Optics for handguns - Handguns & Their Optics - Cover Story

Shooting Industry, Sept, 1999 by Dick Williams

The Market Is Growing And Scopes Have Never Been Better!

Optics for handguns have become an ideal add-on money maker for a lot of dealers - or at least those who take the time to make the sale. More handgun owners are adding scopes to their handguns in this rapidly growing market.

Manufacturers have responded in depth and with great quality to the needs of handgunners whether they be big-game or varmint hunters, competitive target shooters, plinkers, or simply those of us with aging eyes. While today's off-the-shelf offerings deal with almost every conceivable handgun interest, dealers are in the best position to evaluate their customers' specific needs.

In addition, putting an entire package together, handgun, mounting system and scope, is not only profitable, it avoids critical incompatibilities, like a scope's objective lens extending in front of the muzzle.

The bottom line is, a lot of high-quality handgun optics are being sold today, with dealers profitting handsomely.

The Optics Market

Master of the high-power pistol scope, Burris offers variables that range from 1x to 4x in smaller scopes all the way up to 3x to 12x for the ultimate in long-range capability. Variable pistol scopes allow shooters new to scoped handguns to learn how to use scopes by starting at the lower power levels with wide fields of view and working up to incredible long-range capabilities of 12x.

If your customer is experienced with pistol scopes, and you know his needs can be handled by a large fixed power, Burris offers a 10x scope that can see clearly well beyond his handgun's reach. Over the last few years, Burris has managed to hold the size and weight of their big magnifiers down to reasonable levels, at least for pistols with longer barrels.

Realistically, the large, high-velocity, single-shot handguns best utilize magnifications over 4x to 6x. For the shorter ranging, straight-wall pistol cartridges in moderate barrel lengths, you might steer your customer towards Burris' smaller scopes of 4x or less.

The reduced size, weight and magnification of these scopes lend themselves more successfully to hunters who shoot from positions less steady than the sand bags at the local range, particularly big-game handgun hunters. Burris makes a 1x scope for those who need visual help but don't want to see the enhanced shakiness that magnification often produces.

Measured Quality

Paving the way in providing quality scopes for handgunners, and still the standard against which other scopes are measured, are Leupold's original fixed 2x and 4x pistol scopes. Still the industry's smallest and among the most rugged handgun scopes, Leupold's little guys come in blue or silver and are some of the most popular choices for moderate-range hunting revolvers. These scopes will fit more smaller guns than other scopes of comparable power.

Recognizing the need for longer range on high-velocity, small-caliber single shots, Leupold introduced its 2.5x-8x variable-power pistol scope. Sporting one of the larger objective lenses in the industry, the big Leupold's light-gathering qualities are excellent. However, the scope is regarded by some as a bit too large for many revolvers, as well as for walk-about handgun hunters willing to take off-hand shots.

While limiting their handgun scope inventory to these three models, Leupold recognized the big-game handgun hunter early and is the only scope manufacturer who markets a mounting system specifically for Freedom Arms revolvers. The scope base has an integral shoulder that fits snugly into the recessed channel which houses the Freedom's rear sight and absorbs the sheer forces of recoil rather than transmitting the load to the mounting screws.

General Purpose Scopes

Bushnell makes two variable power pistol scopes, both 2x-6x, that many experienced handgunners believe are two of the most useful general purpose scopes on the market.

The Bausch & Lomb Elite 3000, Bushnell's top of the line offering, is durable in terms of handling recoil and has excellent optical characteristics. The 2x lower-end power level allows off-hand shots and is adequate for almost all big-game hunting. The 6x provides more than enough magnification for any hunting situation except the longest-range varmint shooting. All of this in a size and weight envelope that encourages use on revolvers with barrels as short as 6 inches.

Bushnell's 2x-6x Trophy model, while about the same size as the Elite 3000, is not quite up to the Elite's optical quality, but it can withstand great recoil punishment, is an excellent scope for the hunting fields and is perhaps the best dollar buy in a variable-power pistol-scope package. Bushnell recommends the Elite for handguns offering magnum performance, but I have used the Trophy on a number of moderate recoiling handguns with excellent results.

The Trophy's fixed 2x with its 32mm flared objective lens looks much like the 2x-6x variable but is slightly shorter, lacking the power selector ring. It's an excellent first scope for a handgunner in terms of price, performance, size and ease of use.