Congratulations, you've just purchased a fine rifle. Now it's time to properly outfit your new rig and put it to work. You'll need a proper sling, steel sling swivels, quality steel rings and bases, and a good scope. Surprisingly, the riflescope is often the most overlooked of these items. In my opinion, your scope should be more than an afterthought. It's the all-important sighting system for your rifle, and you should spend as much time selecting it as you did the rifle.

While this scope looks monstrous, it's actually a good choice for use dispatching pesky varmints in low light.

So how do you choose a riflescope? First, ask yourself four questions:

1. What are you going to use your rifle for?


2. Where are you going to use it?


3. When are you going to use it?


4. How are you going to use it?

If you carefully consider each question, you'll soon have an idea of the type of scope most appropriate for your application.

Let's examine each question.

What are you going to use your rifle for? Will you be shooting Eastern whitetails at 50 yards, elk at 300 yards, or prairie dogs at 500 yards? Will your rifle be a dual-purpose rig for hunting and shooting paper? Will it be a general-purpose rig performing a multitude of functions from hunting to plinking to shooting steel plates? Answering this question will help to decide on what magnification range to consider. For whitetails in heavy cover a fixed 2.5X or 4X scope would work well. However, if you hunt whitetails in heavy cover and enjoy shooting paper at 200 or 300 yards, a 2.5-10X variable would be a much better all-around choice.

Where are you going to use it? Consider the terrain you'll be hunting, its environmental conditions, and how you get there. If you're in the mountains where the air is thin, think about a lightweight scope with a one-inch tube. But if you're shooting prone off a bipod and won't carry your rifle far, then size and weight aren't issues. If you are going to be far from civilization for days with your scope exposed to harsh weather conditions, you should consider a top brand that is well known for making rugged and weatherproof products that don't fail. If you're a fair-weather hunter who only goes out for the day when the sun is shining, extreme durability may not be as important.

When will you use it? Will you use it only during daylight hours, or will it be primarily used at dawn/dusk and in low-light conditions? Perhaps you'll use it in both.

How you answer these questions will help to decide on the objective lens diameter, exit pupil, and twilight factor. Keep in mind that more important than the size of the objective lens are its quality and its coatings.

Your answers to these questions will also help you determine which type of reticle is best for you--and whether you should consider an illuminated reticle. If you think you might need an illuminated reticle, you must then consider whether it's illuminated by a battery or by fiber optics and tritium.