College Kid Rifle And Scope???????

LUCKYDOG

LUCKYDOG

Active member
One of my very best hunting buddies passed away a few years ago and now I hunt with his grandson. He came to elk camp this year with the Savage 30.06 his grandpa gave him and the scope I gave him. We had a range we built right outside our camp. He couldn't get that gun dialed in at all. I told him and the guy that was helping him to put it away and he could hunt with my back up rifle and I brought his rifle home with me.

Anyway, I took the scope off last night. The rings and bases were a cluster. One base was flat black, the other was gloss. All the screws were different. The rings were very cheap. Nothing was really loose but nothing was very tight either. I looked through my stuff and found a set of Leupold bases and rings to mount on it.

Here's my question for you guys. Is a Nikon Buckmaster II 3-9x40 a good enough scope for him to hunt with or am I being to cheap. I bought it for him last year from Buds Guns for $130 bucks, I think. Is that to cheap of a scope for a 30.06 or should it be good enough. I know it won't be fantastic in low light situations but will it shoot straight and be able to handle the recoil.

Thanks for any input at all.
 
that should be acceptable for most typical hunting distances - lets call that 150 yds or less, with the possibility of the occasional 200 yd shot. its safe to say that most hunters (i'd guess at 75% or a bit more) will never take a shot past that distance in their lifetimes. if you're trying to reach out with it, its probably going to show its weaknesses pretty quick.

i cant imagine it not being able to handle 30-06 type recoil, Nikon has been around long enough to know that thats well within the realm of what folks will pair a 3-9x40 with and have probably built it to handle well more than that. i'm sure lots of folks have killed deer with lesser quality scopes on their 30-06's over the decades.


mount that puppy down, give it a quick sight in and as long as it zeroes and holds for a few shells, it'll probably be ok until his skills, eyesight or your hunting conditions require him put more scope on it.

my $0.02 USD
 
I hunted with a buckmaster for a LONG time on my fav 22 250, calling rig. It was a 3x9x40, and I can tell you that lil beauty held up forever, until some jerk stole my rifle. I loved that rifle and scope set up. I started shooting it when I was about 9 yrs old, and killed everything you can imagine with it all my growing up years. In fact, it became all my buddies fav hunting rifle because it was so darn accurate, easy to shoot and reliable....they all loved that lil gun and still talke about it today.....There is Nothing wrong with a buckmaster at all. I killed many coyotes and cat at 300 plus yards, (when I was forced to shoot that far), with it, and it held true as a stone...Good lil scope!
 
I like the Buckmaster also and have never had a problem with them. However, this is a Buckmaster II. It doesn't seem to be the same quality as the original Buckmaster.
 
its a nikon - i'm sure unless he abuses it - it should serve him well as a starter setup when properly mounted up.


sure... its not one of their higher end scopes....

but its not like we're talking about mounting a tasco or NCStar or Barfska for him
scared.gif
 
It will work just fine. I would take the liberty to make sure that it is free floated while I had it.

I had a tasco world class mounted on a weatherby mkv.300 mag. It shot straight for several hundred rounds on the weatherby and still does on my 243. Itnwont be range limited. It wont be great early or late but it will work.
 
I'm a Nikon fan. I've had the low end and the high end and never had any major problems. Decent glass and usually adjust pretty true. Should work well for him.
 
It will be fine. Even though it is a lower end Nikon it will get him past legal shooting light. Pretty much any scope from a reputable company will these days.
 
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