Originally Posted By: DAAOriginally Posted By: CaliCoyoteCaller
I understand your point...
I'm not too sure you do.
It's pretty simple. Those high end scopes offer performance and features that $500 scopes don't have. Some people either want or need those features and performance and are willing to pay for it.
I do own some high end scopes, but they are on colony varmint rifles, not any of my calling rigs. They were worth the money, to me, at the time, for that application. They offered features and performance not available in lower priced scopes and I wanted those features and performance enough to be willing to pay for them. And, it's not like I didn't have plenty of bad experiences trying to use $500 scopes in that same application. I used to say back then that the reason Leopold's warranty department was so good was because they got so much practice.
I wouldn't put those particular $2K scopes on a calling rifle though, even if they were free. They would be terrible for the application.
Spent a couple days hunting coyote with a $2,500 USO scope this past winter. Very nice scope, does what it does very well, but it's not what I'd put on one of my own calling rifles either. Price not being a factor. For my wants and needs, the reliability and durability assets that scope provides are not worth the size and weight penalties that accompany those assets. I'm not that hard on my calling rifles. I don't twirl knobs on my calling rifles. I don't hunt at night. I don't want anything more busy than a simple duplex reticle on my calling rig. So, that scope just isn't for me, for that application.
But, for a lot of guys, the size and weight aren't any penalty at all. And they do want, or perceive a need for the quality, reliability, repeatability, and durability that scope provides (which, it is vastly superior in those categories to any $500 scope, period).
I've tried to make my calling rigs as close to perfect for my own needs as I can, with price not being much of a consideration. At the end of the day, if you add up the fuel, the wear and tear on the vehicles, the time, the money I've spent on other rifle components, the custom handloading gear, the clothes, the calls, etc., etc., etc., Even spending $2,500 for a scope that goes on an every stand main squeeze and is going to get used and appreciated for decades, $2,500 is just ants in the afterbirth.
All my calling rigs wear moderately priced scopes though. Not because they were affordable, but because for my application I thought they represented a good balance of quality, durability, optical quality, weight and size. I'd be willing to spend a lot more for a scope that I thought was a significant improvement in two or three of those areas, but all the really high end glass seems to be oriented towards the tacticool crowd and built to pound a nail and hold a zero. I don't pound nails with my scopes and don't want hang one heavy enough to do so on top of my calling rifles.
- DAA
Very good insight bro...I must agree 100%....that being said, what kind of scope do you use for your calling rig?