What makes the shooting experience more exciting and memorable? If you are starting long-range shooting, it would be the riflescope on top of the list. It makes every moment fun because you can always keep your eyes on the target. A perfect quality long-range scope can help you hit the prey effortlessly.
Every gun lover or hunter knows about the variations of scopes except the newbies. Many of them also think a fully-featured scope may cost high like above $500. After all, good things cost good amount of money. Surprisingly, you can find the best 1000-yard scope under 500 US dollars only.
We have done the research to filer and list the finest and cheapest long-range scopes. These scopes are wallet-friendly yet perform like the magician. You can easily acquire the target under any circumstances. Check out our reviews of these efficient scopes costing least money.
Wait!
There is an important thing you should know first when you are going to buy the best long-range scope under 500 US dollars.
First Focal Plane vs. Second Focal Plane
The difference between the first focal plane (FFP) and the second focal plane (SFP) is always confusing to some shooters. It is all about the reticle position and its zooming capacity with scope magnification.
In FFP, the reticle is positioned close to the first lens and further from your eyes. The reticle size increases besides the magnification in FFP, while the hash marks or holdover points remain precise to crosshair relevantly. It means you can get a bigger image of the target when you zoom FFP.
- FFP is recommended for shooters with previous experience. The scopes with FFP features are suitable for long-distance shooting. But it becomes tough to stay on target at very high magnification settings. Even the reticle becomes too small or thin when you reverse magnify the target or close range.
In SFP, the reticle size remains the same and constant whether you change magnification levels or not. It is good for closer ranges. It is also beneficial for the newbies or hobbyists. The reticle size remains the same, but the image appears bigger for adjusting the aim. However, you should estimate the thing hash marks are showing. You may find the reticle setting instructions on the manual or body of scope.
- SFP scopes are quite troublesome at a longer distance. You may not be able to shoot the right point with these scopes at additional distance.
Best 1000 Yard Scope under 500 US Dollars
So, you have got the basic but necessary idea for buying the scope for your rifle. Here are the products we have filtered out among 100s of sights. All these scopes cost less than 500 US dollars. But we always care for great features and factors for our readers, the gun lovers. Check these products with their beauties:
Vortex Optics Strike Eagle Second Focal Plane Riflescopes
Vortex Optics produces different types of optics. They provide high quality, affordable products. Strike Eagle SFP riflescope is a good example of best long-range scope under 500 dollars.
It can help you beat the target at 600-700 yards from the point-blank range. Here are some attractive features of this scope:
Authentic magnification
You can adjust the magnification of the scope from 1x to 6x with the magnification adjustment feature. It makes the shooter engaging the aim faster, switching the ranges. You can see the magnification indicators without detaching the sight.
Fast-focusing
Strike Eagle 1-6×24 comes with an illuminated BDC3 reticle for fast acquisition of the target. The hash marks or holdovers mark the target at a long distance within moments. The increased light emission for anti-reflective coating on lenses gives vivid pictures under low lights.
Friendly Adjustments
The fast focus dial is there to set the reticle focus position. The elevation and windage turret dials come with audible and tactile click for real-time ½ MOA adjustments. You can also control the side illumination at 11 different intensity levels with the dial.
Weatherproof
The scope is made of durable, aircraft-grade aluminum purged with nitrogen. The O-ring seal keeps the scope away from making water, fog as obstacles in an odd season. The 30mm main tube prevents shocks to get reduced recoil and other shooting impacts.
Pinty AR15 Rifle Scope 3-9x32eg Rangefinder Illuminated Reflex Sight Scope
Pinty riflescope is a unique and entirely different unit we have found in our research. It is a combination of the rangefinder, green laser, and red/green dot sight.
We keep this scope for its superior accuracy and excellent features of togetherness. Want to know more?
Combined technology
You will rarely find a scope with a combination of two sights and a rangefinder. The riflescope offers 3x-9x magnification with an objective diameter of 32mm. It gives you 3-3.5″ eye relief. The reflex sight is also excellent with its 22mm objective size. You can use the on-off button to adjust brightness.
