I know what you mean, Chris. A friend has a 60 series Kowa with the 25X and I much prefer it for BPCR to other guys' 80 series with the 27X.

My old Bushnell Spacemaster has been very good at 200 yds even with smallish bullet holes as long as the mirage is not too bad.  I was seeing 25 cal holes in the red at 200 at Spokane while others were complaining about their scopes.  It is taped at 60x now as the eyepiece is falling apart.  Several years back I bought a Konus based on recommendations on this forum and it was a POS.  Too much chromatic aberration to see much at 200.  I did look through Westerner's Kowa when he bought it and noticed that it was fuzzy, but figured if he was happy with it then who am I to complain.  On a whim, I just bought a used Huicocy 20-60x scope on eBay for about $40 shipped. This was based on reviews of cheap scopes.  Totally useless at 200 yds.  I will fit the bill to have in my car to lend to shooters at the range who have to close everything down to see their bullet .223 bullet holes at 50 yds.

Jack

Thanks, everyone. I decided on a Celestron. Couldn't quite go the Regal, but got the 20-60X80mm. Thanks for all your input.

Anthony

Of course 60 mm scopes used in the Schuetzen Game work well at 200 yards but do not perform as well out to 550  yards for the Silhouette game. 
For the longer yardage you do need a larger focal area (80 mm) that transmits light better and you do need lens with good coatings to obtain sharper images for better clarity of bullet hits at longer yardages.

Before accepting someone recommendations for a scope find out at what yardage he normally uses it at plus how it performs under marginal conditions.

I purchased a Leupold scope which barely works for BPCRS Silhouette since it does not pick up bullet splashes for a lighter .40 caliber very well but does work better for the heavier .45 bullet splashes. 
I purchased the scope based on recommendations of big bore shooters. My mistake.
It was a $US 500 scope and is not sufficient for Silhouette competitions since it does not pick up the partial bullet hits on the edges of the silhouettes since its lens coatings are sub par and does not provide the clarity that some other scopes provide.

Many people feel their scopes are too fuzzy without understanding they work better at the 20X to 24X power when there is a mirage.
People keep cranking up the power and they are magnifying the mirage effect so your scope becomes excessively fuzzy. 
This happens even with the high end Swarovski scopes (which my shooting partner had) - so try turning down your power when you have mirage - because tuning the focus will not get rid of it at high power.

Count me as another vote for KOWA.  I've had mine for 20 years at least now and very happy with it.  For the money it cost it is a good value.

burntwater wrote on Jul 12^th, 2021 at 3:34pm:


I think you're way off track myself. These aren't just "great stories", they're advice to the OP that there are other options to buying new, and paying too much for a quality scope.
I don't think that telling the OP to check out used options, vs. new is giving bad advice. But you go ahead and pay retail if that's what you prefer.

marlinguy wrote on Jul 13^th, 2021 at 11:45am:


I'm still offended, hurt, cut to the bone, feeling unappreciated, humiliated, called on the carpet,