Hard Kicker Scopes

Most quality scopes are rated for 375 H&H.  The usual top contenders will handle the heavier stuff.

 

ranburr

On my 12 bore slug gun, my 375 H&H and 400 H&H there is only one scope. The Leupold 1-4x20mm. Lots of eye relief, unbeatable optics, the best guarantee and the ability to shoot fast at 1X while still having 4X if you need it. Get the heavy duplex and you can still shoot when you can't see the ground.
I even used one on my 10 gauge Browning BPS for goose hunting and it never failed in spite of huge recoil, terrible conditions and spending a lot of time lying in the bottom of the boat with a wet big dog.
The old Lyman Alaskan All Weather 2.5X is a good choice with huge eye relief as are the hard to find Leupold Alaskans 2.5, 4 and 6Xs, all of which have much more eye relief than 99% of today's scopes. The euro scopes are the worst, I always cringe when I see a 416 Rigby with a soft pad and some $1000 euro scope with 3" of eye relief.Blood on the shooting coat!

I have a 3-9 zeiss conquest on my 338 um. I just use this rifle for elk and black bear.But the eye relief on this scope was much appreciated when i was sighting in this rifle. I never had the scope hit me and as anybody who owns a338um will tell ya it kicks very hard.

I second the VX III 1.5-5X20 for this purpose. That is what I have on my witworth 375

and it has shot flawlessly for 9 years now and I have never had a problem with the eye

relief on this scope. I really like the features on the new Leupold PR with the win.308

175gr Special Purpose reticle, this new scope would be my top choice for a PSO 1

replacement on my Tigr but I feel that it is overpriced right now at 600$ and I am

patiently waiting for something similar or better to come out at a better price.

 

No scope is bulletproof.  Every manufacturer has duds here and there.  I am glad that your particular 1-4x has worked well for you, but since I strongly suspect that 1-4x and 1.4-5x are assembled in the same place I expect assembly quality to be the same.  If anything, there is probably a bit more stringent quality control on 1.5-5x since it is a more expensive scope.

As for aiming with both eyes open, I can do that pretty comfortably with scopes up to 2.5x or so.  I do not think 1.5x is any great barrier to fast target acquisition.  I would expect availability of thick, highly visible reticles to be a more important issue.

ILya

OK.

I do not play golf.  I've never seen a charging rhino (and I hope I never will).  I am not a whore writer of any sort (before you disapprove of them so strongly, I suggest you try to run a magazine without advertising income).  I have encountered a few unpleasant critters out in the wild, and  unfortunately, I was very much unarmed.  The only thing I learned from that is to stay away from unpleasant critters the best I can.

I am not a big fan of Simmons scopes that I've seen.  I could not care less about short magnums (or long, or medium or any other sort of magnums).  I mostly shoot cartridges like 280Rem, 7.5x55Swiss, 8x57Mauser, etc.  I've shot a few rifles chambered for 300WSM and did not have any problems with jamming or anything else (these were A-Bolts).

My experience with fly$hit is very limited, so I'll leave that to you.

I have somewhat more experience with scopes, so I feel comfortable commenting on that.  The two scopes in question, if I understand this correctly, are the VX-II 1-4x20 and VX-III 1.5-5x20.  I am generally not a big fan of Leupold scopes, but I am a big fan of low range variables and I've spent a fair bit of time with these two among others.  VX-III 1.5-5x20  has better glass and longer eye relief than VX-II 1-4x20.  If I were to pick one of these for a dangerous game rifle I would most certainly go with a VX-III with either a German #4 reticle or heavy duplex reticle.  I find VX-II to be a rather mediocre scope for the money and I think VX-III is easily worth the price difference.  Someone who can not afford a VX-III should get a Weaver V3 which is just as good as a VX-II for half the price (there is a gazillion of V3 scopes out there on hard kicking shotguns and they seem to be very durable).

ILya