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Help me understand which scope to buy

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Miataman

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My first post so hello everybody 🤗 So tomorrow morning I’m going to buy a scope for my HW97k. It’s for field target use and my budget is about £250 to £300 ish. I want a scope suitable for a spring rifle and one with lots of adjustments with lots of detail on the rectical. Decent zoom - was thinking at least to 12x magnification maybe 16x.

I’ve been looking I am a bit bamboozled with all the jargon and technical specs. Help 😳
 
Don’t get anything too long as it might hinder pellet loading, and you’ll want something with lots of aim points.

Optisan get recommended a lot, though I have no personal experience with them.
 
About 13" maximum length works best on my HW77/97s - allows for average eye relief.

Reticle choice is a very personal thing but I prefer a fairly simple option with minimal clutter and moderate thickness.
My Cerato is a bit thick and my Veyron a bit too feint for my tastes, for example.

What sort of shooting are you planning to do?

Something like a Hawke 3 - 9 x 40 scope will cover most general purpose plinking type uses at a moderate cost while you get some experience to find out what suits you best.
 
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Also, may I add?

Better to go for good optical quality rather than lots of gadgets or unnecessarily huge magnification for your purposes.

Even a geriatric like me can see .177 pellet strike points clearly at 25 yards with 9-ish x magnification.

Obviously, more specialised users like Bench Rest Shooters have specific requirements.
 
Reticle choice is very personal.

Length is a criterion as it can get in the way of the loading bay. As @Byronic warned.

AO (adjustable objective) is an important feature to lessen eye alignment issues and enable you to use the scope at closer distances; parallax adjustment is a must for close range shooting (6-yard; 10m; etc).

In your budget you should not be having to decide between SPF and FPF as you'll likely only find SPF scopes; they're easier to understand anyway.
Hawke Vantage are a recognised budget brand.
I have a soft spot for the Vector C3 Cerato and the UTG Bugbuster; you will likely need a setback mount for them on the 97. Don't forget to use the arresting pin.
 
If it’s for field target as you’ve said in post
I think you need at least 30 mag and up but most are 50-60 mag Iam not that clued up on field target but I know there large objective and high magnification
 
Miataman said:
It’s for field target use and my budget is about £250 to £300 ish.
Click to expand...
I would be looking for a second hand Falcon T50 or early Big Nikko mk1 - Im not aware of anything new at that price point suitable for what you want to do. If you can add another £100 / 150 you are into S/H Nikko mk3 or a new T50
 
Miataman said:
My first post so hello everybody 🤗 So tomorrow morning I’m going to buy a scope for my HW97k. It’s for field target use and my budget is about £250 to £300 ish. I want a scope suitable for a spring rifle and one with lots of adjustments with lots of detail on the rectical. Decent zoom - was thinking at least to 12x magnification maybe 16x.

I’ve been looking I am a bit bamboozled with all the jargon and technical specs. Help 😳
Click to expand...
If you are looking for FT purpose. I believe, tend to be large OB and very large mag.
Before deciding, visit a shop with a good variety of scopes and look through them. That would be my advice.
 
For much shooting, low mag, small objective lens, giving good depth of focus is preferred.
Field Target, using High mag and large objective lens, to narrow depth of focus for purpose of range finding, requires the opposite.
For both high mag and large lens, quality is important. A budget of £300 a little low to tick all the boxes.
Before splashing the cash, spend time looking at what others on the FT circuit are using.
 
Ok guys thanks for your advice, part of this choice was budget driven so couldn’t afford the ideal scope but I’m happy with what I bought to get me going. Went for a Wulf 4.5-18x50 seems very clear and sharpe and it’ll be a good start - I’m sure my skill is not going to be better than the scopes limitations/restrictions for some time 😆.

I’ve got the scope mounted in about the right position but need to zero it next, it’s been raining all day here and at work for the next 3 days so it’ll have to wait until Sunday now.
 
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