Rugged Scopes?

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JCooperfan1911

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I am not well versed on modern rifle scopes and would like to buy a rugged and reliable low to medium power scope for my brush gun .308. I am thinking something in the variable range of anywhere from 1-6 or fixed power of 4x or so. Price does not matter.

Any suggestions appreciated! Thank you.
 
I'm guessing on past experiences that you are not a turret twister? Meaning sight in and manage holdovers with the reticle?

I like the lightweight nature of the Leupold VX-R Patrol 1.25-4x20mm. Turrets are minimalist which is nice if they will be only utilized for sighting in. (Price should be around $450-550)

The Vortex 1-4x24 PST is a great scope, heavier than the Leupold but offers better turrets for adjustment (but stick out from the scope quite a bit), and it offers MOA or MIL-RAD reticle. (Price should be $400-500)

I have both of these, and they both have their strengths and weaknesses.
 
My thoughts on rugged scopes are very basic and simple. If the scope can handle the recoil of the caliber rifle you are using without losing zero, the scope is rugged. I figure also that a scope in the $400 to $800 range will already have nice optics. Anything else is personal taste.
 
I have had great luck with Leupolds holding zero after accidents. I dropped one out of a deer stand about 12 feet. Picked it up, quick checked by bore sighting. and shot a nice buck at 300 yards about an hour later. Other scopes have let me down.
 
Believe it or not the most rugged dependable scope I have ever owned is a 1.5-4.5 Tasco pronghorn. Had it on a 20 gauge deerslayer for 15 years then moved it to a 12 gauge deerslayer and now it is on my 35 remington Marlin 336. It has never fogged or had any adjustment issues at all. Still shoots the ladder and box target adjustments as well as the day I bought it over 40 years ago.
 
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ms6852 said:
My thoughts on rugged scopes are very basic and simple. If the scope can handle the recoil of the caliber rifle you are using without losing zero, the scope is rugged. ...
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Ditto. The scope can take pretty much whatever the OP is going to dish out in normal use. Sounds like something on the order of a low-power "tactical" type scope w/ 24mm to 32mm objective would do it for him. A Vortex Crossfire on the low end, Viper in the middle, or Razor on the top. Another brand I really like is the Leupold VX Freedom. That scope has really incredible optics for its price point of around $250.
 
I have body slammed a Luey M8 4X scope while carrying a backpack full of deer. (225 lb + 75 lb pack)

Rifle was slung horizontal across my front and I tripped, too tired to even attempt catching my fall in any way.

No loss of zero, but quite a scratch and a small crease in the objective bell housing.

It resold me on Luepold, I had always been happy with them, and that just reconfirmed it.
 
Don't know how much you want to spend so if you pick Burris, Leupold, Trigicon, Athlon, or vortex you will be among everyone that uses these manufacturers.
 
If cost is no object id start at a leupold hd5, or Conquest v4 and go up from there. Im going to need something similar for my .458, but im trying to be cheap so will probably end up with a VX-Freedom.
My issues with the "tactical" wide range variables is that they tend to not have enough eye relief for what I want untill the price gets above the vx-fs, and they are universally heavier.
 
JCooperfan1911 said:
Price does not matter.
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If price truly doesn’t matter I’d be looking at Leica Magnus. There are a bunch of excellent scopes from a number of companies that would work great.

BreechFace said:
I like the lightweight nature of the Leupold VX-R Patrol 1.25-4x20mm. Turrets are minimalist which is nice if they will be only utilized for sighting in. (Price should be around $450-550)
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The VX-R line has been discontinued for a while.
wiscoaster said:
A $2K scope for a brush gun?!?!
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I would.
 
Thank you everyone I will look in to all of those, very interesting. I prefer to keep things simple as possible so illuminated reticles and giant turrets are out. Plenty of great recommendations thanks again.
 
One last one: check out Vintage Gun Scopes. Hard to beat a classic Weaver K4 for simplicity and they have refurbished models with all new seals and cleaned up nicely.
 
I have the SHV and the LRHS. Both are good scopes and I recommend them. The LRHS has more bells and whistles and better glass, but I feel like the SHV is built like a tank. If durability is your #1 concern, I would recommend a NF unless the eye relief is an issue for you, which it may be on a lightweight magnum rifle. I saw a video on the interwebs where a guy used a NF scope to hammer a nail into a 2x4 and threw and kicked it all over the place, then remounted it an it held zero. That pretty much sold me on NF.
 
I have several rifles with a Leupold 1.5-5 VX111 on them. They work well on short fast handling rifles and seem to be rugged enough.

Not a suggestion for your application but the word "rugged" brings to mind a few advertisements from the past.

1. US Optics used to advertise zeroing a rifle, removing the scope and driving nails with it. Then remounting it and having it retain the zero.
2. Nightforce used to advertise one of their scopes being shot thru and thru and retaining zero.
 
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