Optic oddballs: some were good ideas, others weren't

Guns Magazine, July, 2009 by Dave Anderson

For running shots, the key elements I've found are a scope with non-critical eye relief, a rifle stocked to fit the shooter, and plenty of practice to get familiar with both.

Compacts

A few years ago, compact scopes were being promoted as ideal for light, compact rifles. These scopes had the usual 1" scope tube but smaller objectives and oculars, shorter overall length and lighter weight.

With scopes everything is a tradeoff. You can have most anything you want in a scope provided you are willing to pay the price. The tradeoff I found with compact scopes was more critical eye relief and an image less bright and sharp.

With the short main tube there were sometimes problems in mounting the scope, sometimes requiring extension rings.

Nonetheless I rather like compact scopes and have several on rimfire rifles, where they look fight and perform satisfactorily. For most big game hunting standard size scopes suit me better.

Long eye-relief scopes, designed to be mounted ahead of the receiver, are not new ideas. Redfield offered the M-294 scope intended for Winchester 94 rifles in the early 1960s. (It's interesting how many innovative ideas came from Redfield in the '60s and '70s.)

The Scout

The late Jeff Cooper promoted such scopes for all-around use on his "scout rifle" project and forward-mounted scopes got dubbed "scout scopes". Without Cooper's enthusiastic and articulate support, what interest there was in scout scopes seems to have dropped off.

I regret this as I rather like the concept for some purposes. For a time I had two Steyr Scout rifles, one with conventionally mounted scope and the other with a Leupold scout scope. Comparing them side by side with the use of a shot timer, the scout scope had a definite speed advantage at short to moderate ranges.

For ranges past 200 yards I like more power. I see scout scopes as more special purpose than all around scopes. For hunting in heavy cover at modest ranges there is nothing better, and the scout scope is certainly adequate at longer ranges. I'm glad to see Burris and Leupold still have scout scopes in their line.