Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics how much power do you really need 3-9 4-12 etc

I lasered them at 422 yds but since the camera was set at 3x you got 150 yds.
Actually they are all sporting very impressive antlers and the back one has most of the velvet scraped off already. Too bad you couldn't see that at 3 power, but when you crank it to 10+ you see all that.
PS. That's why I shot with the camera.

378Canuck,

About one yard. The photo displayed on my monitor is not as good as either my 6.5X32 binos or my 4 1/2-30X50 scope so I can't tell much from the photo.

Good thing we all don't like use the same thing, would be a pretty boring world and than what would we all do if we didn't have a forum to surf?

I have no where near the hunting experience or the world travels that a lot of people on here have, but I've taken a number of deer in my 30 years of shooting experience with lots of different scopes and open sites.



Probably have used a Leupold 4.5-14 with my 7mm Rem mag more than anything from 10 yards to 600 (deer, elk, antelope, fox (not much left) and a couple coyotes. Also a few phesants and grouse and a couple turkey (all head/neck shots) have missed a few but overall it's been a heck of a combo for me with no complaints. If I could only have one scope that'd probably be it.

Took my first bull elk in dark timber at first light at 14 yards with that combo and could see exactly where I was shooting. Didn't need a 50mm, nor did I desire a 1x or 2x

Personally if I have a solid rest I like to turn the power up. I turn the power down without a second thought everytime I'm not using it, second nature just like the safety and the use of my flip-up caps.

Several people I hunt with never turn their scopes past 6x. Different strokes for different folks as the old saying goes.

Very cool!
I would have enjoyed those moments simply watching through the 10x bins!
I rarely take a camera with me. Thanks for taking the pic, and then sharing the view.
Looks like some fine hunting land!

I'd point out that the eye of the camera often doesn't resolve as well as the human eye can. The more you magnify a camera image, the less detail you will see.
Second, those elk are in velvet, their antlers aren't hard as they would be during most hunting seasons.
Third, they have a dark background, which makes their in velvet antlers harder to see. E

Keeping track of a moving animal under field conditions at 30 power sounds like quite a challenge. Off a bench, once my target is located at a lower power, I can turn up the power. In the field, I haven't found high power scopes to be an advantage.YMMV.

doubletap,



The vast majority of my practice is off hand dryfire. When I hear the click of the fireing pin I can call a hit or miss. Misses are rare. While doing this I normmaly put a scope on its highest power for said practice. The most magnification on a hunting scope I used prior to this was a 5-20X. When I tried the highest X the 4 1/2-30, I discovered the field of view is too small dispite looking right thourgh the center of the scope when I bring it up quickly. So now I practice on 16X.

Once hunting starts the power is set to 4 1/2X. All of a sudden it is like wide screan TV. The higher magnification is used to verify whether I want to shoot or not in low light or on a distanct target. Or, just to impress me and raise my satisfaction level.

Ringman,
Not trying to be contrary, but it seems from your post that half of your power range is wasted. If you practice at 16X and hunt at lower power, everything from 16X to 30X provides no benefit.

Just curious, but who makes a 4.5-30x scope?

I am a firm believer that good quality bino's are a must for deer stalking, regardless of the distances you expect to encounter deer.

In heavy cover/thick woodland, they allow me to see "through" that cover and pick out parts of a deer like an ear or an antler tine ect. They are also a "must" from a safety perspective as using a rifle scope for general glassing is just not good practice.

So if your have you bino's, say 7x42mm or 10x42mms or similar, a good quality x6 scope is going to be enough in most situations.

Using 378Canuck pics above as example, x6 would be plenty to make a shot on those beasts, and even a x4 would work.

However, imagine those beasts are not stationary and are feeding and drifting across the field...As they change positions, its going to be very difficult to pick out a partiuclar animal with a x6 scope and it would easy to shoot the wrong one..

Another instance where a high power scope is better is when trying to pick and anmal out through heavy cover...Being able to see a gap clearly and know there are no twigs or other vegitation in the way is huge help in certain situations.

So these days, although I started stalking with a 6x42mm, I have switched to variables in the 2.5-10mm and 4-16mm range. There is no real reason not to use a variable these days except perhaps fixed powers tend to be lighter and less bulky, but thats a trade off I'm willing to make for the aded versitility of a variable.

Regards,

Peter

Good post Pete. Just an example of a hunter I know and his fantastic knowledge. He runs a Leupold 4 x12 -50mm -I believe. But stangely he leaves the sun shade on all the time. It's like looking through a tunnel. Seems to me if you remove this piece it would let in more light for hunting application. I took him out to the range with me as a guest last week. We started shooting at 200 (225 yds)meters and I was clustering groups in the 2-3 inch circle. At 30 power and a .338 I can see the holes at that distance. If not too much mirage I can see them at 22 power faintly. His holes weren't even on the paper. So he had to back up to 100 yds and then 50 yds and start sighting in his scope. He said he was shooting 1 moa last year. This guy is a liar of course. Out of maybe a 150 shooters in this club only a handful have rigs and ability to shoot 1 MOA. When you hear guys say they can do 1 MOA or less be skeptical until you see the target. I heard (the 1 moa shooter)he removed his scope and now shoots open sights because he can shoot better without a scope.

