Scope question

Circumstances

Circumstances. I've had this happen infrequently at the range while practicing in the 3 gun area. I'm not sure but it is possible there are lens coatings out there to help with that.

Circumstance, and optical coating, and interior finish/coating quality.

There is one spot I hunt right at day break where I'm at 10-10.5k feet and it's clear. Looking down into the draw I'm looking almost straight at the sun during part of the year. All of my scopes fail completely at dealing with the flooding depending on the angle, and to some degree no mater what.
The better ones, and the much better quality scopes a couple of my buddies use minimize the effects tho, as does using a sunshade, or if you have flip up caps putting a pinhole in the objective.

Honestly the rifle I take most offten to that spot is my heavy 7, and It does ok. I'll still get flip ups and poke a hole in the front tho.

For someone who doesn't usually look towards bright light, setting up your scope to deal with it probably isn't worth it.

If you have to shoot into sun/bright light etc, you can put your hand over your objective with your fingers cracked. That will usually allow you to manage the washout well enough to get a decent shot off.

This is assuming you have a brace.......

I had the same thing happen while mule deer hunting several years ago. As I knelt down to make an eighty yard shot, the glare coming through the scope was so bad I couldn’t tell the deer was at a quartering to angle. Made a humane shot, but the exit was through the deer’s stomach.

Scope was a Leupold VX III, so the better glass didn’t help.

I'd start shopping Leupold sales. Not that there's any major rush, the Tasco will keep a few more weeks,
if you've been using it 25 years. Bide your time, shop around, and get a good deal.

I was going to suggest a cheap aftermarket sunshade or ARD.
ARD's are a honeycomb type insert that slips inside the objective end of the scope ahead of the lens, in case you arent familiar with them. They're lighter and less bulky than traditional sunshades, but often more expensive and sometimes difficult to size properly. They may also cause a "pixelating" effect on some scopes under certain lighting conditions.

Few years back my hunting buddy and I were looking down a hay field into the setting sun. I was using my VX-R, he had a Redfield that was made before Leupold bought them out. I commented that nothing was there. He asked how I knew, as everything was washed out.

I gave him my rifle. His comment was “wow. Look thru mine”. The Leupold was crystal clear, the Redfield totally washed out.

Just that morning we had a discussion about quality of scopes. He was pretty adamant that the Redfield was “adequate “,and he wasn’t gonna spend the money a Leupold.

Next day he bought replacement Leupold and has used them exclusively since.

When higher end scopes say they have anti-glare coatings, what that means is they have anti-glare coatings

When i got my first Viper PST, before i got it mounted i was on my front porch one evening just randomly glassing things around the neighborhood.
A car came around the corner and drove towards me, and i remember thinking something seemed odd. It took me a minute to realize that it was the fact that there was no lens flare, glare or washout from the bright headlights. All of my previous scopes and binoculars had been Simmons, Bushnell, BSA.

Tell you what, one bit of truly good glass pretty much ruins you for using the bargain brands anymore.

Driftertank said:

Tell you what, one bit of truly good glass pretty much ruins you for using the bargain brands anymore.

Click to expand...

Yep. Don’t buy good glass unless you want to keep buying good glass

Twenty five years ago Tasco, especially the "World Class" models were very good scopes. Realistically at the time if someone couldn't afford a Leupold they were a very good 2nd choice. But optics have come a long way in 25 years and I consider around 30 years to be about as long as one can expect the rubber seals to hold up on any scope no matter who made it.

Today for about $200 you can buy a much better scope. But even the best scope wouldn't have prevented this from happening.

jmr40 said:

Today for about $200 you can buy a much better scope. But even the best scope wouldn't have prevented this from happening

Click to expand...

My sentiments, and experiences as well.
I've looked thru a mark 4, and an atacr, at that draw I hunt (it's the one place I can take someone where I'm nearly positive they will get a shot). Even the night force wasn't impervious to flooding, but it WAS still useable.

Similar experience so now I use an amber cover for early morning shooting

My primary hunting rifle wears a Swarovski. I have Trijicon ACOGs on three ARs.

I don't regret a penny that I spent on those scopes. I do regret the money I wasted on "economy" scopes when I was younger.

My next scope, for my AR-10, .308 will be a Night Force 2-10X50.

That's why the higher end scope makers tout their FULLY MULTI-COATED lens coatings, the older Japanese Tasco's were good scopes but they didn't have the modern lens treatments.