Great image capture
The five levels of brightness settings in the riflescope give high contrast and sharp images. For close-range shooting, the reflex sight enables an on-off switch for setting the brightness. This sight provides unlimited eye relief and a wide field of view.
High-quality construction
The scope is made of sturdy aluminum. The green laser sight works great with a CR2 battery. It is a great feature to knock or kill the target without missing the aim. Multicoated optics and O-ring sealing give you a perfect shooting experience in rain and winter seasons.
Picatinny mount and light transmission
You can mount the Picatinny mount to any rails of 22mm. The height of the mount remains 1″. The scope is designed to transmit light properly. It reduces glare under heavy sunlight and increases the internal light under a low-light environment.
Athlon Optics Argos 6-24 x 50 FFP BTR Riflescope
Remove your old broken, less-performing scope from the rifle and try this one. Athlon Optics Argos BTR riflescope is a mileage to the hunting world.
This 6-24×50 FFP scope has an exciting illuminated APMR Mil reticle. There are more similar beneficial features like these:
High-quality structure
Athlon Optics chose the 6061T6 aircraft grade aluminum to make the scope tube mighty and powerful. It can last years since the first time you attach it. It can magnify objects from 6x to a maximum of 24x. You will hardly find cheap scopes for long-range with this much magnification. The entire tube is Argon purged to purge out any water or moisture out.
FFP illuminated reticle
FFP illuminated reticle of Argos BTR riflescope offers faster target acquisition at low settings. But the holdover positions remain vivid and clear under lowlight like dusk or dawn time. The etched reticle provides extreme durability and shock absorption of recoil. This reticle will shrink or become thick with the pace of magnification.
Multicoated lenses
This gunsight features advanced multicoated lenses to flow the right amount of light to your eyes. It gives high definition clarity, complete color spectrum on the images of the prey. Moreover, the optics can withstand scratches and pressure.
Durability
Its 30mm tube is heat-treated to give extra strength over multipiece tubes. It helps keep your scope fog and waterproof. You do not need to worry if you fell the scope submerging in water accidentally. Again, the shockproof mechanical system can bear up to 1000G recoil for a thousand times.
Nikon m-308 Tactical Scope 4-16X42SF Matte BDC800
There will be rare people found who have not heard the name Nikon. Its M-tactical .308 scope is reasonably satisfying as the best long-range scope under 500 dollars.
It is very active to work with .308 Winchester or 7.62 NATO round bullets of 168 gr. You are few steps away to attach this extraordinary scope on your rifle because it has:
Solid frameworks
The professional build quality of this scope can turn your boring time into exciting and colorful. The 30mm main tube is made of aircraft-grade aluminum. This frame is anodized with ultra-matte. Besides, the turrets and zoom ring design provide a comfortable shooting at any range. You can hit the target with less shocks as it can survive shocks, as well as fog, rain.
High-class optics
Nikon patented glass, including multicoat, the scope integrates premium class optics. You can easily see the bright, high contrast visual even at 16x zoom. It also works great for close ranges at 4x zoom. The optics can transmit up to 95% light while illuminates objects under dark environments.
Friendly eye-relief and focus eyepiece
It has a super-fast focus eyepiece to gain the target instantly. It enables the rifle to be more adaptive, scalable, and applicable to the field. If your gun gives moderate kickback or recoil, M-308 long-range scope is for you. It has 3.7-4″ eye relief to save your eyes from accidents.
Superior control and adjustments
The side-focus parallax adjustments and directional indicators on turrets give the appropriate assistance. You may need to adjust it while the minimum parallax is 42.08m. The turrets feature zero-reset to set up correct windage and elevation. The automatic zero-reset brings the reticle and hash marks at an earlier position after you have just fired a bullet.
Mueller Target Rifle Scope 8-32x 44 Black
Mueller Optics are renowned for their premium craftsmanship. Its 8-32x44mm Mildot reticle is a masterpiece for target acquisition.
