target scope

[richard_123]

senior citizen and found an interest in bench rest shooting at longer distances, out to 500yds with 308. trying to keep cost down until I know that this is something that I can do. will be shooting on the farm and later in some local competition.

Without buying a spotting scope,stand, eye piece is there a rifle scope that could see bullet holes on white paper at 500yds?

 

[Minesweeper3433]

How good is your eye site naturally?

 

[dansig]

there are a few scopes that you can use that can see holes at 500yrd.. but they are not cheap..

the cheap and good are never used together when talking about scopes.

the Nightforce 12-42x56 should be enough, I've only used it at 300yrds and I see the holes clearly at that distance, and I'm using 6BR so the 308 holes should be visible at 500yrds.

Leopould 45x will also do the trick, but it's fixed magnification so finding the target can be tricky..

the March 8-80x is top of the line, you can easily see the holes out to 1000yrds but it´s also the most expensive one...

 

[Minesweeper3433]

I can see bullet holes with my FX-3 scope from luepold at 200 yards and it is only a 6x. For me it just needs to have good tracking and clear glass and the FX line of scopes meets it. Plus they are very affordable which is the only reason I mentioned them here.

 

[Erud]

the March 8-80x is top of the line, you can easily see the holes out to 1000yrds but it´s also the most expensive one...

Really? You can "easily" see bullet holes at 1000 yards with this scope? the air in Iceland must be a lot clearer than here....

 

[dansig]

the March 8-80x is top of the line, you can easily see the holes out to 1000yrds but it´s also the most expensive one...

Really? You can "easily" see bullet holes at 1000 yards with this scope? the air in Iceland must be a lot clearer than here....

it's a lot clearer than in most places in the world.. we have no pollution except downtown rushhour, and the range is 30 miles out of town.
average visibility is about 40 miles, then some mountain brakes up your line of sight...

 

[fdshuster]

richard_123; it's all going to depend on mirage. If there is none, like when it's overcast, you should be able to see 30 cal. holes, in the white at 500 yards, with most of the better ( read costlier) rifle scopes.

Shot a match yesterday where the furtherest distance targets were at 500 meters ( 547 yards), the mirage was "moderate", & I could not find my 6mm shot holes with one of my Nightforce Benchrest 12-42x's, at any magnification.

Even had my Nikon Fieldscope 11, 82mm setup & it was a no-show also. very frustrating.

For practice, testing loads, sight adjustments, etc. my favorite choice is white paper ( as you said), with the Birchwood Casey Shoot-N-C black splatter targets. I use the larger diameter size(s) 'til I get my click-up adjustments, then switch to the same diameters as the 10 ring that are used on our match tgts, 2" dia. at 4 & 500 mtrs.

With some DayGlo orange construction paper, clear scotch tape & black spray paint you can even make your own "splatter" tgts. as outlined on this sites Daily Bulletin page a while back. They work.

Mirage can wipe out the best optics made.