I will have to admit I don’t think I need to shoot iron sights more than 50 to 75 yards. I have to shoot a might further and close to dark. Last year I bought myself a Ruger Scout Rifle and put a Bushnell 1×5 power and enjoyed the results. But I wanted more. I put the Bushnell back on the Remington Slug gun and bought myself a Vortex Cossfire ll 1-4×24 with something I’ve been looking for a long time, a small MOA illuminated dot. For once I got exactly what I wanted.
I can’t for the life of me understand why I read other gun writers say they couldn’t see a dot in the crosshair. Trust me, when at the range, I could move the little dot around inside the two inch square target, with the diode on or off, and shot nice 100 yard 11/4 inch groups with factory loads.
It seemed the only gun writer that agreed with me was the great Jack O’Conner, others just said they couldn’t find it in the scope. Well here is the secret, you look in the middle of the view finder and there it is. Now if you turn on the little red light past 3 its almost too much. As far as fast, I’ve taken out running deer and boar several times with the dot enough said.
Recently I killed a running hog with a clean heart shot, at 40 yards, as fast as a shotgun on quail. But the real test was getting caught in a serious storm for several hours as the scope and rifle were soaked. This was no problem both rifle and scope cleaned up good as new. Vortex scope are water and fog proof.
This brings me up to a small problem I have the Henry 45-70 in the middle of the deer season and the rifle was crying for a good scope. The big Henry could be called a dangerous game rifle, that’s because it is. The Vortex on 1x is just like iron sights maybe a lot faster; it certainly is for me. Wild Boar charge fast, been there.
I called up Mark at Vortex and told him the deal, requesting another scope. Outdoor/Gun Writers such as myself get such things so we can tell the world. The products are well earned not a gratuity, because if it doesn’t work we tell them about it.
I have only seen one scope break under recoil the gun was a Remington Super Mag 12 ga 3 1/2 inch turkey gun with 60 pounds of recoil. For the record a 458 Magnum with 600 grain bullets is 58 pounds. I have great faith in the Vortex scope even with 550 grain Garret 45-70 rounds. Normally I use 325 grain Hornady. If it works I have no problem taking it on a Cape Buffalo hunt in Africa as long as somebody else pays for the trip….Pass it on.