Choosing an AR-15 Scope

I'm often asked for recommendations on AR-15 scopes. With any scope purchase, your first consideration is what do you want to shoot at? Second after that is how far away do you want to shoot it? I put AR-15's into three main categories; Tactical, Multi-Role, and Precision.

Tactical role is shooting at people closer than 75 yards. You only have a split second to get your sights on target and fire. A red dot or reflex sight without magnification is perfect for this type of shooting. You keep both eyes open and the reticle is superimposed on the target. It doesn't matter where your face is behind the scope. You don't have to have perfect cheek-weld on the stock. Just pull the gun up, put the reticle on the target, and shoot. My favorite scope for this role is the Trijicon TriPower. I have one on my personal M4. I chose the Trijcon TriPower because it does not require batteries and is therfore always ready to go. I don't need to turn it on or worry about batteries failing when I need it most. The Chevron reticle is illuminated by tritium and fiber optics. It does offer battery power if you need to fully illuminate the reticle, but I've never needed it.

Multi-Role is exactly as it sounds. It can involve tactical shooting, precision shooting, target shooting, competitive shooting, etc. The multi-role scope provides variable power magnification starting at 1.1x or 1.5x. There are some great scopes starting at 2x, but I prefer a scope offering as close to 1x as possible at the lowest magnification. Even at 1x on these scopes, you must deal with eye relief. Eye relief is the distance you eye must be behind the scope in order to see through it. If your eye is too close or too far away, you cannot see through the scope or only see through a portion of it. This can slow down target acquisition. You can become fast with them, but it takes practice. My favorite multi-role scope is the IOR Valdada 1-4x26. I also like any of the Trijicon ACOGs with the red dot sight mounted on top of them.


Precision shooting involves hitting a small target at longer ranges. You need magnification to see the target or to hit a specific part of the target. This type of shooting is typically not as fast and you have longer to acquire your target. I like the Burris XTR 6-24x50 scope.



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