Published on May 16th, 2018 | by Guest

Rifle Scope Technology and How it Makes Hunting Easier?

There’s never been a better time to be a hunter. Populations across North America are greatly expanding and there’s never been more access to public lands for chasing big game than ever before. Whether you’re looking for a trophy bull in the Rocky Mountains, controlling the hog populations in the swamps of South Florida, or simply plinking for squirrels in the Northeast, times are great for hunters.

Not to mention, we have greater access to technology than ever before. Everything from electronic map-based smartphone applications, to modern premium bullets, are revolutionizing the way we hunt and the equipment we use. One of the revolutions it took place a few decades ago centered around the advent of magnified and telescopic optics.

You’ll rarely find a Hunter in the field these days without a scope. The technology that makes the scopes work is a feat of modern science and manufacturing. This is a look at what technology has brought to the newest generation of scopes that hunters are taking with them this coming fall.

What Scopes Do for Hunters and How They’ve Improved

There’s three main categories where optics health hunters. At least in the modern sense, they simplify the aiming process, gather light, magnifies your target picture, and helps predict exterior ballistics of the round you’re using. These four categories are huge and make up the vast majority of what you expect your sight to do for you. Here’s a few extra details on how these categories are becoming improved with modern technology:

Simplifies the aiming Process

The truth about why scopes are so effective is because they simplify the aiming process. Essentially speaking, when you shoot with iron sights you have to line the front sight, the rear sight, and the target. When you shoot a scope you have to line the reticle with the target. This is much, much easier for everyone who shoots. There is not a person alive who shoots better with iron sights and the do a scope the human brain is better at aligning two objects, rather than three.

Modern scopes, especially scopes made in the past five years, have taken advantage of this by offering simpler and easier to use reticles. Mainly the transition to fiber optics and red dots for magnified optics like those found in Trijicon ACOG and more importantly Leupold Fire Dot scopes. While the scopes like the parallax free features of red dots, they are much easier to see in low light and are much faster than typical crosshairs.

Gathers Light

Scopes not only perform better in low light, they gather light and make targets appear more illuminated than they actually are. This has to do with the advanced coatings that are applied to the interior services of many modern scopes, with more and more specialized coatings becoming available.

These coatings not only allow you to shoot out to the very edge of shooting light, normally 30 minutes before and after official sunshine, many of these coatings are specialized to the type of target you are shooting at. Leupold has now unveiled a specialized coating applied to several of their scopes that filters red light more effectively to make game more noticeable and heavy brush.

Boutique manufacturers like NightForce and US Palm, are now able to apply coatings to several of their riflescopes that make blue light filter differently than traditional coatings making gray targets easier to spot. The way that magnified optics gather and filter light is becoming more and more advantageous to hunters who are hunting in thick timber and heavy brush.

Magnifies Target Picture

You have never been able to buy such quality glass for the amount of money some companies are charging these days. Vortex and Nikon come to mind as leaders of the value minded scope manufacturers. It is very easy these days to buy a scope with 4-12x magnification that is completely clear throughout its entire magnification range for under $300.

The distortions and aberrations that were common with budget scopes in years past, especially around the edges of the scope and in the middle of the magnification range, are all gone.

Predicts Exterior Ballistics

The inclusion of BDC reticles on nearly every model of scopes found in a modern manufacturers catalog is a wonderful thing. The BDC reticles there on scopes these days are much more accurate and user-friendly than the reticles designed in years past.

The first company to do this well was Trijicon but every manufacturer from Leupold to vortex and even Nikon have taken notice and began putting effective user-friendly reticles on their scopes. Leupold even takes it a step further and offers custom dials made specifically to your rifle’s exterior ballistics included through their custom shop with many of their scopes.

With more and more hunters shooting at longer and longer ranges, predicting exterior ballistics and aiding and fast follow-up shots is a welcome benefit from modern scope design and technology.

The Verdict

It’s no secret that virtually all scopes are getting better. Even the cheapest imported models from China are outperforming top shelf domestically manufactured scopes from 20 years ago. What seemed like a perfected science has been married with modern manufacturing and electronics to put out a product that is advancing like few others in the realm of outdoor equipment.

If you’re still using a scope that is more than 10 years old, go to a showroom and look through some of the new models for sale. Even the budget model scopes from companies like Leupold, vortex, and Nikon are astounding.

Because of the end of the day, your time in the field is limited. Scraping together a few extra dollars to upgrade your sight on your favorite rifle is well worth the money to helping make sure your best hunts are still ahead of you.

Author bio:

McKinley Downing is an avid shooter & firearms instructor. He shoots, hunts and is a patriot in the sense that he enjoys pissing off gun grabbers and an anti-hunters. He has worked with and around firearms for several years, and enjoys talking to anyone interested in learning more about firearms and their 2nd Amendment rights. He currently writes for several online outlets on the use of guns and ammunition, you can find more articles from him on IOutdoorPursuit.com

Tags: easier, hunting, makes, rifle, scope, technology