Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics Scoping 12ga/30-06 combo gun

Thoughts?
Recommendations?

I've been scoping mine with 1x4x20mm Leupold VX-2's. I can mount low enough that when my cheek hits the comb my eyes line up with the scope. Having a huge FOV on the bottom end makes it very fast in tight cover and 4x makes it effective at reasonable ranges, I'm comfortable on coyotes to 300 yards. With some practice shooting with both eyes open even flying bird are doable on 1x.

The VX-1 1x4 works well also.

I pulled my 2-7 Leupold off of my 458WM. It is sitting on the combo now. It lines up good. I just wonder if 2x is low enough for birds in flight.

I have been looking for a 1-6x that is mildot for a reasonable price. So far no luck.

2-7 Leupolds are a good choice. As for shooting birds, just keep both eyes open and on the bird. I shoot scoped combo guns at birds often. I miss equally with or without the scope there. That proves scopes don't interfere.

It has been a long time since I've seen a combo gun here but they were quite common among my European hunting friends. All had low power scopes mounted on their guns. The suggestions of 1-4X seem about right to me.

Here are some examples. (bare with me this will take a while to load)

Sauer drilling with original large bell 6x Nichol scope. Great optics but you have to lift your head off the stock to use it, great if your in a blind with a good rest.



Same rifle with 1.5x small tube scope mounted low to the bore, very fast handling for still hunting, handles like a DGR set up like this, as you can see accuracy is sill more than acceptable.




My coyote hunting gun5.6x50R Mag/12ga with large bell scope, note height of mounts for scope objective to clear the barrel.



Same rifle with straight tube mounted low, success is in the pic.



For me the combination gun set up with a straight tube scope mounted low is a win/win combination. Straight tube scopes can be had with 6x on the top end if you feel you need more X's. As far as light transmission, I've never had a problem during legal shooting hours and with coyotes or big game if you can see them coming with your bare eye there enough light to see them with the scope.

I just put a 2.5 Leupold compact on my Baikal 12 over 7x57R with airgun mounts, could be lower by 1/4", or get a butt buddy.

I had a 1.5-4.5 Bushnell on my 12/7x57R Brno, and then upgraded it to a Sightron SII 1.5-6x40, which worked very well indeed. At 1.5x I could and did shoot birds, running game and even trap, while 6x allowed me to reach out for longer shots.

When I traded that combo for a drilling (16/16/7x57R) I again went with 1.5-6x, this time in a Nickel scope mounted in claw mounts, but nice and low. This again works really well.