Scope Facts

morning we're going to talk about rifle scopes very aspects about rifle scopes we've got quite a segment of young people that are just drawn into just about any type of a gimmick that there is and one of the biggest misunderstandings rifle scopes of is the objective we've got rifle scopes with with straight tubes got about a 20 millimeter objective we got rifle scopes with huge big objectives 56 millimeter objectives and we've got rifle scopes with many objectives in between 40 millimeter 42 millimeter 44 millimeter 50 millimeter 54 millimeter 56 millimeter now here's the first thing that you need to understand virtually 90 some percent of the people maybe 95 percent of the people think that because it's got a big objective they got that gives you a brighter sight picture that you can see better that's not the case here's the restrictive factor the internal lenses that zoom in the scope on a variable power scope and almost everybody is buying a variable power scope if those internal lenses are the same size in a 40 millimeter scope or a 44 millimeter scope or a 56 millimeter scope the scope the optics cannot gather any more light with a 56 millimeter objective or a 56 millimeter objective than a 40 millimeter objective if the internal zoom lenses the change your power are the same size only and i mean only if the internal lenses are larger in relationship to the larger objective can you get more laid into a scope if you had a rifle scope with a field as big as a a football field it wouldn't gather any more light if the internal lenses were the same size is the scope with the 40 millimeter objective the lenses in that zoom system in that scope this the first thing you need to understand and if you don't believe me talk to the talk to the experts at leopold leopold makes scopes with all sides of objectives because people want all these things but leopold will be the first and maybe some of the only people that will tell you that they build it because people want them but the internal land system is the same on the 40 millimeter scope as they are the 50 or the 56 millimeter scope it cannot gather any more light now here are two scopes here but i think they're about the maximum size and the maximum amount of power that anybody could conceivably could see it can conceivably ever use this is a leopold 3 to 15 by 44 millimeter dx5 hd this is a swarovski 3 to 18 by 50 millimeter this is a this is a z this is a z6 series scope now comparing these two scopes here this one has the 50 millimeter this one has a 44 millimeter objective there's only a slight difference in the brightness of the 50 millimeter swarovski compared to the 44 millimeter leopold i'll hold them up here and you can compare pretty much size you get scopes any bigger than this scopes with more than a 44 millimeter objective you have to start mining the scope higher with higher scope rates just imagine how high a scope has to be mounted with a 56 millimeter objective you've got to have extra high rings now what does this do this completely changes the whole aspect of the handy the the handling of the rifle and the pointability of the rifle you put the rifle up with the scope mounted properly for the 44 millimeter objective or smaller with the proper comb heights on our modern rifle stocks and even with high scomes the clear bolt head the clear bolt when you pull the bolt back this is as big as you can go and still have your cheek on the comb of the stock now when we go to high rings for the 50 millimeter now we've got to raise our head slightly up off the cone of the stock in other words when we put the rifle up your heads down on the comb now you got to raise it up here and then if you got a 56 millimeter you've got to raise it from here up to here you got it like that that's how far you got to move your head now this just doesn't make sense and we've got quite a crowd here that's bought into this optic system that they have absolutely no understanding of whatsoever i honestly believe that this is too much power in both instances here in both of these scopes but all things considered it's a maximum situation they're both fairly light scopes that's the other aspect we got people wanting to pick these big large objective scopes and when you get big large objective scopes they're b they're built stouter they're built heavier the lenses are larger in diameter in the objective the larger the glass the heavier the scope it adds weight now this scope is a reasonably decent weight of scope rather out like i believe it's 19 or 20 ounces this scopes just a little bit more now i got guys that want to buy these scopes that have 34 and 35 millimeter main tubes these are 30 millimeter tubes now we got a bigger tube we got more material we got these great big objectives we got more material and we got weight i almost every time that i get inquiries from somebody it wants a fairly light rifle that he can carry and hunt all day in the mountains then the first thing he wants to do he wants to pick a two pound scope 30 ounces to 32 ounces or maybe even heavier scope well you know if i'm gonna build you under a seven pound rifle but you're gonna put a two pound scope on it what does that rifle weigh now now it weighs nine pounds we put three or four cartridges in the magazine we put a sling on it and now we've added a half to three quarters of a pound to the weight of the rifle now we got a nine and a half a nine and three quarter pound rifle if we put a scope on it that weighs in the neighborhood of about a pound most of our scopes that are like 2 to 10 2 to 12 4 to 12 are right around 13 to 14 ounces those are the type of scopes that you need on a rifle that you want to carry all day and one of the biggest problems i also see is somebody carries the rifle well then on 18 power you don't ever carry your rifle with the damn scope set on 18 power carry the scope with it set down there around four or six power you're walking if you want to look at a distance somewhere when you stop somewhere turn your power up but when you're when you're done looking turn the scope back down to somewhere around four to six power to carry it you can't conveniently use a rifle scope of 18 or 15 power or higher power a lot of guys want about 24 25 power scopes and one thing another they're totally useless in the field that's all fine and dandy at the shooting range and so forth but it's still not necessary at the shooting range the truth of the matter is everybody in real life hunting situations could hunt all day long anywhere in the world with any almost any caliber rifle it's made to carry and you can hunt all day you can hunt all day long with a straight six power scope and you can shoot animals too by the way at five and six hundred yards with a six power scope i guess that i would probably know haven't been on you know many many kills over a lifetime of honey he used all sorts of equipment all sorts of scopes over a lifetime of 57 years 57 years of hunting big game i know what i know what works and i start out go somewhere earlier in the day before i put my rifle in my and my sound scabbard if i'm riding it's on it's probably on six power if i'm walking somewhere it's probably on six power now i carry a pair of 10 power binoculars and they have built-in rangefinder and i can look at anything that i want to look at within reasonable hunting shooting ranges ethically with that 10 power binocular