Scope tube size, does it matter to you?

[Peskådot671]

Scope tube size does matter for me in regards to weight and the added elevation. If it's for an airgun that will see the bench a majority of the time, 34mm is fine. If it's for an airgun that's going to see some off-hand shooting, then 30mm. Most of the alpha class/tier 1 scopes and even good scopes coming out of China are 34mm and up. Now a days, it's hard to find a 1 inch scope with all the features (FFP, high magnification, MIL reticle) I like.

 

[Malcolm black powder]

I have a 36X weaver 1”. Works for me, used to run them on my Benchrest 6mm PPC,.22 target rimfire,great scopes for Bench! Cheers Mal in au.

 

[Aries64]

I’ve always been a Leupold fan. I wish they made a descent scope with side focus down to ten yards.
I have mostly 30mm as that seems to be the most popular tube diameter nowadays. For my use 1” would have adequate elev and windage travel but there doesn’t seem to be a big selection with ten yard focus.

This ^^^. I still have some old school (gloss) Vari-X 3-9X[33] EFRs', Vari-X III 6.5-20X[40] EFRs', and a matte 3.5-10X[50] EFR. Love the close focusing, but really wish Leupold would have developed side-focus EFRs. That would have been sweet.

Also, my airguns all wear 1" tube Leupolds' (most of them EFRs), which provide enough Elevation adjustment for me out to as far as I shoot the few airguns I have, which are all .177" and .20. Everything else is mounted on a firearm with 30mm or 34mm main tube Schmidt Benders.


Keith

 

[JimD]

Bigger tubes have the possibility of more adjustment range but my Athlon Talos 6-24 SFP has more adjustment range than most of my scopes despite it's 1 inch tube. Most of my scopes are 30mm and I have nothing bigger. I have a couple FFP scopes one with a thick reticle and one with a thin reticle. The thin reticle is much better for target shooting but is nearly invisible at the scopes lowest power. I prefer SFP. But a thick reticle FFP is fine for hunting and plinking.