A Newbies’ Guide to Rifle Optics: Scopes, Red Dots and Everything In Between

By Jeff Wood

One of the most exciting parts of a new rifle is setting it up and customizing it to your liking, but before you start on your buying adventure it’s key to know the difference between optics and what purpose each serves.
Whenever I am outfitting a new rifle with new optics, I have two major criteria. The first one is the obvious – application. What is the rifle to be used for? What kind of distance and precision are required? What kind of shooting entails? For example, shooting high-speed drills at 50-yards in a 3-Gun match is quite different than shooting a rutting bull on a crimson ridgeline during a fall elk hunt. The second criteria revolves around budget. We are spoiled for choice here with countless options ranging from wallet-friendly glass all the way up to world-class precision optics. Matching your must-have features with cost will narrow down those options.
Once you’ve defined those parameters, the searching for the perfect optical match to your gun begins.
Telescopic Sight
The Nikon Buckmasters scope
SHOP RIFLESCOPES ON GUNS.COM
The most common and traditional, the basic riflescope is available in a wide array of models – so many models, in fact, it’s impossible to name them all

Source: Guns.com