Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting What glass does your open country elk rifle wear ?

I wonder if all those deer and elk killed with rifles wearing Leupold scopes are going to come back to life anytime soon?

Leupold vx3 4.5x14 in regular old duplex

Leupold VX-R 4X12-40 Firedot on a .30-06

Leupold VX3 2.5-8x. It's on a 8mmMag, it has held zero for over 25 years, including after taking a tumble and landing scope first.

Did y’all not hear Leupolds are gay? People that shoot and know way more than us elk hunters say they are gay.

I hunt with different rifles (and handguns) as the mood strikes me.

About 1/2 of my "open country" guns have iron sights only.


The "open country rifles" I have that wear scopes are:
25-06.---------------------- 3X to 9X
270 Winchester Mauser----2X to 7X
270 Winchester Mauser---3X to 9X
308 Winchester ----------Fixed 4X
30-06--------------------- Fixed 2.5 X
300 Mag ----------------3X to 9X
8X57 --------------------3X to 9X
9.3X74R ---------------1X to 4.5X
9.3X57-------------------1X to 6X
9.3X62 -----------------1X to 6X
375H&H -----------------1.5X to 4X.

(As a side note I will list a few other guns I have used in open, or VERY OPEN country, ------ just to give a back ground as to why I think the way I think:
44 magnum handgun with stock sights.
357 mag handguns with stock sights.
45 colt handgun with stock sights.
454 Casull with stock sights.
Ruger Old Army 45 cal cap and ball revolver with stock sights.
62 caliber flintlock with simple iron sights
58 Caliber Hawken reproduction with semi- Buck horn sight.
Reproduction 62 cal Tulle Smoothbore Fusil flintlock.
6.5X54 Mannlicher with 3 blade express sight
35 Remington Marlin Lever action with peep sight
Browning M92 44 mag with peep sight.
303 British with GI issue sights.
303 British with express sights, 100 yard blade.
30-40 Krag with issue irons.
300 Savage Savage M99 with peep sights.
Smith Enterprises M14 with DCM approved match sights.
M1 Garand with issue iron sights.
FN FALs with issue iron sights.
AK 47 with issue iron sights.
44-77 Sharps with semi-buckhorn sights.
50-140 sharps with semi-buckhorn sights.
Marlin M95 45-70 with peep sights.
9X56 MM Mannlicher with 3 blade express sights
270 Winchester on a Custom Mauser with peep sights.
30-06 Browning M95 with stock sights.
And I am sure I have missed a few here too.

I have hunted elk for over 50 years now, and done it in 5 states. Often I have hunted in 2-3 states per year.
I don't even know how many I have shot. The longest range I ever shot an elk was just over 400 yards.
The closest one was about 9 feet.
I have killed most of them in heavy forests, but several in open country. Until my eyes started to "go south" about 10 years ago I never saw that much an advantage from shooting a scope over irons as most of the magazines articles and advertisements seem to say exists.

Now that my eyes are getting a bit old I do see the advantage of a scope, but I still use low power in the planes and about 1/3 of the time I still use irons only. Yes, the scopes help, but not NEAR as much as we are told. Hunting skill is #1 and basic shooting skill is #2.

In the last 8 years most of my elk have been killed in the open planes. All were killed with scoped rifles except two. One was the 400+yard shot I mentioned above, with a 270 Short Mag (now sold to a friend) and the scope set at 6X
Most have been shot at between 150 and 250 yards. I killed one with the iron sights on a FN FAL running at about 175 yards with one shot. My closest shot in the last 8-10 years on an elk was at about 40 yards using a 4X scope, and the 2nd longest shot was at about 300 yards also with a 4X scope. The other iron-sight kill was with my 300 H&H, usually scoped, but I took the scope off it for the fun of hunting with the classic rifle and I shot from about 250 with my 200 yards blade in it's express sights.

The closest shot I ever made on an elk in my life was back in the 70s when I was on leave from the USMC and was hunting. I killed that one at about 9 feet with a shot from the hip with a 375H&H. Scoped, but I didn't use the scope OR the iron sights.

The closest shot I ever made in my life on a game animal was on an antelope with my 9.3X74R, and that one was so close I'd measure it in inches. When I fired I was enveloped in hair that got blown off the goat. Also a shot where NO sighing was done. I could have touched the antelope with the muzzle if I was a short step closer.

I am old now. and I need a scope now more then I ever did in all my life, but I still find I don't need a big one and in fact, I find the large high magnification scopes slow me way down in my shooting, and I don't like them or use them for elk, antelope, deer, moose, or bear. I like 7X up to 12X for small varmints and sometimes for coyote hunting if I am in a blind or concealed in the brush or rocks. But for 98% of my deer, elk and antelope hunting I like scopes of no more then 4X for all shots out to about 550 yards.
I see I am solidly in the minority among most other hunters in this opinion, but I have asked a few family members to set their scopes at the lowest power when hunting and just try it. Most have come to agree, that for MOST shots 3X to 4X is more then enough, and the speed to get on target from a lower power magnification is much better then from a high magnification. The super wide field of view is of more advantage to a hunter in 19 shots out of 20.

Making the game look bigger doesn't make it bigger. If the elk weighs 750 pounds at 3 feet from you, it weights the same 750 pounds at 500 yards from you.

The bullet in your magazine is the same diameter as it is at 500 yards.

If you can hold a 6 inch "wobble" and the cross-hair suspends 3" of that circle, you still hold the 6" wobble. If you make that 6" of elk look like it's 18" around, you still hold the wobble of 6".

ALL scopes are really just sights.
ALL scopes simply give you a way to aim.

If you can't aim and hold well with a 4X you can't do it any better with a 30X.
But a 4X will allow you to SEE the area around your game a LOT better and if you need to shoot 2 times, that 2nd shot is WAY easier to make with a lower power scope then a high powered one.

I didn't always used lower powers, (I drank the cool-aid for a while myself) but 50+ years has taught me that the high magnification are only a benefit about 1 time in 20, probably make no difference at all about 5 times in 20, and are a detriment about 14 times in 20.

The 6x Leupold, 36mm objective version. It's right at home on my 30-06 "elk and most anything else" rifle. This particular scope has the "long range" dots. I kinda like 'em.



I was grinning about the big cow taken with a single shot at 338 yards, and because I was looking at a pretty easy trip to the truck, about a mile away, but all downhill, in the snow!



Guy

That's just not true. Many are trans.

Both my 280 AI and 300 H&H have swaro Z3 3-10x42's.

Might be an all time campfire record - 43 “I”

S&B PMII 10x42

I particularly liked the part about how scopes are not that big of an advantage over irons for open country hunting.

I'm with Kimber7man - but he still has the best rifles

What bolt handle is that on the tikka?

Elk must be getting smaller with all these 12x+ scopes. Never needed anything more than 10x and in fact 6x is usually fine. More likely for me to have too much rather than too little magnification. Seems like I am usually winded or shaky more often than not when it comes time for the shot. I am not a long range shooter so no offense to those that competently are. The deciding factor for me is weight with lighter being better.

4-12 or 4.5-14 Leupolds on the half-dozen rifles I have used or would grab to go elk hunting.

I really like my Nightforce 2-10x32 compact.

All my big game rifles wear fixed Leupold 6x 36mm scopes. Most use the LRD reticle but some of the oldies just have the plain old duplex reticle.

Leupold VX-II 3-9x40 CDS on my Howa 308 win.

Leupold 4-12 or 3-9 has worked for me. Too old to change now.