Should You Spend More Money on Your Rifle or Your Scope?

[FURMAN]

Both won’t work for this. Pick one. If you were putting together a new long-range hunting rifle today and had a fixed budget, where would you put more of the money — the rifle or the scope?


For example, would you rather have a $3,000 rifle with a $1,500 scope, or a $1,500 rifle with a $3,000 scope?


At what point do you think spending more on the rifle stops giving you as much benefit as putting that money into better optics?


There probably isn’t one right answer here, so I’m curious how everyone would divide the budget and why.

 

[Tumbleweed419]

A rifle is only as good as its scope. I have been putting TRACT Optics scopes on all my hunting rifles and love them. I have spent twice as much on other scopes and not seen that their glass is any better than TRACT for half the price. For your $3000 budget you should be able to put together an accurate set up. I'm sure others will chime in regarding my post here. Best of luck on your search.

 

[Ladd]

If I were on a budget, l would put the money, as much as I could afford, on a rifle then go for a decent scope.

 

[Joel@LRO]

$3k Scope. Its easy for me to get a $1,500 rifle shooting small groups with handloading and minor tweaks.

You will always appreciate a good scope after time behind it. That time for me is not just an hour or two at the range and during a hunt...but hundreds of hours without eye fatigue.

You can get a lot of rifle for $1,500 these days. Take a factory Christensen Arms, bed it, handload it, and you will be shooting 3/4MOA without much work invested. Top it with a Nightforce NX8, NX6, ATACR and call it a day.

 

[BCJR]

I’d put every dime on a 1/2 moa rifle. Then find a great scope in 2nd hand market. Forums all full of people wanting to sell scopes. Dont see many super accurate riles up for sale.

 

[quandary]

I think optics are very much like audio equipment. You can spend say 5K on a system and get 90% of the sound quality of a 50K system. Likewise optics a Tract, Maven etc is going to give you all you need to kill an animal at range the same as a Tangent Theta. The more important thing is does it hold zero. There are plenty of high end optics that don’t. So for me an excellent barrel, action, trigger and stock and a decent but not extravagant scope.

However to be fair to me an extravagant scope is a Tangent, Kahles and the ilk. To someone else it may be a Maven or a Zeiss V6. Its all relative to the individual.

 

[RBanta66]

This is right up my ally.
Rifle #1: Bergara Wilderness Ridge in 6.5PRC $900, Scope: Athlon ARES BTR GEN2 4x27x50 $650 Shoots sub half MOA often in the .3s
Rifle #2: CVA Cascade XT in 7PRC $705
Scope: Athlon ARES BTR GEN2 4x27x50 $675. This rifle rocks, shoots in the .2s and .3s. I did add a TI Pro.
Rifle #3: Barrel: Bartlein 4B $375 Action: Bergara Premier $ 695, Stock Pure Precision Altitude $575, Scope: Athlon ARES BTR GEN3 4x27x50 $710, Gunsmith $600. 30 Nosler and is shoots great at just under half moa. My load development has been a bit rushed due to summer heat but it's gonna be just fine.

So these are my last 3 rifles and the 2 factory rifles for the money shoot waaaay above there price point. Yes I could have went a different route but I'm very happy with the performance I've gotten on the return on my $$$$$$ spent.

 

[FURMAN]

This is right up my ally.
Rifle #1: Bergara Wilderness Ridge in 6.5PRC $900, Scope: Athlon ARES BTR GEN2 4x27x50 $650 Shoots sub half MOA often in the .3s
Rifle #2: CVA Cascade XT in 7PRC $705
Scope: Athlon ARES BTR GEN2 4x27x50 $675. This rifle rocks, shoots in the .2s and .3s. I did add a TI Pro.
Rifle #3: Barrel: Bartlein 4B $375 Action: Bergara Premier $ 695, Stock Pure Precision Altitude $575, Scope: Athlon ARES BTR GEN3 4x27x50 $710, Gunsmith $600. 30 Nosler and is shoots great at just under half moa. My load development has been a bit rushed due to summer heat but it's gonna be just fine.

So these are my last 3 rifles and the 2 factory rifles for the money shoot waaaay above there price point. Yes I could have went a different route but I'm very happy with the performance I've gotten on the return on my $$$$$$ spent.

You should go post about those in our newly created factory rifle forum. I think a lot of people coming here would appreciate that.

 

[jmyers]

$3k Scope. Its easy for me to get a $1,500 rifle shooting small groups with handloading and minor tweaks.

You will always appreciate a good scope after time behind it. That time for me is not just an hour or two at the range and during a hunt...but hundreds of hours without eye fatigue.

You can get a lot of rifle for $1,500 these days. Take a factory Christensen Arms, bed it, handload it, and you will be shooting 3/4MOA without much work invested. Top it with a Nightforce NX8, NX6, ATACR and call it a day.

Agreed I do load development for a couple guys that always buy Wby Vanguards and I always get .5 or better MOA

 

[RBanta66]

Agreed I do load development for a couple guys that always buy Wby Vanguards and I always get .5 or better MOA

So do I, Vanguard Series 2 in 308 and 6.5 creedmore.

 

[Rjk300]

I have two Leupold mark iv that I’ve never had a problem with in the 15ish years I’ve had them, no zero stop, my favorite reticle the TMR, imo not expensive, but the lack of zero stop kept me from getting more. So with research I moved on to NF NSX and ATACR for durability, repeatability, zero stop, and illumination. I purchased all mine used so I feel the price wasn’t bad at all. The rifles that wear these cost more but if I had a rifle that was a shooter and didn’t cost much it would have a NF!

 

[Mike D Texas]

I would have to say after buying 3 Tikka factory rifles and precision I’m getting from them, I would take the $1500 rifle and $3k scope.

The difference in optical quality is real and was very evident this weekend shooting in Raton.

I have a Tract Toric on my wife’s rifle and a NF ATACR on mine. The difference in optical clarity, sharpness and being able to cut through mirage was starkly better on the ATACR.

My wife even noted the difference immediately.

So I’ll probably have a Tract for sale and looking for another 4-16 ATACR soon.