Up until recently I had a 3-9 on my hunting rifle. It occurred to me I have shot every animal I have ever shot with the scope on 3x. I don't find myself shooting far so I may be in the minority. I just put a 6x on, we'll see how it goes. Not sure what to do with all those extra Xs!
Funny.... I just went back to a 3-9 SS on the main hunting rig (7 Mag). I had one years ago with the standard Mil-Dot... and like you, I found I always had it on the same power.... though that was maxed out at 9x. So, I dumped it and got two fixed 10x SS for just about the same money.
The past couple of years we've been hunting elk a lot more... and I can appreciate the virtues of a little lower power when you're deep in the schitt.
I will say the new 3-9 with the MQ is noticeably brighter and more crisp than the older MD version I had... and it's better optically than a 3.5-10x40 VXIII I had laying around.