It has superb crosshair with target dot, 30mm solid tube, and other features. Let us know these unique traits:
Rapid focus
Mueller’s target rifle scope helps to mark a moving target faster. The superb clarity of lenses and blazing fast eyepiece reduces the blurriness of images at long distances. You will get picture-perfect quality at any magnification.
Intensifying objects
This scope starts with 8x zoom and reaches up to 32x. So, it becomes favorite to professionals as well as the shooter with weak or aging eyes. You can enhance the magnification by simple adjustments and target dot.
Low light shooting
It prevents the issues of lights and shadows inside the tube. The scope is designed in such a way you can get perfect brightness with no glare. Even it can flow light well under the low light situation. Usually, you can get clear POI at 100 yards with this black scope.
Exclusive glass and turrets
Mueller 8-32X44 scope has exposed target turrets and sturdy lenses. Together these things make shooting accuracy more reliable. After you shoot one round, it can return to the zero mark instantly. The 40″ windage and elevation adjustment works great at 100 yards.
Vortex Optics Diamondback Tactical First Focal Plane Riflescopes
Vortex Optics Diamondback is another great tactical FFP scope. It is built for wide array of shooting at short to long-distance targets.
It is a prevalent rifle sight to many expert riflemen and long-range shooters. Read these features for more clarification:
Sturdy build
Diamondback 4-12×44 lightweight scope is made with aluminum alloy to prevent damages under extreme shooting. It has a 1″ diameter shaft with 11″ length for simple and faster hauling and adjustments.
High-quality optics
The lenses are fully multicoated with extra-low dispersion for vivid sight images. The dead-hold BDC FFP reticle gives the same sharpness and high contrast view of the target at any range. You can magnify the object from 4x to 12x smoothly with a precision-glide erector system.
Eye relief
As it is an FFP scope, it increases the size of the dotted reticle with the magnification. But the concrete reinforcement preventing shocks it gives sufficient eye relief to the users. You can keep your eyes 3.1-3.4″ far from the second optic. The light transmission increases capacity of shooting a target in darker areas.
Turret adjustments
It features exposed tactical turrets with a side-parallax knob. This is meant to get accuracy at aiming the point. Fast focus eyepiece is also there to pick up the moving target faster.
Primary Arms 308 scope SLX 4-14x44mm FFP Rifle Scope – Illuminated ARC-2-MOA
Primary Arms has a specific but huge fanbase for their quality products and services. SLX 4-14x44mm FFP scope is the right choice for comprehensive coverage.
Expert hands design this sight for long-range shooting. Besides, this is an affordable scope with a sturdy build and illuminated reticle. Things more, you will find:
Solid construction
SLX is one step ahead for its stable structure. It is made of scratch-free, damage, or shatter-free aluminum purged with nitrogen. This material makes the scope work in any weather condition. So, water or fog cannot harm the scope.
Bright picture
SLX comes with an optimized ARC-2 MOA reticle. It gives you a perfect image of the target and nearby area with its FFP 4-14x magnification. Also, you can get six brightness settings to illuminate red reticle. Low-light shooting becomes simple and easy by optimizing the brightness.
Proper windage and elevation
Windage and elevation is a vital fact in long-range shooting. Because wind plays as a game-changer to make your shots on or off target. The R-Grid 2B reticle can be easily adjusted to get the right windage and elevation fixes in Primary Arms SLX.
Exclusive firing experience
The crystal-clear optics, 30mm main tube, audio, and tactile clicks etc. are great for shooting at distance. SLX has them all, including 0.25 MOA click adjustments. You can zoom the scope for acquiring a target from 4x to 14x size.
Burris Veracity Hunting Rifle Scope with Premium Light-Transmitting Optics
Burris Veracity scope is an excellent choice for regular or seasonal hunters. It gives the best performance in real-life gaming and hunting.
Its ballistic plex E1 FFP Varmint reticle is a great feature to get instant kills. You may love these features:
Professional grade optics
It has HI-lume multicoated optics to transmit more light through the scope. It is very much useful for low light hunting. Besides, these optics can smartly manage the glare under daylight. The 50mm objective corrects the light transmission more than expectations.
