Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics Tell me about a fixed 6x in the woods....

Jeff: That's what you think......they got to ya! Broken any yet?

I swing with Brad....

Personally I find variable more useful at the range than when out hunting...

I generally agree with you, with one major exception: following up critters in cover that can bite back. It's nice to be able to dial that scope waaaaay back!

And the last time you actually did that was when???

Having done it more than once and having used different scopes to do it I find your kind of post a bit sensational... maybe even dramatic...

I would rather have a 6x42 next time than just about any scope I can think of.

Sensational? Dramatic? Hardly. Just an honest and semi-humorous expression of opinion. Nothing dramatic about it unless you think you've cornered the market on interpreting posts.

I SAID I generally agreed with the statement that variables seem more useful at the range than when out hunting -- except when following up critters that can bite back in thick cover. I've done quite a bit of that with very large hogs at close quarters and some black bears in thick cover, and I'd rather be able to dial an 8x or 9x scope back to 3x or 4x than be holding a fixed 6X. If you prefer the 6x fixed, more power to you. Whatever rings your chimes.

I think like anything else,what comprises "thick" cover and "woods" varies all over the map,and there is a big difference between a Maine hardwood ridge where a guy can see easily from 50 to 175 yrads(and where a 6X is very useable),to a regrowth cutover area where visibility is 10-30 yards,where IMHO,a 6X is a lot less than ideal...or tangled new growth whips where the same thing applies.

From what I have seen on TV a lot of whitetail habitat in treed areas of the midwest is what I would term pretty open country compared to what many of us back here have to hunt every day,and among the still hunters and trackers I know from the northeast, not a single one uses a fixed 6X for any of their deerhunting on foot, here.Lower fixed power and lower end variables rule the roost.

A wider filed of view comes in handy when a buck is moving through such cover and the focus should be on not only staying with the buck but also seeing where he is headed as you look ahead and make the split second decision to kill him in the opening ahead of him,because anyone who swings a rifle to lead a running buck in the woods, with rare exceptions(he hit a real BIG opening), is doing it all wrong.

He who swings with moving game in the woods is doomed to failure.

The buck's line of travel should be determined, and sights aligned on the next opening,the shot released just as he hits the opening or slightly before,depending,and this must all be done, sized up, and executed in fractions of time,with a staionary barrel,or slightly moving.To the extent the barrel is moving, it is not done to lead the game, but merely to position the rifle and sights to the opening.This is in contrast to more open country hunting where follow through with a moving rifle works well.

The wider field of lower power scopes always seemed to me to be more amenable to this style of shooting than higher magnification scopes provide.

Not to say that 6X is unuseable but neither is it idealand sooner or later,under someconditions, you will come to grief with it.

Perhaps I misunderstand your advice and I would admit that frequently there is more than one right answer.

However you wrote some, to me, incorrect statements such as: "He who swings with moving game in the woods is doomed to failure."

and then: The buck's line of travel should be determined, and sights aligned on the next opening,the shot released just as he hits the opening or slightly before,depending,and this must all be done, sized up, and executed in fractions of time,with a staionary barrel

I don't agree with your method at all. I follow the moving game with my sights and eyes open moving the rifle or shotgun for that matter with the game. When there is an opening and or the game is in the air and its feet are not about to hit the ground I shoot.

I have been doing this for a long time, I participate in running deer shoots and I am confident of my ability.

I would not snap a shot off while waiting at an 'opening' on game unless it were walking slow.

Good posts, Bob & Don & Art & KW...

Here's a reason I like to be set on lower powers in very thick stuff. Sometimes I spot a possible piece of a deer through foliage and then, when looking through my 8x binocs to sort out what I'm seeing, it can be hard to find the same stuff, the same opening or whatever, because things look so different at 8x than at 1X (IE, naked eyeball). And when putting a scope on an already-ID'd deer in thick stuff I've had similar difficulties set at higher powers.

