Target shooting riflescope buyer’s guide

Choosing a riflescope for extreme long distance target shooting

When it comes to extreme long range shooting, your success at hitting your target depends heavily on the quality of your riflescope and the features that it includes. The features best suited to a riflescope vary significantly depending on the shooting activity that you’re going to be using it for. In this buying we guide we’ll run through the key features that you should look for when choosing a riflescope for extreme long range target shooting out to 1000yds.

Magnification

When it comes to choosing the right magnification for your extreme long range shooting scope, there’s a fine line between choosing a scope that offers enough magnification and one that can potentially offer too much. The thought of having too much magnification can sound a little strange, after all, you’re shooting out to 1000yds so need as much magnification as you can get right? Well, that’s not always the case, as extremely high magnification scopes are much more susceptible to any movements you make so can in fact reduce your shooting accuracy.

With this in mind, we’d suggest a scope with 20-25x magnification as a great option for shooting out to 1000yds. A 4-16x magnification is also preferred by some long range shooters, so this may be something to consider as long as it also has all the other features we mention below.

Objective lens size

We all know that a larger objective lens makes for greater light capturing ability, however other factors also come in to play when it comes to optical brightness. An objective lens size of 40mm to 50mm will suffice for long range, static target shooting, and if it comes down to choosing between a larger lens that has poorer quality glass, or a smaller lens that has better quality glass we’d urge you to consider the smaller option as long as it still offers enough internal adjustment.

Internal adjustment for elevation and windage

The amount of internal adjustment offered by a scope is arguably one of the most important factors when it comes to choosing a riflescope for long distance shooting. The longer the distance you’re shooting at, the greater the trajectory or bullet drop, so it’s vital that you can compensate for this by making precise elevation adjustments with your scope. We’d advise choosing a scope with at least 60MOA / 18MIL of elevation adjustment for long range shooting.

Tube diameter

Not only does the tube diameter of your riflescope aid in light transmission, it also allows for a greater internal adjustment for elevation and windage. We’d recommend a scope with at least a 30mm tube diameter for target shooting.

Now you know what to look for it's time to get shopping!

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Our recent blog post takes a look at some of the best long distance target shooting scopes to buy in NZ in 2023. Why not check it out now for some ideas.