• Reviews

UTG 3-9X32 1″ BugBuster Scope

This offering from UTG is a superb entry-level scope. It is only about $100 from most sellers, or around that figure, and for that, you get a scope that is definitely a capable beast.

It feels solid in your hand, being constructed from aluminium rather than cheaper plastic. It is also easy to set up as it features QD rings (quick detach) for mounting.

The illuminated reticle is a nice feature, but it’s a shame perhaps that the entire reticle is lit up – you may find it easier to work with a scope where only the centre point is illuminated, but the light can be turned off if you don’t like it.

Adjustment is pretty simple – fingertip adjustment on the turrets, and you can reset it to zero once it’s been zeroed in.

Overall a great scope – it won’t turn you into Simo Häyhä, but then again what will?

• This scope is designed for air rifles and other firearms with high recoil and vibration.
• It has a variable magnification range of 3x to 9x and an adjustable objective lens of 32mm diameter.
• It features a mil-dot reticle with red/green illumination and zero lockable/resettable turrets with 1/4 MOA clicks.
• It comes with a 2-inch sunshade, flip-open lens caps, and a quick-detachable ring mount.

Pros:

• • It is durable, shockproof, fogproof, and rainproof.
  • It has a wide field of view and a generous eye relief.
  • It offers parallax-free shooting from 3 yards to infinity.
  • It is affordable and has a lifetime warranty.

Cons:

• • It is relatively heavy and bulky.
  • It may not fit some air rifles with low dovetail rails.
  • It may not be suitable for long-range shooting beyond 500 yards.

What’s Special About An Air Rifle Scope?

So above I alluded to Brian’s problem with using his scope on his air rifle.

I know, I was unaware that it was a problem too, until then. What happened was that it almost immediately un-zeroed after the first couple of shots. He was way off!

Brian didn’t think anything of it, to begin with. It was unusual behaviour, but just an annoyance. Anyway, by the end of the day, the lenses were rattling around, having been shaken loose.

Why the heck should this happen? Well, I’ll tell you.

Recoil

That’s right – recoil. You’d think a cartridge rifle would have more recoil, wouldn’t you? But in reality, an air rifle has almost double the recoil – well, precoil might be a better word for it.

Recoil occurs in a rimfire rifle, for instance, as the hot, expanding gases from the charge behind the bullet escape out of the muzzle of the gun. The force that is acting on the bullet, propelling it forth, acts equally and opposite on the gun itself – that’s one of Newton’s laws (no, not me – Jack Newton – but my old buddy Isaac).

Basically, as the bullet leaves the gun the gun jerks backwards too.

So what gives? What’s the deal with an air rifle?

The way an air rifle works is different, especially a springer or piston type air rifle – these are the real culprits. You get a small amount of recoil from the reaction to the piston moving forwards – as the piston travels forwards, equal and opposite reaction means the gun travels backwards.

However, the piston then hits the end of its run and comes to a sudden stop. All the energy in that piston is suddenly transferred to the gun’s chamber and the pellet. That actually causes a significant jolt, you’ll know it as that forward jerk you get with a springer.

That, in fact, is why it is a bit more difficult to maintain your accuracy with a springer, because of that recoil.

Then as the pellet leaves the barrel of the gun, there is a further small reaction.

It’s all of this jerking around that makes air rifles tough on scopes – and that’s why you should choose a scope that is rated for an air rifle, unlike Brian who just swapped his scope from his rimfire to his springer.

Anatomy Of A Scope

Before we finish up, I guess I should go through the anatomy of a scope – what all those numbers mean, so that when you choose a scope for your air rifle, you will know you’re getting what you want.

Lens – Ocular & Objective

The lenses are probably the most important part of a scope – obviously. Without them, there would be no scope – just a tube that you look through, and see the same thing as you would through an iron sight.

Wow, Cap’n Obvious to the rescue.

No, but seriously, there are two lenses in a scope – the ocular and the objective lens.

The ocular lens is the one which creates the magnification, and the objective lens is the one at the business end of the scope, which focuses the image onto the ocular lens.

