I’m avoiding doing my first thing Sunday morning bookkeeping by answering the below question a friend asked me:
“I was looking at reviews on air gun websites this morning. What scope manufacturer is the most desired for field target competition? Interested in their design and set up”
Begin reading this thread with an old movie lead in called the Twilight Zone:
“Please don’t touch your dial, you are now entering the twilight zone”
I’m sharing the below information as a condensation of my 2 year quest to find the perfect FT scope; so consider this info “percolated lessons” in how “not to” spend your hard earned monies :} i am by no means an authority on the subject... just trial and error lessons.
in HFT we are limited to 16X and can only use the parallax knob – we cannot change magnification or click for holdover / distance valuations. 16 x also needs to be marked on the mag wheel or you have to turn it down to the next lower power – yeah no fudging.
In FT Open class or WFTF (sitting on a bumm bag) they are allowed to click to change their distance holdover points to zero so choosing the right scope is slightly different.
After experiencing a lot of frustrations, spending way too much money, and talking to just about all the high-end scope makers this is what I learned:
2) REPEATABILITY, MEANING IF YOU SET A RANGING WHEEL USING KNOWN DISTANCE MARKERS IT WILL ACCURATLEY RETURN TO THE SAME POINT ON THE WHEEL EACH TIME YOU RANGE IT (provided you range it / used the wheel near to far or far to near, the same way each time.
LASTLY - I recently attended an EFT event in Leesburg FL… rules are somewhat different for EFT extreme field target – In EFT you can shoot your .30 as you are allowed to shoot up to 100 ft lbs of energy? at the muzzle. You are also allowed up to use magnification up to 34 x and you are allowed to click/change your scopes elevation knob; so you really don’t need a fancy parallax wheel because they give you the distances out to 100 yards… targets are set at 20-100 yards… tougher than it seems. 3” KZ at 100 yards is…… cussing land; especially if you don’t know how to judge the wind. All this EFT stuff is great fun but the number of, and locations of, EFT matches and clubs having targets that can withstand 100 ft lbs of energy are few and far between. Currently in my area there is only FT / HFT with some pistol class HFT and Benchrest thrown in for good measures. My point of sharing the EFT info is simple... in EFT your glass selection / requirements can be very different... don't have to be but....
If you are still with me at this point then you should know that AGN has a few great people who can teach you how to BRACKET using the reticles internal markings MOA or MRAD – to verify your distance, handy if your scopes info doesn’t agree with your shot placement – aka you aren’t ranging correctly. Recently someone started a thread on this specific subject.
Feel free to jump in and add or correct me where necessary... i certainly need all the coaching i can get just like all the othe newbies to the wonderful world of field target bliss. If you aren't learning well... your not doing it right.
“We will now return you to your regular programming”.
“I was looking at reviews on air gun websites this morning. What scope manufacturer is the most desired for field target competition? Interested in their design and set up”
Begin reading this thread with an old movie lead in called the Twilight Zone:
“Please don’t touch your dial, you are now entering the twilight zone”
I’m sharing the below information as a condensation of my 2 year quest to find the perfect FT scope; so consider this info “percolated lessons” in how “not to” spend your hard earned monies :} i am by no means an authority on the subject... just trial and error lessons.
in HFT we are limited to 16X and can only use the parallax knob – we cannot change magnification or click for holdover / distance valuations. 16 x also needs to be marked on the mag wheel or you have to turn it down to the next lower power – yeah no fudging.
In FT Open class or WFTF (sitting on a bumm bag) they are allowed to click to change their distance holdover points to zero so choosing the right scope is slightly different.
After experiencing a lot of frustrations, spending way too much money, and talking to just about all the high-end scope makers this is what I learned:
- There is not A SCOPE in the traditional sense that was made specifically for Field Target / Hunter Field Target at least as the scopes are currently being used. This specifically applies to using the Parallax adjustment feature / knob to range a target to determine its distance. Odd yes? Some where in the history of Field Target someone fat guy sitting on a bucket or laying on his belly in England or wherever, figured out they “could kinda sorta determine distance” using parallax error correction. Well golly gosh darn what the hell was I spending all my money for? This matters because, although 99% of the scopes are not the best choice for FT / HFT they still can work.
- Parameters for finding a suitable scope, include
2) REPEATABILITY, MEANING IF YOU SET A RANGING WHEEL USING KNOWN DISTANCE MARKERS IT WILL ACCURATLEY RETURN TO THE SAME POINT ON THE WHEEL EACH TIME YOU RANGE IT (provided you range it / used the wheel near to far or far to near, the same way each time.
- You must set up a parallax wheel (yourself for your eyes) as each of us have different focal lengths – and if you wear glasses its best to set up a wheel without them and after you range a target, look through your readers to read the information on the wheel = distance and to read your dope chart. Avoiding the wearing of glasses during setup and field application helps us achieve the correct repeatable eye box every time we plant our eye behind the scope.
- Another challenge is choosing an MOA scope or MIL Dot / MRAD scope? Guess what - It doesn’t really matter as long as it’s what YOU PREFER.
