenge to match the cartridge with the reticle. I prefer a little bit more magnification (12 or 15) at the top end than 9 too. The Nikon examples that 11B CIB listed are a good choice. I would sight in at 200 yards (should put you 1.5-2" high at a 100) and "choot em". :cool:
 
The Nikon has replaceable turrets, so I could put ballistics-specific ones. But, all of them have calculators to adjust to whatever cartridge is used. The .223 ones are only good as the actual round (77 would have different than if it is set for 55), so that doesn't bother me.

Two bits of advice I saw above:

1) cleanest glass for dusk, I'm guessing the Nikon as it is larger (42) mm
2) most magnification, the Bushnell is a x12

Regarding that- do you guys actually use turrets to set elevation while hunting? I suppose if I was shooting at a known distance (deer feeder), I could set elevation to that, but I'm used to using hold-overs (again, all these scope provide apps to tell you where they line up).
 
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My own opinion, for what it's worth...
9x is plenty of magnification for hunting in NC.
A visual holdover is much faster than turning turrets when deer are walking.
Use the scopes you have, until they prove to be insufficient.
I'll go back to my cave, now.
 
Lately I've moved more toward the tactical line of scopes for my hunting rifles. The main reason being that hunting season is relatively short and I like to shoot my rifles all year long. 99% of my deer hunting is done at 300 yards or less. All of my rifles are zeroed at 200 yards and I know where they will impact at 100 and 300. What I try to do is not to have to aim high at a deer but stay in that 4 inch (+/-) point blank range, regardless of what glass I have on the rifle. I have ranged a deer, turned the turrets, and killed them at over 400 yards but that was because conditions were perfect and I wanted to test my ranging skills (defining the distance from the back to brisket as 20 inches). It worked but I don't foresee me doing it again anytime soon. I would do as others have said and hunt with the scope that gathers the most light at legal time, be conservative with your hunting (shooting) distance, and most importantly, know your trajectory and shoot often. Oh, some of you may ask why I used 20 inches. That was based on measuring a bunch of dead adult deer during the season. Actually the average chest depth was 18 inches but I went with 20 to make the math a little easier. ;)
 
I would eiter use the Burris or look for a Meopta 3-10x40. The quality of glass and coatings is more important that objective size for low light shooting.
 
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