Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters A Close-in Deer Rifle

1eyedmule,

Well, thanks, I guess!

One thing I "discovered" when first starting to write for gun magazines a few decades ago was that there was some money to be made by actually testing some long-time "accepted" stuff--which had been accepted because so many previous gun writers had repeated it over and over.

One was how slow scopes were compared to iron sights. This was pretty much true with early scopes, because they usually had very narrow fields of view, due to their small-diameter rear (ocular) lenses--which are essentially the "viewing screen." Of course, this was also because so many early scopes had 3/4" or 7/8" tubes. This is why early 6x and even 4x scopes were considered too much for close-range shooting--especially quick shooting on running animals.

But that changed as scopes grew larger. The field-of-view in 4x and 6x scopes increased to about the same as older 2-3x scopes. Which is one reason I eventually started using 6x fixed scopes. (The other reason was they often held up better than "affordable" variables of the same era--and didn't change POI when changing magnification, like many of those variables.)

But one early experience was enough to help me along in my "research." I killed my first deer at 13, with my father's .30-30--a Marlin 336 carbine that was then also marketed by Montgomery Ward (anybody remember them?) under their their Western Field label. My dad had pretty bad eyesight, partly due to being type-1 diabetic since age 11--and his .30-30 also had a 4x "Western Field" scope, made in Japan, probably by Light Optical Works.

Anyway, during the last week of the firearms season I ended up still-hunting (or "stalking," depending on the part of the country you're from) through the thick ponderosa pines and Rocky Mountain junipers on a low ridge. A big doe mule deer doe stood up from her bed at close range, when I raised the .30-30 the scope's field of view was enough to tell the rifle was aimed at the neck/shoulder area. When I pulled the trigger the deer dropped right there--at about 40 feet, not yards.