Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles fixed power scope for shots from 50-500yds?

6x hands down; I run most of my variables on 6x most of the time anyway.........about the only exception might be still hunting dark timber where I'll dial it down to 2-4.

MM

Shot one bedded Buck in the neck at around 4 big steps with a Leupold 6x42.
He was blurry, but didn't have any trouble quickly finding the neck/back juncture.

Shot one at 329 with a 4x and one at 230 with a straight 3. Fixed or 1.5-5s are my favorite for here in Pa.

Yeah, if you know how to mount a rifle it's no trick. Too many folks have to 'find' stuff in their scope.

srwshooter,

"Would dislike a 6x more at 40 yards then at 500"? Does this men you've never tried one at 40, or tried it and didn't like it?

Aren't you supposed to mount the rifle to your should then start looking for your target?

If you're from Oregon, yes...

Tweaking will do that to you...

With proper eye relief, scope mounts and cheek weld a fella shouldn't even have to take his eyes off the target when mounting his rifle. Sitting on a bench and theorizing about chit aint gonna getcha there.

Rifles/scopes gotta "fit" like shotguns.

A while back somebody posted that a 4x scope had far too small a field of view for 100-yard shooting. Since the typical 4x has a FOV of around 30 feet at 100 yards, he's have to be "aiming" over 15 feet to the side of a deer to fail to see it in a 4x at 100 yards.

My wife much prefers even more than 6x for general big game hunting, using either a variable cranked all the way up to 10x or even a fixed 10x--because she can see the target better with 10x. I've seen her quickly shoot a buck at 50 yards with 10x, because she knows how to look at the deer then place the scope between her eye and the target.

Timely subject�I�m swapping a Leupold 2-7 with a new FX-II 4X on a light weight 308 tomorrow for a backpack hunt next month. Like Bob I wanted to like the popular 6X42, but I just feel more comfortable in close/quick shooting with a 4x in my testing; 200 yds is a long shot on big game to me though. I keep all variables on their lowest power when hunting and honestly can�t remember the last time I actually turned up the power when hunting. Out to 200 yds there is no difference in my group size between 4X and 6X (or between 6X and 12x for that matter on another rifle) so I purchased the 4X.

I love the 2-7 power Leupolds, but there will be something comforting about having a fixed power scope on my rifle when over a thousand miles from home and 10 miles back in the mountains.

Actually more so. A swarm of pellets at 40 yards (if uniform) is a lot more forgiving than single projectile especially against running game.

Which is also why I suffer BC stocks. If a fella would pick a target with his gun lowered, then mount the rifle with his eyes shut, he might be in for a big surprise when he opened them. Most are staring at the rear scope base and pretty close to getting their forehead whacked.

I used to have quite a few variables in the 2-7x range on my rifles, including a couple 1.5-6x's. After a while, though, I realized they almost never got turned off the top magnification, even in what's generally known as "the woods."

Do have a couple 2-7's on rifles now and sometimes wonder why.

Embarrassed to think about all the rifles I've bought and sold to come to the same conclusion...except I landed on the kimber montana.

Got one of those too, tucked away for a rainy day.....

I killed a black bear in the swamps this past week with my 6x36 at 40 yards. The shot was fast, simple, accurate with no thought to anything but focus on the target. 4x might have been a better match at that distance but the fov was no problem with my 6x and the swampy terrain was as thick and nasty as the trophy skeeters inhabiting it!

My rifles have 6x scopes on them. I prefer hunting with a Leupold Yosemite 6x binocular. It cuts down on tremor and the critters being viewed in both optics are about the same size. YMMV

Sighted in my 338-06 with a 4x Conquest this weekend. At 100 yds was 1.7 or so high. Then broke 6 straight clays (skeet clays) at 200yds and another 3 straight at 330 yds. 4x or 6x no problems. This 4x Conquest and rifle was dropped 6 feet onto a concrete floor and never changed point of aim. It's one tough SOB. One reason I like fixed scopes.

GOOD to hear. I just mounted a 4X Conquest on my 9.3x62. In fact I haven't sighted it in yet.