First off, long time, y'all!
Life is good in Austria, but I do miss my NES family. I'll cut to the chase, a colleague in Poland is a competitive shooter and asked me a question that's out of my wheelhouse. I know scopes/mounts is a topic that has been done 5 ways (or is it 9 ways) to Sunday, but I honestly don't have enough experience on the topic to be able to differentiate which prior advice might be applicable to him and which might not.
Hoping someone with a similar use-case can give some authoritative advice.
The summary ask: Scope and Picatinny mount recommendation for .223/5.56 AR platform (later .308 bolt rifle with Picatinny), good out to 300m, that holds zero reliably on removal and reinstall (due to variety of competitions).
Detail of our dialog below, in case it holds meaningful information that I omitted in my summary.
Michal:
I’m looking for a rifle scope with good price/quality ratio (rather midrange than high-end) for shooting up to 300m (purely sport/target shooting).
Currently I would like to mount it on AR platform (5.56/.223) but eventually it will be meant for .308 win.
Do you think that something 3-24x56 would do the trick?
I’m currently considering Delta Optical Delta Optical Titanium 3-24x56 ED with either MR.P300 or HMR.P300 reticle.
Maybe there’s something from Vortex, Sightron, or other vendor that you can recommend. Definitely I cannot afford Nightforce kind of stuff.
Next is the mount itself… I need a Picatinny rail single-point 0 moa mount (for 34mm main tube) that would not require to zero the scope after each session, or when swapping with a red dot back and forth – any thoughts?
30Mauser:
You mention mounting it on AR platform via Picatinny, but eventually meant for .308. Are you getting an AR-10 (i.e. AR chambered for .308/7.62) or a different style of rifle for the .308? Still Picatinny mount?
How about BUIS? If so, what kind of co-witness will you configure, if at all?
Michal:
I own DDM4v7, so AR-15 platform with freefloat 15” handguard with Picatinny all the way top. Currently I have a red dot for close range, which I use (or BUIS) for shooting up to 100m, but for 200m it makes no sense when you aim for score as the dot is 2 moa, and what’s more I have astigmatism causing the dot to look like a banana.
I’m planning to get Tikka T3x Tac A1 in .308 win when I have some cash set aside and my wife cools down a bit as I’ve bought nice Breda B12i quite recently.
This Tikka model has the Picatinny rail as well, so I can re-use the mount.
For now I need to stick to DD, and depending on the competition, I will have to swap optics or even remove completely and use BUIS.
With 5.56 and zero at 200m I will not be able to get more than 300m effectively, on the other hand there are basically no ranges available for civilians in Poland with more than 300m. This is the target operating range for the scope.
The aim is to avoid zeroing after each swap so the scope itself needs to be decent, but the mount is the key point here.
It needs to be (quite) easy detachable and yet maintain alignment when put back on the same slot on the rail, and preferably at a reasonable price.
As for the BUIS I use Magpul’s MBUS and for red dot it’s configured for lower 1/3, however for sport shooting I don’t need to use BUIS through red dot (or scope) at all.
Thanks in advance, and keep fighting the good fight!
Life is good in Austria, but I do miss my NES family. I'll cut to the chase, a colleague in Poland is a competitive shooter and asked me a question that's out of my wheelhouse. I know scopes/mounts is a topic that has been done 5 ways (or is it 9 ways) to Sunday, but I honestly don't have enough experience on the topic to be able to differentiate which prior advice might be applicable to him and which might not.
Hoping someone with a similar use-case can give some authoritative advice.
The summary ask: Scope and Picatinny mount recommendation for .223/5.56 AR platform (later .308 bolt rifle with Picatinny), good out to 300m, that holds zero reliably on removal and reinstall (due to variety of competitions).
Detail of our dialog below, in case it holds meaningful information that I omitted in my summary.
Michal:
I’m looking for a rifle scope with good price/quality ratio (rather midrange than high-end) for shooting up to 300m (purely sport/target shooting).
Currently I would like to mount it on AR platform (5.56/.223) but eventually it will be meant for .308 win.
Do you think that something 3-24x56 would do the trick?
I’m currently considering Delta Optical Delta Optical Titanium 3-24x56 ED with either MR.P300 or HMR.P300 reticle.
Maybe there’s something from Vortex, Sightron, or other vendor that you can recommend. Definitely I cannot afford Nightforce kind of stuff.
Next is the mount itself… I need a Picatinny rail single-point 0 moa mount (for 34mm main tube) that would not require to zero the scope after each session, or when swapping with a red dot back and forth – any thoughts?
30Mauser:
You mention mounting it on AR platform via Picatinny, but eventually meant for .308. Are you getting an AR-10 (i.e. AR chambered for .308/7.62) or a different style of rifle for the .308? Still Picatinny mount?
How about BUIS? If so, what kind of co-witness will you configure, if at all?
Michal:
I own DDM4v7, so AR-15 platform with freefloat 15” handguard with Picatinny all the way top. Currently I have a red dot for close range, which I use (or BUIS) for shooting up to 100m, but for 200m it makes no sense when you aim for score as the dot is 2 moa, and what’s more I have astigmatism causing the dot to look like a banana.
I’m planning to get Tikka T3x Tac A1 in .308 win when I have some cash set aside and my wife cools down a bit as I’ve bought nice Breda B12i quite recently.
This Tikka model has the Picatinny rail as well, so I can re-use the mount.
For now I need to stick to DD, and depending on the competition, I will have to swap optics or even remove completely and use BUIS.
With 5.56 and zero at 200m I will not be able to get more than 300m effectively, on the other hand there are basically no ranges available for civilians in Poland with more than 300m. This is the target operating range for the scope.
The aim is to avoid zeroing after each swap so the scope itself needs to be decent, but the mount is the key point here.
It needs to be (quite) easy detachable and yet maintain alignment when put back on the same slot on the rail, and preferably at a reasonable price.
As for the BUIS I use Magpul’s MBUS and for red dot it’s configured for lower 1/3, however for sport shooting I don’t need to use BUIS through red dot (or scope) at all.
Thanks in advance, and keep fighting the good fight!