Looking for ideas for a scope on my 22-250. Will primarily be for predator hunting out in West Texas. I prefer MIL over MOA. I’ve never had a dedicated predator gun and not sure exactly what I should be looking for in a dedicated predator scope. Shots would be from 50 out to maybe 300 yards. I have some ideas but would like to see what others use as well.

If your longest shot is about 300 yards, you don’t even need to dial. With a 50 gr Varmint bullet, and sighted in at 200 yards, your 300 yard drop will be 5 or 6”. At 400, the drop will be somewhere around 15”.

I have an old Leupold 6.5-20x50 on my 220 Swift. One of the first they had with a 30 mm tube. If I was gonna replace it, whatever I got would have an illuminated dot or reticle.

And…how much ya want to spend? For shooting coyotes at 300 yards, you don’t need a $2500 scope.

I have ran this one a couple years now. At the discounted pricing now it’s a good buy for what you get if you like the reticle.

https://www.eurooptic.com/Trijicon-...-Dot-Red-Green-Illumination-30mm-Sa.aspx

How much you willing to spend?

Are you concerned with weight?

Not too concerned with weight. Like to stay around or below 1K. Only reason I don’t want to spend a lot is bc I primarily hunt coyotes at night with thermal. But I do want the option for daytime calling and don’t want to buy too much or too little scope.

There are some good sales on Burris XTR II going right now. Something like half the price they were when new. 4-20X would work just fine.

And there was a sale going on SWFA SS 5-20X HD.

Both inexpensive, but solid scopes. I own one of each.

I like this suggestion.

I have the XTR3 3-18 on my 22-250, like it really well.

If you want a quality mil scope with a really good hunting reticle in the $1k or less price range then the Bushnell LRHS series 3-12 or 4.5-18 with the G2H reticle are where you need to be. Bombproof, repeatable, great reticle for distance or up close and the weight is middle of the road.

My $.02

I have one and it’s great

This will go against the grain for some but I like a sfp for this style of hunting, especially if you ever go old school red light or shoot over a feeder light

Princess turned me on to this scope last year, I love it. I won’t run it like a traditional FFP meaning I won’t be doing lots of fast dialing, but if I have time to dial then I will. The turret is a little squishy for my preference, but it’s not a PRS type scope. The glass is absolutely fantastic for this price point along with the other features it has.

50-400 you don’t need to dial, really don’t even need to use sub tensions

Makes me wish I needed a scope.

I see this all the same way. The day I can't hold 6 inches or 12 inches over a coyote's or a hog's vitals well enough to make the kill, I'll hang it up. Give me a simple duplex reticle for just that reason. If and when I need to deal with longer ranges I'll do things differently. Until then I just don't need anything fancy at all. YMMV.

I think if I ever got you to hold .5 Mil at 200, and 1.0 Mil at 300, you'd end up being mad at me, because it is so precise and so easy.

I don't doubt that's true. I just don't see the need for it to be any easier than it is. The longest shot I am likely to take where I hunt is probably 150 to 200 yards. About 95% of the shots will be about 100 yards.

If I hunted elsewhere my needs might be different.

You been workin that 6mm?

I have friends running a 6mm PRC so they can negate holding over out to 500ish on song dogs.

No holdover at 500 yards? I don’t know about that. The trajectory on my 220 Swift, when on at 200 yards, is down 5” at 300, down 15 at 400, and down 35 at 500. I’m good to about 400 yards if the coyote is standing still. Surely I’d be better further out if I went FFP seriously, but naaaah…

Look up red hawk rifles, can get demo Zeiss v4 4-16 or 6-24. Camera land had some meopta Meopro 6-18 still $599.

I have no idea how that venerable Leupold Fixed 6 works so well on mine.

87gr vmax running in 4k area is only down roughly 18 inches at 500. That means the top of the back will get you a hit on most dogs.

I just had a look at the ballistics, and if you sight the rifle in at 250, and if you can reach 4000 fps, you are right.

I don’t feel like most Texas dogs are 18” from top of back to bottom of chest but I could be wrong

To reliably get a solid hit I figure the kill zone at 6 inches or for visual context I tell folks a 2 liter bottle laid horizontal is about 5 inches. That’s just for averages ….we have larger coyotes around here occasionally hitting 50lb with an average of 35lb but go west or south Texas the average drops to 25lbs.

Our dogs here are pretty decent size minus a pup. 6 prc puts a whole new term to laser of death.