I'd of called him stupid for using his rifle scope, of any power to spot critters.
That one aint about using your scope to spot critters as much as it is knowing your back stop and what's behind it.
That too, no doubt.
They're both dumb things to do but srwshooter never said there was or wasn't a safe background, just that his friend was trying to shoot a "groundhog" he'd "identified" through his low powered riflescope. There easily could have been a high bank to that creek that would have made the shot itself safe....assuming the target really was a groundhog.
It spooks me too to even read about such situations, even if the shot never happened.
That could be a major problem. I remember one time when a buddy and I went coyote calling and my buddy thought he saw a yote coming towards us. He was looking through his low powered rifle scope and after he fired, the doe jumped up and spun around and high tailed it out of there...
friend was varmint hunting 20 years ago and was using a low powered scope on a 22-250. he kept seeing a ground hog setting up at 350-400yards and everytime he would get ready to shoot the hog would go back down and out of sight. after 15-20 min a guy stood up right where he had been watching what he thought was a groundhog,he had been seeing the back of the guys head raise up and down as he trout fished the stream behind the field, pretty much broke him using low powered scopes. get a higher powered scope and see what you are shooting at instead of what you think you see. yes I called him stupid a thousand times after that.
A lot of guys here are using low powered scopes on their 223's. Seems like a good idea, right?
