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

I have a VX3 3.5-10 x 40 with BC reticle I like , but hard not to use the zeiss hd5 3-15x42
at only 1” longer and 6 oz. heavier .

Used to use a SWFA 6X, and it worked fine, but I switched to a SWFA 10X for this year. We'll see if I like it more than the 6X.

A leupold VX3 3.5-10x50. If the Elk looks tiny at 10x I try to get closer.

One wears a 3-12x44 Burris Signature Select and the other a 2.5-10x50 Kahles Helia C. Happy Trails

The Leupold 6x36 and 6x42 haven’t let me down yet. I like the LRD reticle best for those scopes.

My elk rifle(s) all wear Leupolds- the .280 and .270 WSM with VX3 3.5-10x CDS, the .30-06 with a Freedom 3-9 CDS, the .300 Wby. and .257 Wby. with VX3 2.5-8's.

VX3 and VX3i 3-10x40.

Leupold 6 x 36 LRD reticle on all my big game rifles.

I installed a SWFA 3-9 on my Tikka T3 308 do everything rifle. So far I am very impressed.


mike r

on my 300 win.mag. i have a 5.5-22x56 Nightforce,on my 338 Lapua i have a 8-32x56 Nightforce and i always use a bi-pod and carry a pack .we don`t road hunt like some of these guys show pictures of clean clothes ,light jackets and even a truck near.

I have never been elk hunting because we have a chronic shortage of elk around here. But i have 4 or 5 potential elk rifles in the house. One, my .300 Weatherby, has a new 3.5-10x40 Leupold VX-3i on it. I have a Savage Model 110 pre accutrigger 7mm Remington Mag. with a 4-12x40 Leupold made Redfield Revolution. I have a Remington 700 SPS .30-06 with another VX-3i 3.5-10x40. I also have a sporterized Yugo Mauser in its military 8x57 chambering that wears another 4-12x40 Redfield Revolution. Another Mauser I have is a 98 with a Shaw 26" Heavy Sporter Barrel chambered in .280 Remington that wears another Leupold VX-3i 3.5-10x40. And I have a 1966 year model .270 Winchester Model 70 with a Leupold VX-2 AO 4-12x40. That's all I have that I would consider as elk rifles. I don't consider 24 or 25 anything as a primary elk rifle so I didn't include any with my list and I don't currntly own any 6.5-.264 anything right now either. I know some on here have killed elk with .243s and such and I might be tempted to use my .243 or my .257 Bob AI wth heavy for caliber bullets if pressed. But I wouldn't plan a trip around one since I have more potent equipment available. And I don't condemn those that use them either. I just prefer something a little bit more potent for bigger game.

My .300 Weatherby Vanguard carries a Leupold VX 3i 4.5-14x40 CDS with side focus,
as does my Rem 700 7 mm Rem mag
My Mauser Mark X .257 Ackley has a Leupold VX 3 4.5-14x40 with their B&C reticle.
Each of these has killed 1 or more elk.

My Herter's U-9 in .30 Gibbs is under a Weaver 3-9x,
but it retired after killing 29 elk.

Problem is in every state and province I've hunted elk in, and no matter what part of those states or province I've hunted elk in, open country also had timber, and every elk jungle I've been in also had open country in the general vicinity.

Leupold 2.5-8 on all but one of my serious elk rifles.......

6x36. But it gets used on elk wherever the elk and I are.

Swarovski Z3 4-12x50 BT 4W on Fieldcraft 270 shooting 150 Berger's @ 3050

A fixed 6 x 42mm Leupold on a Blaser R-93 7mm RM. on my Sako 75 338 Winchester 3x-9x Zeiss. Between the two rifles just 5 elk over the 21 years I have owned the 338 and 15 years for the Blaser. The longest shot I guess was maybe 180 yards if that. Never gotten the classic wide open shot that gets written about. Then again I have not hunted Elk that much either, it's a major expense for me since I live back East.

The same glass as all of my rifles.....

VX3

3-9 Leupolds on all my elk hunting rifles. Been working for me a long time.

4-12 Leupolds!!