Long-range shooting
Burris Veracity FFP scope is available in two different models 4-20x and 5-25x. The trajectory-compensating technology and cascading dots can bring you the winning smile at any big hunting competition. The bold, active crosshairs can give you clean details of the distance object and closer ones.
FFP reticle
FFP reticles are best for radial shots because the crosshair becomes bigger and thicker at high enlargement. Ballistic Plex E1 FFP gives you the almost right idea of the distance between you and the target. This high magnification allows killing the target at 600-700 yards quickly.
Simplicity of adjustments
Exposed turrets perfectly matches the MOA system. You can hear the clicks even if you wear hearing aids while shooting. The zero-click stop returns to zero position after you hit the gun. You can adjust the parallax adjustment with the side-focus knob to focus from 50 yards to further distance.
Bushnell Engage Scope Matte Black 30mm Riflescope
Bushnell Engage SFP riflescope comes in attractive matte black color. This 2.5-10×44 30mm sight is idea selection for shooting at medium range.
This scope contains all the quality features to be the best 1000 yards scope. It is affordable, lightweight, but stronger to work well for long time.
Ergonomic design
The Engage gun scope consists of multicoated optics with ultra-wide band coating. Through these optics you can see the right position of the target. This dual coating repels water, oil, dust while gives you increases brightness inside the lenses. The 3.6″ eye-relief keeps the eyes relaxed and worry-free.
MOA reticle and zooming
As it has a 0.18 MOA SFP reticle, it will remain in the same size whatever magnification level you use. It increases the accuracy of shooting smaller targets with high-level zooming. This riflescope features zoom power between 2.5x-10x. It is ideal for keeping eyes and hitting the target at short distances.
Windage and elevation support
You can also get friendly windage and elevation support for using it any time of the year. There are three turrets, including a parallax adjuster to set the hash marks at the perfect Aimpoint. But you do not need any extra tools to keep the turrets in position.
Durability
Engage scope is made of durable materials. Its remarkable ceiling prevents damages or redundancies to view the target under rain, fogs. The black matte finish reduces the flashes or glares in the daylight. For more durability, Bushnell gives flip open objective and eyepiece covers.
Monstrum G2 1-4x24mm First Focal Plane FFP Rifle Scope with Illuminated BDC Reticle
Monstrum G2 1-4x24mm is the final scope we have researched. It is built for flexible shooting experience at 1000 yards range.
The premium quality performance of this scope will increase the hunger for shooting. These are more eye-catchy but worthy features:
FFP rangefinder reticle
It is a FFP rangefinder scope to work at long-distance shooting. The scope gives clear and easy understanding of range information consistently. It also helps to calculate the distance between you and the target easily.
Illuminated reticle
The G2 1-4x24mm scope comes with a dial-controlled reticle. It gives you red and green illumination with versatile brightness adjustments. You can take it with you at night or low-light hunting.
Premium build
It is also made of aircraft-grade aluminum to work under heavy shocks or pressure. The 30mm main tube is purged with nitrogen and sealed with correct sealing. So, the scope can resist the water and fog well.
Great optics
It has not huge magnification level settings. But you can start from 1x to 4x for simple applications of a riflescope. The 24mm objective lens with 4-4.5″ eye relief gives pleasure to eyes with a wide field of views.
Negatives Recap for This Product
- The 1-year warranty is low compared to the lifetime for most scopes
- Little on the heavy side over 16 ounces
- Functions best under 100 yards
Long Range Scope (1000 Yard) Buying Guide
Money is the most precious thing in the world. Everyone wants to save money while dealing with others. So, we are also here to share secrets of saving more money but getting the job well done. Consider these below things to choose and buy the affordable scopes for long-range shooting:
Structure:
Once you are spending money on something great to be, you should know its structure. High-quality scopes or sights must be built with premium materials. Aircraft-grade aluminum, stainless steel are good examples of the build material. Weatherproof scopes are good for hunting and shooting in rainy or winter seasons. Even the quality of lenses also matters for scratch or marks free optical views.
