Tip 1: Purpose, Not Caliber.
People often ask, “What is the best scope for a (insert caliber here)?” That’s always the wrong first question. A .243 can have many different uses, and you may need a different scope if you intend to hunt antelope in Wyoming, rather than whitetails in Wisconsin. Remember: caliber doesn’t matter – use does.

Tip 2: Know Your Limits.
Everyone has a budget, and budgets have limits. Do your research and know what to expect for the money you plan to spend. Determine what features are essential for you. If all your hunting is in the middle of the day, then low-light performance is not worth the extra cost. Are you going to be hiking up and down mountains? In that case, weight may be more important than if you always hunt from a fixed stand that is an easy hike from your vehicle.

Tip 3: Bigger is Not Always Better.
Don’t over-magnify. In scopes and binoculars, people often think “more is better.” Field of view and low-light transmission are often more important, both of which diminish with higher magnifications. In optics, to gain an advantage in one area you must often give up features in another. Also, at high magnifications it is often difficult to put, and keep, the target inside the viewing area of the scope.

Tip 4: Understand Your Reticle.
Everyone can figure out a basic ‘30/30’ cross hair reticle, the one with simple cross hairs. If you are going to spend the money for a nifty scope with mil-dots, put in the extra effort to learn how to use them properly. Do some research, understand why the reticle is configured the way it is, and what the aim points really mean. Some types of hunting benefit more from a certain reticle than others. Understanding the how/what/why of your reticle before you start burning ammo, will save time, money, and headaches.

Tip 5:
Here’s the Math Test.
Scopes that perform well in low-light conditions are more expensive, and if you hunt at dusk and dawn they are worth it. However, this is the situation where the laws of physics meet the laws of biology. Stay with me – this is technical but not too complicated. The pupil in your eye contracts in bright light, but dilates in low light (this can be as much as 3.8-4.3 mm), to allow more light to hit your retina.

The ‘tube’ of light coming out of a scope is called the ‘exit pupil,’ and it must be at least as large as the pupil in your eye for optimum viewing performance. The diameter of the light that exits the scope is a function of the diameter of the front element (the ‘40’ in a 3-9 X 40 mm scope), divided by the magnification power. So a 3-9 X 40 mm scope, at 3X, would have an exit pupil of 40 divided by 3 = 13.33 mm – plenty of light for any legal shooting situation. At 9X the exit pupil is 4.4 mm – still good. But say you spend the money for an 8-32 X 50 mm scope. At 12X your exit pupil is 4.1 mm, which is OK, but you will have increasingly reduced performance from 13X through 32X (at 32X the exit pupil is 1.5 mm). Now, that might be a great scope for shooting prairie dogs from a bench at noon, but not if you hunt deer at dawn and dusk.

Tip 6:
A Scope is a Learning Process.
I’m going to generalize, but I don’t think most hunters understand the scopes they already own. Find the manual, get a book, or go online and learn as much as you can about scope construction, reticle options, and marksmanship. It’s madness to spend money on a good rifle, and then slap a cheap scope on it. However, buying an expensive scope is no guarantee that it will fit your needs.

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