Bushnell in their 6500 line.

As part of the ethos of the Club I am in and as a condition of their lease, all members have to do a shooing test once a year before they can hunt.

Its actually very simple. Out of a lena-to high seat, they have to get 3 shots into a four inch circle/kill zone.

They have one chance on the day and have to turn up with the rifle and scope zero'd and ready to go..If they pass that, they go on to the rest of the test which is half a dozen shots at a deer target from prone, sitting and standing. All shots have to be in the kill zone. Distance is from 100m down to 50m.

Its not meant to be a difficult test, just a basic demonstration that you are set up and ready to hunt. But its surprising how many folks fail the first 3 shoots in a 4" circle, myself included in the past!

Usually its down to nerves as you are being watched and you're under pressure, but some turn up and have painly got greater problems; although all were "shooting 1MOA last week"

The other thing of course is that its one thing to shot 1 MOA from a bench, but entirely different to be a good shot from field positions. I am a lousy off hand shot, but I know that, and don't pretent otherwise. Its actually not much of a handicap in my circumstances, but I'd be loath to take a free hand shot at a roe at 100m for fear of wounding it...

When it comes to shooting, everybody has a different ability and there is no crime in that.

The trick is when hunting is to be honest about your own capabilities and to only take shots within that ability and not just "throw lead"...

But some folks are just not honest and kid themselves they are the greatest shots ever, when clearly they are not..In those circumstances its the animals that suffer, all for the sake of some fools ego...

Regards,

Peter

As to the question the OP posted, a guy needs and a guys wants can be confused. I have never shot at an animal past 300 yards that I didn't turn the dial up as much as possible to place the shot exactly where I wanted it, not just center mass of brown or tan. But as for the distance most animals are shot at, higher power variables obviously arent neccessary say.....90% of the time. If you think that you'll find yourself in that other 10% then why not prepare/equip yourself for it? I have shot a lot of different power scopes at longish distances and I cant recall thinking that the higher magnification scopes were a hinderance at distance. I shot a red fox a couple years back at about 350 ish yards. He was standing in about 6 inches of snow. I was on the ground with my .204 mounted on a short bipod and it took me a couple seconds to realize that I only had like 4" of the critter in view with him standing in the snow. I was using a Nikon Buckmaster 4.5-14 and I appreciated being able to bring him to view real closely with the higher power and make a good shot. Same can be said about the Caribou I shot a couple years ago at 425ish yards with my 257 Roy, I had that VX-III 3.5-10x40 turned up as far as it would go and remember wishing I had a little more, regardless I made the shot. This whole discussion is not about what a guy needs.........its about what a guy wants!

doubletap,

Perhaps I should have posted a little more info. The scope is on 4 1/2X while I carry it in the fields or woods. The sling is used when dragging or carrying a deer. I practice on 16X for dryfiring. At the range from the bench I shoot on 30X. There are times in the fields, seldom in the woods, where I use at least 20X and sometimes more magnification.

Then there is the braggin' I do to myself, and on the 'net, that I have such a fine verstile toy. I revel in the fact that in side by side (same power setting) comparisons the image quality is equal to my 12-42X56 NightForce. To me it is the one of the best scope values available.

+1

my experience mirrors Ringman, and the further you try to shoot, the more the problems get magnified. Limbs in the way, small saplings, low hanging limbs, then you get into whether or not the buck has been fighting and has broken off tines. Ever kill two deer in one shot? I have, doe behind the buck with a 3-9, power set on 9x on a shot at 425 yards.

If you have a 257 Weatherby, you have a long range rifle, might as well have a scope that you can take advantage of the rifle's capabilities.

Folks like different kinds of optics, and your hunting circumstances may not even allow for a long shot.

On my dedicated groundhog rifles, I use 6.5-20X's and straight 24X's.

On my big game rifles, I've pretty much settled on the 2.5-8X.

I carry it at 2.5X when still hunting, usually bump it to about 4X if on stand or in a tree, and if I have the luxury of time, after spotting a deer, I might twist it up to 8X.

While I've had a 3.5-10X on a few rifles, I've never felt handicapped by the 2.5-8X, and have really come to love the lighter weight and smaller size.

If I can't make out antlers well enough to see a fork, with my naked eye, at "forty five to fifty yards", or can't find antlers at 100 yards through a 4X (the equivalent of 25 yards visually, or an average bow shot), or need 10X or more to judge legality, the shot is either untakable or the deer deserves to live another few years.

I have 6x20's on a 22-250 and a 243. I have a 4.5x14 on my 264 and mid-range scopes on my other toys. I have a limited budget so I have inexpensive bino's and do use them but but as the gent above said when I put down the binos and pick up the rifle the observation/evaluation doesn't stop. Until said critter is on the ground I can change my mind at any time. If I can see something through the scope I don't like that I can't see through the bino's the safety stays on. I'm sure that makes me a bad hunter since I can't afford $1k+ on glass but it gets the job done safely and effectively for me.

Coldbore,



The folks like me need more hunters like you. You let the deer slide. We appreciate it.