Optics and glass:
Glass and optics are essential for working at a shooting range. Quality scopes have a multicoated glass with low dispersion. These glasses or optics can withstand scratches or big shocks. Some scopes may illuminate at night without straining your eyes. Also, the durability of these optics gives clarity to the field of view.
Objective lens:
Objective lens size helps to spot the target faster. Bigger size lens diameter can gather sufficient light to increase the vividness of the image. They are also helpful for lowlight shooting. So, you should choose it wisely.
Fast focus eyepiece:
You can pick the target faster with reasonable accuracy with this eyepiece. It helps to lock the aim and maintain focus on the target within moments. You will love to focus a quick-moving object with this eyepiece.
Magnification power:
You may also call it a zooming capacity of the scope. A long-range gun scope has wide range of magnification. You can choose 1x-14x zoom scopes for short to medium-range shooting like 300-500 yards. For more distance coverage, there is more versatility ranges up to or more than 32x. These scopes are good for more than 500 yards shooing.
Reticle pattern:
Reticle pattern is the hash marks or crosshair in the center of the scope. It is positioned close to the objective lens in FFP scopes. It is close to the lens or exit pupil closer to the shooter’s eye in SFP scopes. Reticle pattern tells whether you are at the right position or not. These patterns can be German dot, Mil-dot, target dot, or fine crosshair.
Superior light transmission:
Low-quality scopes are not suitable for Vermont or moving object hunting under low light or shadows. You should choose a scope that can maintain good lighting inside it. It should reduce glare under daylight or transmit sufficient light to your eyes. Besides, some scopes offer brightness settings to adjust light transmission. It improves spotting the target.
Adjustments:
The scope should have a windage or elevation adjustments facility. It helps to acquire ideas of distance and elevation differences between you and the target. You can use the turrets positioned on the upper or left-right portion of this scope to adjust windage and elevation. For more precision, an audible adjuster with tactile clicks help a lot.
Safe eye relief and exit pupil:
Exit pupil is the lens that remains close to your eyes. Eye relief is the distance between the eyes and the scope’s exit pupil. As the rifles create shocks or recoil, it may damage or hurt your eyes. High-quality 1000-yard scopes usually have 3-4.5” eye relief. This distance can decrease when magnification is set higher.
These are the notable matters you should care about when buying a scope for long-range shooting. However, there are few more things like mounting, laser guide, product warranty, zero resets. If your scope has these things, then probably you have got a bonus. These below are some questions asked related to scope for distance shooting:
Frequently Asked Questions
Question: What scope should I use for 1000 yards?
Answer: A scope with excellent light transmission, high magnification power, first focal plane (FFP), and sturdy optics can be useful for professional and long-range shooting.
Question: What power scope do I need for 500 yards?
Answer: It is not exactly sure to say how much zoom you need for 500 yards. It depends on your eye health as well as the power of the scope. Scopes with 1x-14x magnification are suitable for medium or 400-500 yards shooting, as many experts comment.
Question: What magnification do snipers use?
Answer: Sniper scopes have higher magnification power than ordinary shooting rifles. You may think of scopes with more than 20X zooming capacity for snipers. These scopes are suitable for slow-moving targets or larger animals.
Question: How much should you spend on a scope?
Answer: There goes a saying – spend at least half for the scope compared to the rifle or gun price. As an example, if it is a $500 gun, buy a scope for $200.
Conclusion
Finding the best 1000-yard scope under 500 dollars can seem superficial and quicker. But when you look over the market, only a few products can match your requirements. They can be breakable, containing fewer features, difficult magnifications. Even water or fog may damage them.
Overlooking these issues, you may think of increasing your budget. But if you follow our budget-friendly reviews, you will be enormously beneficial. We have also worked to match any gun lover’s preferences.
We wish this ideal but best long-range scope under $500 review will be a creative content for you.