I'm involved in a trade that is bringing me another Contender. In the trade I'll have a choice of scopes.
A 2-7x Simmons Gold Medal, & a Weaver 2.5-8x. The scope will be mounted on a .358 Bellm (roughly equivalent to .358 JDJ) & may someday find it's way to my .444 Contender.
What experience has anyone had with either of these scopes, especially on the heavier recoiling guns?
Recommendations?

I don't know about that particular Simmons scope but I have a 42mm Simmons red dot on my 444 Marlin Katahdin barrel and it is great for hog hunting. The rest of my long barrels for my Encore have either Simmons Aetec or ATV scopes and I am very happy with them.

Vance,
I have and use both scopes, and, at one time or the other, they both have been on a 480 Ruger which is a pretty hard hitter. Both have held up fine. I prefer a lower power scope on large bore hunting rigs, so, between the two, I would perfer the Simmons due to its lower end. Another consideration to think about though, I don't know if Simmons will repair the Gold Medal if it should fail since it is no longer in production. The Weaver carries a lifetime limited warranty. I believe fixed power scopes hold up better on heavy calibers since there are less internal parts to fail unless you get into the higher-end scopes such as the Burris' and the like. Just my opinion for what it is worth...BG

If it's a Simmons "Gold Medal" mdl 22001.....Back a few years ago when they were being made it was only one of two scopes that J.D. Jones would endorse on his web site as holding up to some of his big thumpers (the scope box even had a picture of the scope mounted on one of his stainless barrels) and the other was the now also discontinued B & L Elite 3000 2x6.

At one time I had nothing but Gold Medals mounted on all my barrels from 22 LR up to 284 Winch. and 45-70 and I never had a bit of trouble out of them.

I still have one Gold Medal that I refer to as my test scope that has been on just about every caliber imagineable by myself and a friend of mine but I went to all B & L's for the little extra FOV........of the two mentioned I'd go with the Gold Medal.

Ike

Thanks for the replies guys. Sounds like hey're probably both good scopes as far as durability goes. When they get here I'll lok at fov, clarity, brightness, etc. & go from there.