Optics decide more shots than most shooters realize. A good sight lets you find, identify, and hit your target under real-world conditions — low light, quick offhand, unknown distance. A bad one loses you the animal or the match. This is the shop-counter guide we hand new customers who ask “what scope should I put on this?”

01Iron Sights — Still the Foundation

Every shooter should know how to run iron sights. They don’t rely on batteries, don’t fog in cold weather, and don’t fail. Modern rifles ship with everything from simple bead sights on hunting guns to tritium-lit night sights on defensive rifles. The trade-off is speed and precision — irons force you to align three points (rear, front, target) at once, which slows you down and stresses eye alignment.

02Red Dot Sights

The single biggest quality-of-life upgrade for most shooters: a red dot puts a lit reticle on a piece of glass you can look through with both eyes open. No sight alignment, no parallax to speak of at typical distances. Just cover the target with the dot and press the trigger.

• Tube style (Aimpoint, Trijicon MRO) — robust, waterproof, huge battery life. Great on hunting and duty rifles.
• Reflex/open (Holosun, Vortex Venom, RMR) — lighter, better field of view, easier co-witness with irons.
• Enclosed emitter (Holosun EPS, Aimpoint COA) — the reflex form with the tube’s environmental sealing.

Match dot size to task: 2 MOA for precision, 3–4 MOA as a compromise, 6+ MOA for shotguns and turkey guns.

03Magnified Scopes

Fixed vs Variable

Old-school fixed scopes (4x, 6x, 10x) are simple, tough and cheap. Modern variable scopes let you dial magnification for the shot — 3-9x for classic deer/elk hunting, 4-16x or 5-25x for long-range work.

Match Power to Distance

• 1-6x, 1-8x LPVO — general-purpose, hunting, competition, home-defense carbine
• 2-10x, 3-9x, 3-15x — the classic mountain hunting range
• 4-16x, 5-25x — precision, PRS, long-range varminting
• Higher — specialized target and benchrest work

Reticle Choice

MOA and MIL are just units — use the one your buddies use so you can share holdovers. First-focal-plane reticles scale with magnification (holds always work); second-focal-plane reticles stay the same size (holds work at one specific power).

04Prism Scopes & LPVOs

Prism scopes (usually fixed 1x, 3x, 4x or 5x) use an etched reticle instead of an LED, so they work with dead batteries and are astigmatism-friendly. Great for AR-15s. LPVOs (low-power variable optics) like 1-6x or 1-10x combo scopes cover from red-dot-speed at 1x to serious magnification for shots out to 500+ yards. Currently the most versatile optic class on the market.

1x on an LPVO lets you shoot both-eyes-open like a red dot — magnification is there when you need it.

05Mounting & Sight-In

An optic is only as good as the mount. Cheap rings ruin expensive glass. Buy quality steel or aluminum rings torqued to spec, use blue Loctite on the base screws, and level the reticle carefully. Then bore-sight to get on paper (we do this for free on any rifle you buy here or bring in for scope mounting), and zero at your intended distance — 100 yards is the classic hunting zero, 50/200 is the classic red-dot zero for a 5.56 AR.

Read: What is bore sighting — and why should I do it? →

06Shop Optics at ERG

Riflescopes

Fixed & variable, MOA/MIL

Red Dots

Tube & reflex

Binoculars

Find before you shoot

Spotting Scopes

Long-range judging

Related: Multiple Optics on One Firearm  •  Bore Sighting Explained