In buying a scope, you’ll see that there is some kind of standard notation which looks like this:

4 x 32

The first number, 4 in this case, refers to the level of magnification. 4 x magnification means things will appear 4 x closer.

The second number tells you the size of the objective lens. Although the ocular lens magnifies the image, it tends to be true that the greater the magnification the darker the image. That’s what the objective lens does – it focuses the image onto the ocular lens, and the bigger the objective lens, the brighter and more distinct the image.

So 4 x 32 means 4 x magnification with a 32mm objective lens. You wouldn’t really need an objective lens bigger than 50mm for most uses – and it is more trouble to mount, because it is further from the barrel. This causes a greater parallax effect – find out what that is later.

Reticle – Crosshair, Duplex, Mil-Dot

The reticle, or graticule, is the crosshair. There are in fact several types of reticle, as shown here:

[[File:Reticles vector.svg|thumb|A comparison of different reticles used in telescopic sights. The lower right represents a reticle found in the PSO-1 scope of a Russian SVD dedicated marksman rifle.]]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reticle#/media/File:Reticles_vector.svg

Most common are the crosshair, which we all know, the duplex crosshair and the mil-dot.

The crosshair, as you can see in the diagram, is simply a fine cross which marks the centre of the scope, and therefore your target (hopefully!).

The duplex crosshair is slightly thickened. The reason for this is because the very find crosshair can be somewhat hard to see, especially against dark backgrounds – thickening the lines makes it a bit easier to make it out.

The mil-dot crosshair serves the function of not only making the lines of the crosshair more distinct, but it also gives you the ability to adjust your sighting based on range. If you’re firing a .22 for instance, you will get some drop in the pellet’s trajectory at range. Using a mil-dot scope will allow an experienced shooter to compensate for this.

Adjustments

The scope will usually have two turrets or knobs, one on top and one on the side. The adjust the scope, you guessed it, up and down and side to side. This is known as elevation (up-down) and windage (side side).

You should make sure your scope is securely fixed to your rifle and that there is no wiggle at all.

Short Distance – Parallax

Because an air rifle is usually used at a fairly short distance, you get a pronounced parallax effect. For this reason, air rifle scopes often come with AO or Adjustable Objective – this means you can adjust the objective lens to the approximate distance to your target, thereby compensating for parallax.

Parallax is the apparent displacement of your target when you view it along two lines of sight – if you imagine down the barrel is one line of sight, and through your scope is another, you need to make sure they cross at the same point. Because this varies with distance, you need AO.

If you can’t grasp parallax, try this: hold your finger out at arm’s length, pointing at an object on the other side of the room. Close your left eye and line your finger up with the object Now, without moving your finger, close your right eye and open your left eye. See how they don’t line up anymore?

Parallax effect also occur if you move your head in relation to the scope – you will see the reticle moving around relative to the target.

How To Zero A Scope

There are loads of really good guides on zeroing a scope. The essence of it is this:

Set your rifle at a known distance from a clear target in a wind-free location. Make sure your rifle is held steady using a rifle rest or, more likely, sandbags or rice bags.

Now, aim the rifle at the centre of your target and fire. Hopefully you’ll hit paper, otherwise, your scope is way off. Without moving the rifle at all, you now look through the scope and adjust the elevation and windage on your scope until the crosshair centres on the bullet hole.

That’s it – that’s zeroing. Now, aim the rifle at the centre of the target again and fire. If the pellet is off target, repeat the process. Don’t move the rifle, adjust the elevation and windage, and re-aim and fire.

Seriously, it’s pretty easy. The most difficult part is keeping the rifle steady as you adjust.

Watch this video to see the process in action:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLirsAFpsfE

Bullseye

I hope this has been of some use to you in choosing your ideal scope for your airgun. There are different models available, the ones I listed above are just exemplary of a good entry-level scope, a higher-end model and a budget scope. I’d go for the Hawke, every time if I were serious about air rifle hunting, but for target practice, either of the other two would suit me, depending on how flush I was feeling.

Have fun

Jos