Rifle Scopes
Rifle scopes are an important part of most styles of hunting. The quality of your rifle scopes are often what determine how accurate your shots are, as well as how humane your kills are. Because of this, many hunters will spend nearly as much time selecting their scopes as they will selecting their gun.
There are many different types of rifle scopes available on the market. There are scopes designed for short range killing, forest hunting, and plains hunting. The main difference between the various scopes is the level of magnification. For example, those who want to hunt squirrels will want a magnification of up to 4x. Those who are hunting on open plains or in fields will desire a scope that can magnify up to 18x. Selecting rifle scopes with a good magnification will help ensure you are able to hunt the prey you desire in the regions you typically hunt in.
In addition to the magnification, there are several other things that you will need to keep in mind when selecting rifle scopes. First, the style of rifle you own will alter which type of rifle scopes you want to purchase. Target shooters will want higher quality rifle scopes than casual hunters. Professional hunters will want better quality scopes than the casual hunter, but may opt for a less expensive scope compared to a target shooter. The rifles owned by these types of individuals also differ. However, a good rule is that the more expensive the scope, the higher the accuracy of that scope. However, there is a point of diminishing returns. For the average hunter, a scope within the range of two hundred and eight hundred dollars usually provides the level of accuracy needed to make a clean, quick kill. In the case of target shooters and professionals, you can expect your rifle scopes to cost a minimum of one thousand dollars.
Once you have purchased your rifle scopes, it is important that you do your sighting on your scope thoroughly. Sighting is the process of checking if your scope and your barrel are in sync. What many people do is use bore sighting to get the scope in a general region of the barrel's aim. Through use of lasers and other technologies, you can get your sighting down fairly closely before you have to do test shots. However, while lasers can assist a great deal, you always need to use ammunition to confirm that your scope is properly sighted. Bore sighting is not a properly sighted scope and rifle.
You should always take care to properly sight and maintain your rifle scopes to ensure your aim is accurate.