Optics Buying Guide

The best Vortex scopes cover just about every job a rifle or pistol can do, from a budget deer scope to an LPVO that costs more than most of the rifles it rides on. That range is the reason Vortex is the brand so many shooters start with, and the reason it is so easy [...]

The best spotting scopes of 2026 do the job your binoculars cannot. A good 10x binocular finds the animal. A spotting scope tells you whether that buck is a shooter, whether that ram is legal, and whether that bullet hit the steel at 900 yards or kicked up dirt behind it. If you hunt open [...]

The best Trijicon optics are the ones you mount and stop worrying about. Trijicon built its name on the ACOG that rode on military rifles for decades, then made the RMR the benchmark for slide mounted pistol dots, and today it makes everything from a 1.2 ounce pistol dot to thermal scopes for hog hunting. [...]

The best Holosun red dots are a big reason pistol optics went mainstream. Holosun took features that used to cost extra, like solar backup, shake awake, side-loading batteries and multiple reticles, and put them on optics that working people can afford. The problem is the model numbers. 407, 507, 508, 509, K, C, X2, Comp, [...]

The best Burris scopes have earned a spot on a lot of hunting rifles because they give you good glass, honest tracking and a Forever Warranty without a premium price. Burris builds everything from simple duplex hunting scopes to first focal plane precision optics, a digital smart scope and a family of FastFire red dots, [...]

The best hunting binoculars of 2026 will kill more game for you than any rifle upgrade. I know that sounds backwards, but think about how a hunt actually goes. You spend hours looking and seconds shooting. The guy who finds the animal first, sizes it up, and picks the stalk wins. The guy squinting through [...]

The best rangefinders of 2026 fix the most common reason hunters miss, and it is not the rifle. It is the guess. Most people are terrible at judging distance, especially across open country, canyons, or water. A deer that looks like 300 yards is 420, and a bull across a basin that looks like a [...]

The Gen II doesn’t just upgrade; it overhauls. The optical system is re-engineered to improve color accuracy and low-light performance.

Upon first glance, a red dot sight or scope looks hard to mount. Luckily, there are a lot of methods available that can be used to mount modern optics to your AK securely. Optics can enhance shooting, but require reliable mounts.