Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics What's the draw for a 6x fixed power

Damn fine Leupold n the classifieds with the long range duplex (6x42j)

For me a 6x scope made sense when I did not have one. I was glassing several deer in a field in Michigan about 25 years ago and identified a buck among does about ten minutes before end of shooting time. When I put my rifle on them I could not see the antlers with the 4x32 scope (Zeiss with T coatings). Since I hunt in the woods and at dawn and dusk, I have to have a scope that is 6x or is capable of 6x. I don't take running shots so eye relief and detail in low light or shade are more important to me than field of view. I have taken deer at 25 yards with a 6x42 but last fall I took a buck at less than 25 yards (moving but not running) with a variable set to 6x. There was no time to change power anyway which is just as well because the temptation in a variable to mess with the power setting has caused me issues on occasion. I like the Meopta MeoPro 6x42.

the fact is there really isn't a draw except a few campfire geezers that spout off about it. The fixed power crowd is way and I mean way overplayed. I just saw discussion about ziess not making the 4x fixed conquest anymore and how much whining and belly aching there was about it. Yet I saw a guy selling 2 fixed 4x scopes, one of which was a zeiss conquest Right on our very own classifieds here at reasonable prices go multiple days without it being bought. The fixed power crowd is non sense. its not 1972 anymore!!!

Easy to look thru, easy to kill with. They just work. Some will never like them, that’s fine they are lots of options.

I’ve got both Leupold and SWFA 6x42’s. I shipped a hunting buddy a spare SWFA 6x for a new rifle a few years back. He never returned it, instead shipped me a new one after he had killed his first deer dialing his scope. I never thought he would go for a 6x, we talked about over the years. But Using is different from talking about it....

For my use, a 4X is about as high as I'll go for a fixed power. I even have one on a Savage 99 in .243. There's not a lot of places where I hunt to need much more for deer, but If I found a good 6X for the right price I sure wouldn't turn it down.

Thanks for all the replies, guys. Sounds like some guys like Dodge while others fight over Chevy and Ford....just like they do with optics.

Aside from mounting one in a fancy C-clamp have you actually spent time behind one? My wife and I bought a pair of them (SWFA 6x) last year and have been running the [bleep] out of them out to 860 and recently out to 1000 yards.. $600 for a PAIR of scopes that pass the Tall Target Test and RTZ with flying colors and good solid clicks.. I'm new to twisting turrets but the cost and quality of these scopes is a pretty big attraction, to disagree seems foolish..

I like less than 6x for close in work and higher power for long range. However it is a good place to set a variable for general carry.
Sure it would be fine for most situations, but I like my main hunting scope more versatile than just adequate.
3-15x for me.

That's what I have on my 22-250 coyote rig, although I typically do not need 15x.

Summed up very nicely in a single word.

I guess it's a bit like hunting with a single shot. I have an old mate who simply can't understand why I hunt with a Ruger No.1 or a fixed power scope. He's too set in his ways. He's convinced that a 6x scope is not as effective and poo poos it, but he's never bothered to try one in his whole life. But very quick to voice his 'expert' opinion. He couldn't believe that I'd spend over AU $500 on a 6x Meopta. He reckons for that money I should have got a variable as you 'get more for your money'.

I'm not sure why this myth of shooting game up close with a 6x still exists. I've shot game (mostly pigs) at 15m with 6x scopes, or variables set on 6x, and have had no problems finding animals in the scope. I guess people hear it and pass the myth on without having actually tried it themselves.

I like the simplicity of fixed power scopes and have two on a couple of No.1s, a 6x on a 7x57 and a 4x on a 9.3x62, plus a few more on some bolt guns.

The simple things in life are often the best.

I just put one on my 6.5 CM last weekend. It just barely fit in the low rings that came with the rifle 25 years ago with a gap maybe a millimetre between objective and barrel. A set of medium rings worked much better. The 6x36 Leupold would have fit in the low rings. I'm looking forward to hunting with it this season.

I have shot deer real close and out to 430 yards, with a 6x SS. I killed an elk at 346 with one. I have them on three rifles and 10x on most of the others. It is about a wash, between the 6x and 10x, but you don't spend your time screwing with the power ring. I only have a couple of variables left.

As to the "too close" issue, I use one on a 22 mag to shoot squirrels in the head at
close to point blank out to 75 yards. Not the 22 model scope either.
And as Mule Deer stated, no dinking around.

fwit longest shot I have made was at 300+ with a fixed 4 in a RL 308

I too subscribe to the KISS principle. The fewer features and gadgets on a scope the better I like it. In truth how many, aside from the fellas who insist on playing with their scopes at every whim/opportunity, ever budge the magnification ring from a fixed position? I know I don't. I doubt my 3-9's have left the 6x position in years- I don't for the life of me know why I spent the extra money for those variable scopes.

Like we've done with the cars and trucks we drive, the more bells and whistles the better. Technological progress seems to measured in gimmickry, it would seem.

I use mostly 3x9x40. I the woods it stays on 3X and in fields and cut overs it stays on 6X most of the time. I could get by with a straight 6X but I prefer the 3X in the thick woods.

JCon- what has been missed in this conversation is a little scope history.

