Hookeye,

It is of course hard to say for sure exactly what was happening, but I think parallax is something to consider. At high power at that distance, that scope could be imparting a bit of point of impact shift depending on your eye position (parallax). When you reduce the power on your scope, this effectively uses less of the objective lens and reduces that parallax effect and could cause some of that shift. I'd recommend going out a bit farther and testing it a bit more. If there is a consistent POI shift from changing the magnification, get that scope in here for service:

https://www.leupold.com/service-support/services-repair

Give us a call at 1-800-LEUPOLD if you have any questions on those other scopes you're considering, but I'll say that I personally can't say enough good things about the VX-Freedom 3-9x33mm EFR for close range shooting. It'll focus down to 10yds to infinity, making it one of the most versatile scopes going.

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