I have been a huge fan of Swarovski riflescopes for two decades. In fact, my go-to .300 Win. Mag. “sniper rifle” has the same 2.5-10X Swarovski scope atop it that has been there for 20 years or more. On this hunt I put a Swarovski Z3 3-10x42 on top the Mossberg MVP .308, and it proved the ideal companion.

I used the version of the Z3 that features the ML (muzzleloader) reticle, which was designed to show you the drop of a .50 caliber muzzleloader bullet at various distances when sighted in dead-on at 100 yards. However, the ML reticle is quite versatile; it can also be used for many popular centerfire cartridges. In technical terms, cartridges with muzzle velocities between 2800-3000 fps, with a ballistic coefficient between .380 and .475, correspond well with the configuration of the ML reticle. You should remember when using it that this reticle is placed in the second, or non-magnifying, focal plane. Therefore, the bullet drop calculations must be made with the magnification factor set to 10X. Also, as Swarovski's Rob Lancellotti told me, “The ML reticle works great with the .308, but sometimes the bar values don't turn out to be nice round numbers, which is where a little common sense on the part of the shooter goes a long way as far as not making it so complicated.” Translated, that means you need to shoot your rifle on the range to find out exactly how the scope's stadia work with your rifle/load combination.

Read about this bear hunt