For a long time fixed power scopes were largely enjoyed for their relative brightness. Fixed have fewer lenses so apart from making the scope comparatively robust, the fewer lenses meant less light was reflected (meaning more got through). The popularity of your typical 6x42 came about because it meant that you had an exit pupil of 7mm. That equates to a beam of light wider than your pupil so (more or less) you eliminated that narrow tire ring effect you might get from using a higher power. Very easy to throw up a rifle and get a good picture without having to move your head around..

All my scopes were 6x for this reason and thinking I might more easily judge distances no matter which rifle I used. 6x never 'seemed ' much of a hindrance to me for close shots though looking back there were two particular instances where it was definitely so.

Fast forward some years and more players entered the scope market. Competition created better and brighter scopes with better warranties. More of them started offering fully multicoated lenses and standardized features like click adjustments. Things that in the past required going to higher priced model lines to get. Scopes are now where low price point variable models allow one to hunt even in questionable light.

I still have a 6x on a rifle and enjoy it but my others have gone away. I compared some good newer variables in darkening conditions to my 6x standard bearers and find them, to my surprise, even brighter. Now, sure a new fixed might be brighter still but it won' t allow me to legally shoot more deer -so I no longer see the edge.

Different places have different needs but when I go in to the field now I am always on 2x or 3x and feel like a world of better views have been gifted to me. I can say with certainty that a moving deer is (nearly) always easier to track and view at these lower powers. So while >6x is what crosses the mind when most people think about variables, for me and I assume many others, it is at least equally the 2 or 3x wide field view- which coincidentally is often the first features discussed when looking at binoculars. Being able to dial up to 9 or 10x for range work is icing on the cake. .

I likely have a wider variety 6x scopes anyone else on this forum simply because I like them. I would guess I have 12-15 different models. Some of the reasons I like them is because they cost less usually, have less parts inside, and have cleaner optics. Take the Meopta Meopro, if you take their 3-9 and set it at 6x, then compare that to their fixed 6, the fixed will look better due to less stuff in the tube. The fixed is cheaper, and that's about where my variable will be in the woods, so why have the variable. They are usually rather bombproof too.

What got me into the fixed six was I noticed all of my variable scopes when I went hunting were in the 5-6x range, always. The only time I went over 6x was the range. I have never had any problems killing deer inside 25 yards or out in the 300s. I don't shoot past 300 yards simply because stalking is more fun than killing IMHO, I like the chase and the sneak. A fixed six to me is the definition of a K.I.S.S. scope.

Elvis,

The "myth" of 6x being too much magnification for close range developed in the early days of hunting scopes--when it actually tended to be true. Early hunting scopes (say made before WWII), tended to have small diameter tubes AND small diameter ocular (viewing) lenses. Since the diameter of the ocular is one of the major factors in field of view, many early 6x and even 4x scopes had very narrow fields of view.

But today's 6x scopes have large tubes AND ocular lens, and a FOV at 100 yards of 18-22 feet. This means that at 25 yards the FOV is around 5 feet, and the average deer is around 4-5 feet long. Even at 10 yards a 6x FOV is around two feet, and anybody who's halfway competent at pointing a scoped hunting rifle can easily recognize the front half of a deer in a 2-foot FOV, even if it's a little fuzzy.

The closest running shot I've made with 6x was a BIG Texas feral boar. I could easily see the shoulder and a foot or so around it in the scope, and the bullet went through both shoulders. The boar flipped over and lay still, facing back in the direction it had come from.

A short paragraph with no substance or proven experience. Actually little more than Yahoo clickbait....







And yet so close is one that has both....


https://www.24hourcampfire.com/scopes-that-do-it-all/

I guess you're just better than I am, and yes, I shoot with both eyes open. I prefer variables and have 1-4X, 2-7X and 3-9X scopes on my hunting rifles. They stay on the lowest setting virtually all of the time and I've made kills past 200 yards on 2X. I prefer the variables not for the higher magnification but because 1X, 2X, and 3X fixed powers aren't common. Even 4X is more than I've ever needed.

I've been burned twice in situations where I've cranked the scope up to maximum power in order to attempt a longish shot only to have game jump out of brush at ranges between 10-15 yards. On the 1st one I was never able to get it in my sights. The 2nd time I was able to make the shot, but almost blew an easy shot.

That said, I picked up one of the SWFA fixed 6X scopes last summer for a non-hunting rifle and have come to appreciate it. I've shot it out to 600 yards and managed 3/4 MOA. That has convinced me that 6X is plenty of magnification for anything I'll do. And if I were to hunt with it I don't think it would be as much a disadvantage as I previously thought.

But in my experience, in the places where I hunt I'd still prefer less magnification for an awful lot of the shots I take. The biggest advantage of the fixed 6X is that you get an awful lot of scope for about 1/2 the cost of the SWFA 3-9X42 variable. And for a lot of people I suppose the added cost just isn't justified.

I've hunted the west. If I did the majority of my hunting there I might feel different, but in the world where I hunt you almost never see the entire animal and rarely past 50 yards. Just parts of it as it moves through the brush and there will be several seconds at a time where you don't see it at all only to have it reappear 20-30 yards from where you last saw it. A bigger field of view is more helpful magnification more often than not.