Rifle scope recommendations

So, Minnesota is now allowing scopes on muzzle loaders for all hunters. Used to be very limited, permit via doctor only. A couple years ago they ok'ed it for 60y/o and older, which made sense(bifocals and all, right Fizzer?). Now they are allowed for everyone. I'm disappointed in this because I think it helped keep the number of hunters down, having to use open sights. I built custom front crosshair/reap peep sights for our guns which work really well. The only downfall of them is low light conditions with dark backgrounds behind the deer. I was going to build myself a new, larger front sight this year to see if that helped. Well now, I will probably give in and just throw scopes on mine and my daughters.
Clarity is more vital than power and I dont want to spend much, under $300. I will be spending good money on my long range rifle in spring, not on this.

I am contomplating a 1x for her, Leupold makes a Crossfire II in 1x. Has anyone looked through one?

I am thinking sub 9x for me. I may take a long shot, but most are under 50 yards, but had a 200 yard shot at a bruiser a few years ago. Vortex and Leupold are my main focus, but I know there are some hidden gems out there. I have a Bushnell 3200 4-12x and want something clearer.

 

Vortex markets directly to the consumer and they aren't bad at all. I have one of their red dots. I would probably choose them over Leupold. Also if you send an email to Vortex they respond. Don't know if Leupold has that level of service.

 

I am a huge Leupold fan and have a couple of vx3's and a vx6 with cds on my 300 weatherby accumark. That being sais I have a Nikon on my inline that is really good. Don't recall the model but it's calibrated for 150 grains of powder and good to 250 or 300. I have target shot those ranges and it's surprisingly accurate. Cabelas pine ridge line is nice too, I have their lever evolution on my .35 Remington and my .444 marlin. Again surprisingly good at longer range.

 

I don't have any Vortex 1x, but I have/have had several variables. First rate stuff. For reference, I also have aimpoints and Trijicons...

 

Red dot?

 

Nope.

 

http://www.eurooptic.com/minox-za-5-hd-2-10x50-w-mino-plex-reticle.aspx

http://www.eurooptic.com/Leupold-VX-5HD-2-10x42mm-30mm-Matte-Duplex-171386.aspx

 

Just picked up a trijicon acog 3x for my ar. Fantastic scope. I have an Nikon monarch on my hunting rifle but the power on that is just stupid.

 

Too big, too expensive.

 

Are you answering his post or just came here to tell us about your optics?

 

I just bought a Vortex Diamond back, very pleased for the price. Hard to go wrong with Nikon. I have also had good luck with Cabela's Powderhorn scopes.

 

This is more along the lines of what I'm thinking.
http://www.eurooptic.com/113866-Leupold-VX1-Shotgun-Muzzleloader-2-7x33mm-Matte-Heav.aspx

I had the 1-4 on a slug gun years back and it was real nice.

 

I would go with a 40mm objective. Generally better light gathering/low light performance. I really like Leupold but for as little as I use my muzzleloader I went with a Nikon.

 

I dont want that large of a scope. A smaller, more compact is what I'm looking for. I put a Nikon 3-9x40 on my dads, and it's too big for what I want.

 

As of now, this one for my daughters gun:
http://www.eurooptic.com/110793-Leupold-VX2-1-4x20mm-Matte-Duplex-110793.aspx

And this for me:
http://www.eurooptic.com/110794-Leupold-VX2-2-7x33mm-Matte-Duplex-110794.aspx

These are the Duplex, as opposed to Heavy Duplex of the sluggun/muzzle loader scopes.

I'll keep looking though. Might step down to the VX1 instead of the VX2's.

 

I have the VX-2 2-7 on my Remington 7mm-08, great light weight combo.

 

How is the clarity @100 yards? Is a bullseye fairly crisp?

 

I use a Nikon 3-9 with BDC reticle on my muzzleloader. It takes some rounds down the pipe to figure out where each circle hits at but once you get it figured out its damn deadly. It was around $200 for the scope.

 

My scope is over 25 years old but clarity and light gathering are excellent for a scope in this price range. I sold Leupold and multiple other brands until 2002 and never noticed a drop off in the quality of sight picture from my late 80's/early 90's scope to the newer ones. If there is a shop close by you may want to look through a few brands in your price range for comparison. Do it right after sunset most modern scopes all look decent in full sun. When I worked at LL Bean I would take a couple semi inexpensive scopes (Bushnell level), a Leupold, Zeiss, and Swarovski outside with the customer, none ever bought the lower end stuff even if that's what they swore they wanted. Leupold was the #1 choice because of price point and clarity. If the person could afford it or had enough room on the credit card they would get a Zeiss or Swarovski. This was back before the last two brands had "entry" level scopes. I feel you can never go wrong with a Leupold. I think the attraction to Nikon and Vortex are the features with pretty good optics that you can get for the same money as a "basic" Leupold scope.

 

Another +1 for Vortex. Good quality, clear as hell and resonably priced. Just wish optics manufacturers would go back to offering mildot on more scopes. I hate bdc ones.