Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Are four and six power scopes still useful

I bought my first scope in 1962.....a Weaver K-6.....I still have it.

Not a lot of selection in fixed power.....and variables normally cost less.....and yup.....my variables are set to 6X and never get changed.....It's just the way it works for me.

To be honest, most of my rifles have 3x9X variables mounted, one has a 2x7. A couple have a 3X with post and crosshair. Strange thing, I have a 4X Leupold that when I aimed it at my target which is a 2.5" black square with a one inch white center, it seems smaller than when sighting at it with either the 3X scopes or the variables set at 3X. One thing I've noticed is when sighting in or just shooting from the bench for fun the scopes are set at 9X but on the hunt are set at 3X. My last six elk were all shot with the scope at 3X. Come to think of it, my antelope I took in 2009 was also shot at 3X. I'm still trying to figure out the deal of that 4x. Guess I could send it back for a tune up and checking out the actual power. I'm also trying to figure out why it came with a colored lens. (yellow)???
Paul B.

obviously you guys don’t have a creedmore!

I like the weight and simplicity of the fixed power scopes. Mostly use 4 and 6x.
Have several variables, but after sighting in they generally stay on 4 or 6.
Most of my shooting is done at 400 yards and under.

I do have 2 or 3 rifles that have variable scopes on from the day i got them.

But they lend themselves to shooting paper and dog towns.

The highest power is 24X.

Most are 12X with them being ones that folks have given me.

They have their place.

Just remembered that i have an EOTECH as well.

A creedmoor?

I believe we are seeing an example of what the industry is selling.
Somehow a "creedmoor" is in need of a scope with gizmos and high power?

The truth is that a .264" diameter bullet in the chamber of the creedmoor is still .264" in diameter on the firing line, and it's exactly the same diameter at 1500 yards. It doesn't somehow grow as it travels towards the target. . The target at 1500 yards is NOT any bigger if you make it look bigger,--------------- and if you were standing 15 yards from it it would be the exact same size.
See......scopes don't shoot.
The Emperor is truly naked, but thousands believe they can see his pretty new cloths.

I shoot to some long ranges for the fun of it. 1000 and 1200 are ranges I like to fire at, because I can be to a place to do it in only 20 minutes, and I can shoot to 600 by walking out my front door. Shocking as it may be, I fire at targets out to past 1000 yards with my scopes on the rifles I hunt with mostly set on low powers. Not always. I sometimes dial them up to 9X, but I like to shoot with them set the way I actually carry them most times
Note, I do pretty well as far as rounds fired to hits made. But I DO NOT fire at game past 550. Why?
Because I have never seen a real need to do it in over 1/2 century of hunting at any game that was not wounded and getting away.

But if I owned a creedmoor I would have a fixed 4X or maybe a fixed 6X on it.

I am not much of a "gear-queer" and I like simply hunting sights for my hunting rifles. I have not shot competition in about 15 years now, so I have no desire for a high powered wizz-bang bells and whistles scope. I don't begrudge anyone using them. Have at it if you like them.
But for me I like fixed lower power scopes.

That's the reply to the OPs question and that is my answer, speaking only for myself.

No amount of magnification will make the gun stand "stiller" for the shooter. It's all about the skill of holding and squeezing, not making a target look bigger. The target and the bullets don't grow, no matter what scope you buy.

Sure, they are as useful as they always were....but there really isn't a reason to pick a fixed over a variable, other than simple personal preference. A fixed power scope doesn't magically make you a better hunter, or somehow wiser...

I like 4 to 12’s, but I shoot at game most of the time on 4x. I would say yes they are very useful, especially if you hunt in the woods.

On semi to hard kickers, I lean toward fixed power. For the ranges I'm going to hunt, 6X is more then adequate(100-200 yards). My rifles with variables are never adjusted beyond 6x except at the range. I definitely like variables, but fixed powers are a solid part of my arsenal.

Correct.
and a few of us don't have the itch to shoot across zip codes.

Amazingly, a creedmoor can still make an outdated 6x42 work. The creedmoor can really make things happen...no telling if this scope would have worked if it was mounted on a rifle chambered in anything besides the creedmoor.

My answer would be "define <necessary>".

Technically, no, but very very useful. It is not possible to achieve the level of accuracy I demand for load work-up with a low magnification fixed power scope. Since I tinker with loads off and on year around through the life of a gun, the only viable alternative to a variable is 2 fixed magnification scopes (one low power hunting scope and a 10x or more powerful range scope) with a lot of re-sight-in required as I swap back and forth between the "range" scope and the "hunting" scope.

The pluses of a variable might not be important to someone with low accuracy standards or someone who works up one load and uses it for the life of the gun, but neither describes me.

Tom

My Remington 700 Classic in 35 Whelen wears a fixed 4x and my Winchester Super Grade Lightweight in 7x57 wears a fixed 6x. Both Leupolds. No issues for me.....

All my bolt actions have 4X scopes mostly Leupolds. I have one old K-4 on my Remington 720. They are not actually contemporaries, but they look right together, and the K-4 is best Weaver scope I've ever messed with and that is a bunch.

For the last 35+ years where I hunt is not range challenging, unless you count close as a challenge. My longest shot on a deer was 125 yards measured. Nothing that couldn't be handled with peeps or even irons given enough light. That is my way of saying I don't have any perspective about what works at long range in the field. I have shot the M16 and M14 at 300 meters and managed to hit the target sufficiently well to be labeled a sharpshooter with the -14 and expert with the -16.

So I don't need a celestial observatory to hit stuff out to practical ranges, nor do I need to twiddle knobs. (No widecracks necessary)


A 2.5X Leupold M8 Compact sits on that thing and it can do this if I pay attention...these are 5 shot groups BTW



I did cheat a little with the .22 LR barrel though and put a Weaver K3 that began life in El Paso.



Perhaps the most telling example though is what happened some years ago whilst checking zero for the .44 Mag that had a Millett SP1 red dot sight.



Yeah, I adjusted the knobs a little after that and jerked the trigger once on a trip to Mississippi.

I have far more fixed power scopes than variables. Several Leupold 3x and 4x, several Weaver 1x, 1.5x, 2.5x and 3x. A couple of Leupold 7.5 X, a Redfield 2 3/4x PCH, a Redfield 12X and a Weaver T36x. I also just picked up an odd one, a Burris 6x with a PCH reticle. I'm going to put it on the mini 14 when I get it back from Accuracy Systems. I'm not sure but I have an idea the combination of the Accuracy Systems mini 14 in 6x45 and the Burris PCH scope will make a good coyote calling rifle.

I just went through the list of my cartridge rifles, and the break-down is this:

31% have fixed-power scopes, from 2.5x to 10x, with 4x most common and 6x next.

15% have "iron" sights, which even at my advanced age I still shoot game with now and then.

The other 49% have variables, but about 2/3 are on what most people would consider varmint rifles. Many of the variables get set on the top magnification, from 7x to 10x, and never get changed. Partly this is because there are far more variable than fixed-power scopes available today, so it's a lot easier to buy a variable with the features you want, including reticle. Most of today's variables are also just as reliable (if not more so) than fixed scopes were back when I started using them on hunting rifles 50 years ago.

One of the things I've learned over the decades is that magnification over 6x isn't a big handicap for most big game hunting, partly because field of view has improved in most scopes.

You must have learned how to shoot without zooming in. That skill is lost.

Almost every scope on my hunting rifles are 6X. My few variables are usually set on 6X.

I cant think of a time over the last 62 years that I wished I would have had a variable. Of course my Varmint rifles have variables.

Ken