Help a brother out! Need Optic and Mount ideas for a SAKO S20. $2500 budget

Believe it or not, I got a SAKO S20 for Christmas. I never asked for the gun but damn I am happy to get it. I am not really a precision rifle guy, but I am willing to learn. I've had a ton of bolts and owned some very nice scopes but I am not really into this type of shooting. But I want to go ahead and outfit this one. My typical range is limited to 400 yards but that doesn't mean I want to run a 4x scope. Help me outfit the best precision setup. The S20 I have is in the precision rifle config, 308 with 24 inch barrel. I would spend up to 2500


1. I need scope. I guess I will get a MOA scope because I will never learn mil dots.

2. I need rings. This one has pic rails built into receiver but they sell a mount. What do you guys think I should go with.

Serious question regarding request 1: Why not get a mil/mil scope? With mil turrets and a mil reticle? Something that always drives me nuts is where an optic has a mil reticle and MOA turrets. Honestly, it's not that hard to figure out.

With that kind of budget you could get a really nice Nightforce setup or one of the top-end Vortex scopes. I am a fan of Nightforce and Badger mounts and rings.

I really like the H59 reticle, but you might find it too busy.

I'd also reach out to Sinister and 1168 and see what they would consider in that price range.

Congrats on the nice Christmas gift!

You're going to want to use mil-radian, MOA does not translate very well with quick wind hold calculations in incremental distances based on BC.

The criteria you should be making your optic selection should be:

1. Reticle choice and illumination requirement
2. First or second focal plane
3. Zoom range
4. Cost and/or weight

Do you want to stay relevant with a grid reticle (xmas tree)? Or do you want to donate your rounds to mother nature and get your butt kicked with guessing quick windage/second shot corrections with a traditional crosshair? Realistically, you may not know what you want or need until your second or third scope. I highly recommend buying a Vortex Strike Eagle 5-25 with the EBR-7C with some Vortex Pro/Badger/Nightforce rings or unimount.

The reasons I recommend the SE 5-25 are because it is low cost, very capable and the xmas tree reticle comes in both MOA/MIL flavors. Along with that, it sports a common 34mm tube so you may use the same rings as well as the bubble level if you choose to upgrade later on. It holds value very well on the secondary market should you sell it. You may think 25x on 400 yard engagements is overkill but the extra magnification can help you shoot/PID further but also read mirage.

Use this to calculate what height you need: http://www.mil-rad.com/scope_ring_calculator

Check out this article to see what the competition crowd uses: https://precisionrifleblog.com/2018/12/21/best-scope/

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TLDR: just buy an ATACR, ZCO or Kahles.

NF ATACR 4-16X42 F1, a great all-around scope. Built tuff , great glass one of my very favs. And not huge so work well with a nice Sako. Great range at 4-16......

PB

Might help if you think about whether you want to carry this gun around/field gun or it'll just be a paper puncher. The answer to that question drives me in different directions on optic choice.