Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics VX-6 failure couple of days ago

Perhaps you're mistaking the SS 6x MQ for a NF BEAST with Horus reticle?

You can hunt out to 500 yards with a Sharps and a good peep sight, too, but that doesn't make it the best tool for the job...

Just to compare the big fat heavy 3-9 SWFA scope to a light trim 3.5-10 Leupold on Kimber Montana's...

If I could get my money back out of the M1 dial and Zero stop, I'd have another 3-9 SWFA and probably will in another month or so.

Gosh Damnit! I'm gonna have to chitcan my Leupolds and go NF across the board if this chit keeps up!

Thanks for the info just the same.

Most of us probably shouldn't be shooting at game with a wind much past 10mph past 400 yds.The drift is a lot more than people realize. And the changing wind speeds is really challenging. A slight wind change can mean the difference between hitting in front of the diaphragm, and behind it.

Amen. I believe most people aren't qualified to shoot that far at game anyway, much less with wind problems.

I'm very likely not as good of a shot as Mule Deer, but we were dumping game at those 4-500 yd distances way before hashes, dots, and dialing turrets became popular. Since the early '70's actually. With duplex reticles as MD described. Also did the 3" high at 100 thing....worked great too.

No problems here...yet. I guess I got lucky, all my Leupolds have never given me any trouble. Granted I may not use them as hard as some.

What I figured out is a 308 loaded to dupe the old Lake City match ammo speed/trajectory and a standard duplex 6x scope will do 99% of what I need to be doing.

The best practice for shooting in the wind -- for me -- is prairie dog shooting. I often bring my deer rifle or my elk rifle out prairie dog shooting. I just can't get that kind of practice at a range.

Each of our hunting experiences are different. I don't often see a deer (elk yes) standing broad side at 550 yards. But even with a summer's fun shooting at PD's (with lots of practice) and thinking that I probably could get a killing shot at 550 yards, I won't do it. (PD shooting and antelope hunting is much more alike than deer or elk with PD's.)

Part of the issue is terrain. In the areas where I see/hunt elk, well it doesn't look like where I shoot PD's. Where I often hunt deer, farm ranch country the terrain is different to. But where I hunt deer I feel much more confident on hitting the Kill zone than where the elk are at longer ranges. Example, I'm sitting/standing in a tree covered area. I see elk across the meadow or ravine in the far trees. How can I judge the wind in such conditions?

I'm afraid to say how far my furthest shot at deer was taken (successfully) but that was many years ago (about 50), when my favored deer rifle was an 03 and it had a 4x Weaver scope. Let's just say, I got in a vehicle and drove to the dead deer.

My 700 ADL 300 WM with 180 grain partitions is sighted in 1.5" high at 100 yards, at 250 yards that hits about 2" low, at 300 yards it hits about 5.5" low. (300 yards is my absolute maximum range for shooting big game). That 300 WM shoots 1 MOA, at 300 yards that is close to a 3" grouping. At a 10 mph cross wind the drift is about 5 1/2" at 300 yards. It's about 16 1/2" with a 30 mph cross wind. If the wind is gusty, if the wind is close to 30 mph, the maximum range I'd shoot lowers -- with a 30 mph cross wind the drift at 200 yards is 7" approximately. So -- maximum distance for me is more about wind than it is about elevation, cause I just can't judge the wind in ravines/meadows etc. especially when I'm out of the wind.

I think the duplex reticle has enhanced my ability to hit things at long distances. But I'm not going to buy a scope that has a range finder built inside, especially one that adjusts elevation depending on range. I'm not going to have a dial on my scope that changes elevation setting -- once it's sighted in, it stays. And I do not want gadgets that can fail nor do I want to rely on gadgetry for my hunting. If that's what floats your boat, that's ok, it's just nothing I would do.

Similar for me, and that's why I often don't even load my 308's wide open.

Have you used any of the SS classic 3x15x42? I have had decent luck so far with one failure (the parallax knob broke in shipping). Would like to hear your experience if any.

So if you see the buck of a lifetime at 315 yards on the last day of the season with fading light and no way to close in, do you walk away?

My similar meant similar range. If I can hold steady then at 315 he's going to catch a well placed bullet. But at 415 he's safe from me because I don't get to shoot enough at such distances to be comfortable. I may be able to train up to it, but right now IMO I have no business taking shots that are routine for you Pat.

My hats off to a guy who knows his limits.

It's more about shooting "in conditions" when cleanly taking a game animal is at stake. Aiming and distance aren't too problematic by themselves.

I am one of the people who really likes the SWFA reticle for range work, but who dislikes it as a hunting reticle. I am also one who cannot understand fondness for plain duplex reticles (nor the abhorrent BDCs, but that's for another thread).

Would it really be that tough to put evenly-spaced windage mil hashes on what amounts to a duplex reticle? You have to put them in the first focal plane if the scope is a variable, though.

OTOH, perhaps I would dislike the SWFA quad less as a hunting reticle in their 3-9, because the too-fine, non-illuminated center-to-lower section may no longer be too fine with a zoom ratio of only 3x, rather than the 5x on my 3-15. It is always said that the 3-9 is made by someone different than the maker of the 3-15 and fixed-x classics. I would like to get away from the crudity of their *****-made scopes.

Not because of the added range, but maybe because finding it might be tricky in the dark. Unlike TV hunters, I don't shoot stuff planning to "come back tomorrow" to find it. Part of my personal ethics is not taking a shot if I can't check out the results. The type of cover nearby would be a big factor, and here in the East, property boundaries can be a problem as well.

A guy hunting the same farm as I did last year took a running shot on a nice 10-point last year with his ML. Rather than check out his shot properly and track it, he just folowed along in a general way, searching the woods here and there, and then gave up. I found the buck a couple weeks later (the reason I know it was a nice 10-point). Foolish shot, and poor sportsmanship because he didn't do his job after the shot.

The 3-9 HD has the same reticle as the 6x scope. Both are much bolder than the classic 10x. Not sure which one the 3-15 has in it.

I do have 2 VX6 scopes, one has the CDS dial installed, the other does not. Both have worked fine for me but I still prefer the super chickens.

I elected not to shoot this big buck a couple of years ago for the reasons you just mentioned. He was "only" 350 yards away, a chipshot for the ol' 7mm Rem Magnificent.

You were expecting a tracking job after a "chip shot"?

So what do you guys do, just hunt in the morning?

scenarshooter ............ you are overdue with sharing those fantastic field pictures.