Internally, these little sights have evolved, too. There are electronic sights on the market now with such long battery life that troops deploying overseas are told to turn their sight on when they leave the U.S., and not turn it off until they return. In another sphere entirely, compact red-dot sights have grown smaller, more robust and to have far greater battery life. Coupled with that refined drop chart, the consistency of today's better riflescopes allow shooters to laser range a target, dial up and make first-round hits more effectively than at any time in the history of gunpowder, projectiles and distant targets. Of course, all of the best scopes dial consistently and accurately, enabling shooters to calculate trajectories, shoot to confirm calculations, and then tweak numbers within the ballistic calculator to finesse their drop chart to perfection. The turrents on the best scopes allow multiple upward rotations and have second-rotation numbers displayed to ease the math when dialing for targets way, way out there. The better turrets offer a zero-stop type mechanism, which allows shooters to instantly return to their 100- or 200-yard zero. Most advanced scopes today, both of tactical and hunting design, offer at least the option of an exposed dial-for-distance turret.
Parallax adjustment has, for the most part, migrated from the objective housing to turret form on the left side of the scope, offering much better accessibility in the best scopes.īut perhaps the greatest advancements found on the best scopes center on the elevation turret. Those roomier tubes enable greater erector tube travel, which translates to more windage and elevation adjustment - a great thing for shooters that stretch their rifles' long-distance legs. Bigger main tubes make for bigger lenses and, as a result, enhanced light transmission, clarity and resolution, since there's a bigger sweet spot in the center of each lens. Nothing in the shooting and hunting industry has seen such leaps in technology over the past decade or so as optics, specifically magnified riflescopes.