Obviously, part of what I'm describing is simply my own limitations and I try hard not to assume that others labor under my limitations; they may not. But speaking strictly for myself, the transition from naked eye to magnified vision can be jarring and I have a much easier time at low powers, when the chit is thick and you can only see parts of the deer etc.

As to Bob's comment on swinging, hmm... that's interesting. Thinking how I've done things I do believe I've swung on moving deer but on elk, I've done as he said and ID'd in one opening, then prepared to shoot in the next opening. Never had a shooter in that circumstance though I've watched many elk that I didn't have a tag for drift through openings...

Jeff,
Nothing like at least having the option. Something pretty nice about that magnification power knob on a variable especially when turned down in cover as Bob mentioned. Fixed powers - whatever floats a guys boat. I own one but its a 24X on a rifle that not too many guys would want to carry in the woods and if he ran into anything under 300 yards he'd never see it.

Dave

Savage: That is the way I do it....and I kill them that way.If you swing in the woods, you're gonna hit....trees!



Jeff I swing on moving game, too.Like this year when the buck I killed gave me about 4 bounds and 3-5 seconds to kill him at about 70 yards.I swung fast,through the body,and touched off when the vertical crosshair hit
the front of his shoulder;I spined him behind the shoulder.

So "yes" I am well familiar with swinging barrels,proper lead, and moving game.

BUT,in the woods,you had better hit an opening ahead of him,because if you don't you are relying on blind luck with a moving rifle in heavily wooded country....you will hit trees unless you are very lucky.

Obviously this must decided quickly and the chance is there and gone...It requires timing and reacting quickly,.but what I describe is called "spot shooting",and yes it works.I have killed bucks in the woods of the northeast doing it;and even recall killing a running mule deer out west as he angled away running at about 175 yards. Others. too, I recall.

Bob,
My Father did it exactly like you describe. When their head came into the opening he was hanging out there with a dead rifle and hit the trigger.

I've never done it when the Deer was far enough out there I had to pull on a big open space. On quartering I just try to get on the front.

Couple times I've done it when they were running in an open field more or less crossing and I just tried to float the dot below their nose and then pull.

Sometimes it's worked and others it hasn't. I'd hate to have to make a regular job of it especially if they are in a hurry. Not easy work, although with realistic practice I know one could get good at it.


As in shooting shotguns, swing thru is all about timing, and some-days you have it and some-days you don't.

I've never done it, but if you use swing thru in the woods, you not only have to time your swing with the Deer but also with an opening. Once you start the swing, I would think it would be hard to stop and restart if that opening didn't exist. Out in the open is another story.

All of it is no different than shooting a shotgun, except you only have one pellet, which does up the difficulty more than a little.

battue: That's right,and what I have seen as well...which one you use....swing through or spot shoot,is really decided in a short period of time...it all happens fast, like grouse shooting.

Next time shout "MAW" and the deer will stop. Shoot then.

I only shoot at running deer up close in the forest.

Got to get ready to go hunting. The sun is out!

Later I may find a picture of a woods shot running buck. Got him with a pre 64 M70! What could be better than that?

MAW

"MAW"

Personally, I use fixed 6x scopes because it's so hard to hit ANYTHING with 'em. Makes the hunt more sporting....

You bragging? I put them on backwards....

That cracks me up!

Got this one early on in my "career"; he was trotting across an opening and I glassed first with my 'nocs looking for horns. By the time I got my rifle up he was an instant from vanishing into the trees. In desperation, I croaked out some gawdawful noise and sure enough, he stopped to see what THAT was all about...

A nice "maw" would've been much... classier... than the noise I made!

Here is one I got with a pre 64 M70 Featherweight in 308. The scope on that rifle is a Diatal-C 4X32. The bullet was a 150 Core-Lokt.



The buck turned for some reason and ran uphill past me. One shot did it. It was a long drag down the hill and across the brook but downhill is easy. Any buck in VT is good.

Savage: Nice!

Shaking my head.............

Whatsa matter?