- Follow this info with yet another option FFP first focal plane or Second focal plane? Easy (to me) because a FFP scope will maintain the reticle size and holdover valuations from near to far, although you have some hardcore hunter people that insist they need a SFP…, TIS THE SEASON SO - bah humbug.
- If shooting a break barrel / springer class, you better by a scope rated for an air rifle because RECOIL is going two ways = death to the reticle. (Hawkes scopes are the best in this regards).
- If your still with me and the coffee isn’t too weak or the tea too strong, we are going to move to the actual starting line of picking a scope. I never said money or your budget matters in this game... i leave that up to you.
- In HFT we really need a reticle with illumination due to dark woodland lanes and that reticle needs to have each holdover point or lines within the scope properly and logically numbered so you do not get lost between reading your dope and applying the information to your holdover point while aiming. This is where shooting WFTF is nice or Open Class FT is nice because they get to click / change their elevation, so their point of aim is ALWAYS zero center point; thus they can utilize a scope with NO NUMBERING on the reticle. But for us HFT peeps if your scope just has lines or dots within the reticle you WILL make holdover mistakes PERIOD. Old farts have told me this umpteen times and they were right! If you get to click for elevation adjustments then by all mean = $BUY$ all means spend the money for the Sightrons 10-50x60 FT scope or the Kahles 10-50x60 FT or a Falcon XTI50 a similar FT dedicated glass…. But in HFT these types of scopes (in my mind) are a waste of money because you can’t utilize them as intended, as in clicking, (awesome scopes – I have several) but a waste of my money because I get lost within the reticles land of dots and dashes and tick marks and thus miss shots.
- So I still haven’t answered the question i was asked yet. Well that’s because choosing a scope for FT / HFT means choosing a reticle that works for you. This is where I can save you a LOT of TIME and MONEY because I have acquired almost all of the scopes that people say are “perfect for HFT”. hmmm? Time for a road trip…. Come to my lair of numerous scope glass and we can get you sitting behind all of the best glass out there for WFTF and HFT and within a short time you will understand what is best for YOU.
- Two years after this scope quest began an old guy that bought my Daystate Redwolf electronic gun shared some info with me. This information concerned Sightron’s S-Tac 4-20x50 MILH-4 Reticle, damn another rabbit hole to fall in. https://sightron.com/products/s-tac-ffp-4-20x50-zero-stop - the simple layout of this FFP, Illuminated scopes well numbered reticle works really well in FT and the 16 power magnification point IS marked on the scope! This scope price ranges from $780. To as low as $589 depending on where and when you acquire it. Optics Planet or Midway on Amazon. The same scope also has an MOA option the MOA3 reticle is just as nice BUT if you compare the reticle markings you will quickly see why the MilH-4 would be preferred model # 26016 - S-TAC4-20X50FFPZSIRMH who knows, you may prefer the MOA3 version of this scope, I have TWO of them, yep 2, brand newish in their boxes if you do.
- If you were to acquire any of the above Sightron scopes, the next challenge is getting a proper parallax wheel made for it because these S-Tac scopes have some gnarly knobs – just recently, Eric of Scope Werks created a magnetic wheel specifically for the S-Tac scope. https://www.scope-werks.com/viewitem.php?productid=474&groupid=48 don’t buy yet because the shape of the wheel is VERY important to getting the greatest space between focal points as then properly marked and displayed on your new wheel – the best wheel for the job is Eric’s eccentric 6” magnetic wheel. So all in you can get a scope for max $790 and a wheel max $160 – so $960 all in where as my fancy Kahles is 3K alone, and my fancy Sightron is 1.5 K and my my nice Athlons are $780 ish. I also like Joe Garlands magnetic scope wheels, BUT JD will tell you up front that he hates the S-TAC line of scopes because the knobs are a fitment nightmare - i dont blame him....
LASTLY - I recently attended an EFT event in Leesburg FL… rules are somewhat different for EFT extreme field target – In EFT you can shoot your .30 as you are allowed to shoot up to 100 ft lbs of energy? at the muzzle. You are also allowed up to use magnification up to 34 x and you are allowed to click/change your scopes elevation knob; so you really don’t need a fancy parallax wheel because they give you the distances out to 100 yards… targets are set at 20-100 yards… tougher than it seems. 3” KZ at 100 yards is…… cussing land; especially if you don’t know how to judge the wind. All this EFT stuff is great fun but the number of, and locations of, EFT matches and clubs having targets that can withstand 100 ft lbs of energy are few and far between. Currently in my area there is only FT / HFT with some pistol class HFT and Benchrest thrown in for good measures. My point of sharing the EFT info is simple... in EFT your glass selection / requirements can be very different... don't have to be but....
If you are still with me at this point then you should know that AGN has a few great people who can teach you how to BRACKET using the reticles internal markings MOA or MRAD – to verify your distance, handy if your scopes info doesn’t agree with your shot placement – aka you aren’t ranging correctly. Recently someone started a thread on this specific subject.
Feel free to jump in and add or correct me where necessary... i certainly need all the coaching i can get just like all the othe newbies to the wonderful world of field target bliss. If you aren't learning well... your not doing it right.
“We will now return you to your regular programming”.
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Just a little something extra when you're trying to trouble shoot a scope.