and tell what i'm looking at now if you've got a scope that's got a little bit more power perhaps maybe you can lay down somewhere or sit down somewhere and look with your 15 power scope or your 18 power scope or something look at something but that's all the use that that higher power is is that very occasional look at a distance you know i can i can i can look with my unaided eyes at 400-500 yards in good light and tell will the animal on the hillside is a ram or a puck or a bowl i can see it with my naked eye i've got extremely good eyesight at my age and oh i look and look it over a little bit better to see exactly how many points has gotten my 10 power binoculars i'll take care of that i don't use my rifle scope to check out game if i need to check out things in hunting situations like if we were hunting sheep and so forth and we might have to spot these animals at quite some distance i carry a spotting scope and in a tripod on the back of my mule in the in the saddle pack or maybe in my day pack if i'm in train or i can't negotiate with with my mule and this is what real hunters know what real hunters that have been there and used these things and seen these things guys say well i can't see my animal i can't see my animal or all i can see is some hair i can't get i can't tell where my scope is my animal well yeah you got your scope turned up way too high the animals at 70 80 or 100 yards or something like that and you can't you can't even tell what your animal is well you wouldn't have had any trouble if you've been carrying a rifle with a six power scope on it or if you had your your scope turned down to a power that's useful this is another aspect to do with power i feel that the very best scopes are right around two to ten three to ten three to twelves and things like that two and three power if you're hunting in the country that i have in it's just filthy with grizzlies you ever have to make a for sure kill shot on a damn grizzly because he's a problem you got your rifle scope set at 12 or 16 power something like that you're never gonna ever be able to tell what the hell you're doing but if you've got a scope like a 2 to 10 vx 5 hd leopold scope it's got a tremendously big field of view and it's a very very bright sight picture you're gonna be able to see extremely well instead of picking scopes with the high power pick the scope that's got the ability on the low end to go down there into the two and three power rings not four or five power not six power but two or three power rings these are the handiest scopes in real hunting situations and slipping down through the timber turn that scope down to two power that's all you that's all you need is you might walk walk up that animal at 60 yards you sure don't need it on 10 or 12 power to be able to do these things and rifle scopes with considerable weight the heavier the scope the harder it is on the scope mounting system and when a rifle recalls the rifle comes back but the scope by inertia wants to go forward and the lighter the rifle the heavier the scope the harder it is the harder it is that that recoiling rifle on that rifle scope because the weight of it more weight puts more strain on the mounting system and the optics and the mechanics and everything in the scope another aspect to do with scopes i repeatedly get to hear this because from time to time you know we have to send a scope somewhere we have to send a scope back somewhere and i'm a lifelong promoter of leopold scopes they're made in the united states they're made right they're made with quality leopold has a selection for anybody or any situation that you want whether it's a very low power scope or some very high power target competition type scope they've got a scope made for you and for me and a lot of people have no idea how to use their scope they don't really know anything about their rifle they don't know the quality of the ammunition that they're shooting or anything else people think that just because they come to a gun maker such as myself and we build a high quality rifle with a max quality barrel on it it'll shoot anybody's ammunition well it sure is the world won't the rifle has got the match barrel and it has to have a load worked up for it just like just like the rifle it's just a factory rifle it's got to have a load worked up for it too and that factory rifle might start shooting a group just as well as as the rifle with the match quality barrel on it it's the loads it's the consistency of the loads and don't be hoodwinked by the superior supreme or premium or select ammunition all that is is a marketing gimmick all that is a marketing gimmick can come on to try to get you to buy their ammunition in all honesty it may not shoot any better than anything else in your rifle so this is what i have to say about rifle scopes because i get this feedback all the time people send in scopes repeatedly repeatedly for instance to leopold because they've adjusted their scope they haven't allowed their their rifle the rifle to settle every time you make an adjustment in your rifle scope this is an absolutely precise situation everything has to settle everything has to settle in that scope so the greatest share of things sent in there is nothing wrong with them so keep all these points in mind we know what works we know what has worked over a lifetime and it can work for you too if you will give it a chance and and heed some advice from somebody who's been there done it for an entire lifetime what is your experience with the workings of the interior of a scope what is your background other than being a custom gunsmith all right i work for two and a half years for burst scope company i work directly with the designer the maker the engineer don burris don burst himself i know what goes into these scopes john burst would buy other people's rifle scopes other makes the rifle scopes and we'd dissect them and see what what made them kick and how they worked and everything else being a design engineer a very very genius of a fellow that designed and built a wonderful product i made everything every last thing in the birth manufacturing plant that made rifle scopes so if i made one one part to make a rifle scope i made two parts so that we had a spare i made dozens and dozens and dozens of prototype rifle scopes and we tweaked them and did this and we did that until we got everything just absolutely right so everything worked just perfectly it takes months perhaps six months or more when we designed these things to get it out there to the public and so forth so i'm just not one of these fellas out here just flapping his gums i know what goes into the scope i know how these things work i know know a lot of these scopes inside and out because i've had a scope apart in my hands in front of me and made all the prototypes for the length of time that burst was was growing we grew considerably in the years that i was there and anyway that's that's that's part of the background that's why you're hearing some of this

Channel: The Real Gunsmith

Views: 67,123

Keywords: the real gunsmith, randy selby, randys custom rifles, rifle scopes, scopes, scope objectives, internal lens, variable power, variable power scopes, leupold, leupold scopes, burris, burris scopes, don burris, swarovski, Swarovski scopes, scope mounts

Id: D-9i2ZbBUU0

Length: 20min 46sec (1246 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 03 2020