Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Scope Opinion on Elk Rifle.

3-9x or 3.5-10x.

I do have a couple of 4.5-14x -- and like them a lot -- but they sit on rifles used mostly for varmints.

That happened to one of my partners last year. I stepped around a tree and there was a nice mulie buck under yds from me. I already had my deer to I grabbed him to show it to him. He kept dinking around until the deer ran. It didn't go far before it stopped in some quakies to look at us. He took forever to shoot. He later said he couldn't find it in the scope. Yup, he had it cranked up to 9.

I think the 2.5 X 8 is the best hunting scope made. My 338, 270WSM and 7MM-08 all wear this one

I currently have 4 rifles for big game (.243, 25-06, .308 WIN and 300 WSM) all have Leupold fixed 6x36's mounted. That ought to tell you what my recommendation is.

Of those 2, I would go with the 3.5x10....but like many others I have drank the 6X kool-aid. I have about 12-15 or so on various rifles and have no plans to ever go back to variables.

I hunt a lot with a fixed 10X, and it has not handicapped me in the least.







Frankly, these days I would not buy a new Leupold. An SWFA with reliable tracking would be a top pick if money for a Nightforce was not in the cards.

Something along 2-10 power.
If you get into thick you'll need a that low power wide filed of view.. Open country 10 power will serve you well.

I just ordered a 2-12 Leupold VX6 from Cabelas on closeout for about $700. At 2x it has an impressive 57 ft field of view.

Do you have custom LR reticles in any of them? I've thought about that a time or two.

Having lived in Montana for over 25 years, and hunted quite a bit in those 25 years, been with a lot of other people that have taken game, worked in a gun store or three, and having friends that are guides and knowing a gun writer or two, I have never, ever, not one freeking time, heard of an elk hunt going sour because of not having a powerful enough scope.
Very few of the elk that I have seen taken, or heard of being taken were situations where someone can sit down and diddle with the parallax adjustment, turn the power up and down, and get the same cheek weld that they get at the range,
Elk have a habit of materializing at the end of the day when you have given up hope, sometimes at snowball distance and sometimes 400 yards away, and you had better be able shoot sometime this week.
Reliability is the first requirement.
Secondly, if you think increased magnification is the only requirement for precise aiming at long range, you are sorely mistaken. I have seen some top name brand scopes that has so much parallax at 400 yards that you could walk the crosshair off a feed bucket at that range.
Those fine crosshairs that let you shoot those 3/4 inch groups at the range aren't going to do you a damn bit of good when you get on some elk in the timber on an overcast day ten minutes after first shooting light.
Trying to get on an elk moving through timber when your rifle scope has the eye relief and/or eye box of a micron microscope does not work well.
What is my idea of a good scope for elk or for any big game hunting in Montana or Wyoming is to start with a Leupold 6X32 scope. They work excellent in low light conditions and are smaller and lighter than the 6X42. I have also had less parallax problems with the 6X32. They also have more than adequate eye box and eye relief.
Then, I sent the scope to Leupold and have the parallax corrected to 400 yards (the parallax turns out to be minimal at all shorter ranges, too) and have the thick duplex installed.
The last elk I killed with that combinations was running at what would have been a short shot for a handgun. I have killed antelope and elk with that combination at over 400 yards with first shot hits. I have killed coyotes with it when it was damn near too dark to see with the naked eye.
I will grant that I am probably in the running to be the world's worst big game hunter, but, for S*** sake, the learning curve on this stuff just isn't that steep.

Get what you want.

As for me, every rifle I own that I think of as an "elk rifle" instead of a "deer/elk rifle" have scopes of no more then 5X, and my "deer/elk rifles" mostly have 4X or 2x-7X on them. Even on my variables, I never hunt with them set at over 4X

When I was a few decades younger I also believed the marketeers and I have big scopes on many rifles, but as I grew older and killed more game in a LOT of different places and conditions I found that imaginations over about 5-6 were not only not helpful, they were a problem.

Today my only high magnification scope (4x-12X) is on my 222 Remington.

Excellent! Well said.

I prefer the 4.5-14 but only if you go with the 50mm objective.

14X is a bit much when run through a 40mm objective.

Most of my scopes are Leupolds or Nikon Monarchs.
I used a 2.5x8 leupold for many years. Now have
several 2X10x40 Nikons. I,ve taken all my Elk on
either 2x or 4x except one cow I shot at 410 Yard
which I had on 8x. I think the lower power is more
important than the high powder.

No, I do not. Most are standard duplex. I do have some SWFAs though with both mil-quad and MOA reticles.

I recently got me a new rifle, it's a Kimber 84M as well as a Leupold VX-1 4-12x40mm. I don't like the 50 MM because you'll need taller bases. If you have a Bass Pro shop nearby go down there and compare them side-by-side. When I hunt I always keep my variables at four power. But if these animals are far enough away you have time to increase the power.