The .270 round is one of the most commonly used for sporting and hunting, and with good reason. Combined with a Winchester rifle, this makes your shooting steady and reliable with little recoil. However, as with most things in the world of rifles, you can improve it with the right gear.

Good .270 Winchester scopes will improve your range and accuracy and allow you to take some shots that you couldn’t even think about before. Because of that, we’ve put together some guidelines on what to look for in a new scope.

What You Should Look for in a Scope

A lot of things factor in when it comes to choosing the perfect scope for your shooting style and the purposes you generally use your rifle for. We broke it down into three categories and tried to explain in plain words the most important facets of a scope that you should be considering.

Light Transmission

While hunting, your shots won’t always be made in perfect conditions, far from it – they’ll most likely be hindered by something. However, one of the crucial factors here is their vision in low light, and luckily for all the early-birds out there, it can be resolved by a good enough scope.

A more expensive scope will generally have better lenses, which will make for a better light transition. All of that means that with a quality scope with fully multi-coated lenses, you’ll be able to see clearly even at dusk or dawn when you otherwise wouldn’t be able to without one or with a scope made with lower quality lenses.

Object Lens Size

While on the theme of light transmission, as a rule of thumb, the bigger the scope lens, the lighter it gathers, making for better visibility. There’s a slight drawback to using larger lenses, though – the increased weight of the scope.

That’s why the most standard lense size for .270 Winchester scopes is usually 40-50 millimeters – which should be just enough for you to get some excellent shots, even at low light.

The Reticle

The reticle of your scope may very much impact your targeting, especially at longer distances. In short ranges, up to 150 yards, it won’t make much of a difference, but anything beyond that, and you’ll have to account for bullet drop as well.

That’s much easier to do with a BDC (bullet drop compensation) reticle. At 200 yards or more, such a reticle is practically a necessity unless you’re a master shooter.

What Kind of Magnification You’ll Need

When looking for a scope for your .270 Winchester, one of the most important things you need to think about is magnification. Now, you can opt for a fixed magnification scope, but that’ll work best if you’re shooting at a fixed range.

Hunting is an activity where the range you’re shooting from can vary substantially. A much better option is to go with a variable power magnification scope that’ll let you adjust the “zoom” on your sights.

Depending on what your usual shooting range is, you have different options when it comes to magnification, and we’ve broken them down into three groups:

Short Range

At short ranges, which would be under 200 yards, you don’t really need a scope that will let you magnify a whole lot. Maybe you won’t even need one, but it would make your life easier. For such short distances, a 1-4x magnification range will suffice and perform without a hitch.

Mid-Range

When it comes to mid-range shooting (200-400 yards), the magnification on your scope can differ based on the size of the game you’re hunting. A 4-9x will do just fine for some bigger game, but for smaller game, you’ll probably need something in the range of 4-12x to let you keep track of your target.

Long Range

At distances over 400 yards, you’ll definitely need a more powerful scope, absolutely over 12x for ranges up to 600 yards and up to 16x or even 24x for distances above that. For these powerful scopes, you’ll need to pay attention that they do not blur around the edges and that they have good FOV (field of vision).

In Conclusion

In any case, the first thing you have to determine when choosing a scope is for what you’ll be using your rifle. You should base your scope choice on the distances you usually shoot at and your usual game.

You should also know that any good optics don’t come cheap, and if you want top-quality, you’ll probably have to pay a pretty penny for it. However, if properly taken care of, that scope will be a lifetime investment, and you will not regret it.