Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire What power should I sight my scope in with?

My new scope is a Leopold vx6hd 3-18x44 and I was wondering if I should sight it in on the highest power? I always used to hunt with a lower magnification 3-9 scope so I'm not used to the higher magnification so any advice on this would be great. On to a completely different topic, it was brought to my attention that I am sometimes bad at replying to your guys comments on my posts and I am sorry for that. I am going to try and do better at replying. Thanks for all the advice you guys give me.

If I'm shooting at 50 yards I tend to use 5 or 6 power. At 100 yards I like 8 or 9X.

I use a lot of 3.5x10 scopes and sight in on 10x

I sight in on the highest power. In my view, that enables the most accurate “sight in”
When I hunt, most of the time I use a lower power setting.

Seems you would want to sight it in with the power that gives you the most accurate sighting in adjustments unless I'm missing something.

I was always told to sight in on the highest power, then shoot some rounds at lower powers to see if the POI changes. If the scope is any good POI should remain the same.

Some scopes may change point of impact slightly between low and high power. I sight in at the highest power with the assumption being that if I need the higher magnification for a more precision, I’ll have time to crank it up and I want to make sure where I’m going to hit. That being said, I normally have it set on 4X unless I’m hunting where a longer shot is probable. At closer ranges any poi shift probably won’t matter.

I check poi between different power settings to see if its a factor but as scopes improve, it’s becoming less of a problem IMO.

I've always sighted in at the highest power.

kd

I site in at highest power and confirm at lower powers.

Parallax error could be an issue.

I sight in at the highest power. Double check at the lowest power.

Does the point of impact typically change quite a bit from day 3x and 18x magnification?

Thanks for the link. Just started reading it. Great information

Don't know much about parallax. My scope has a parallel adjustment but don't know how to use it. How do I set it? Should I set it to infinity or what?

Where are you hunting?

Sight in anywhere you want, but ALWAYS turn it to the lowest setting right after. You won't remember it the morning of your hunt, and you'll regret having it at max X when your deer appears 50 feet away. There's time to crank it up for a long shot, but never time to crank it down for a close one.

I always crank it up.

This is what you need to do.

Match the aiming point on your target to the reticle and magnification. Aim small, miss small.