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

Fits my short action model 70 quite well!

Despite my liking for fixed 6x scopes I just bought another Z3 3-9x36 yesterday.

I fell asleep on the lounge last night and woke up after 11:00pm. I made the mistake of checking a classified online site while still a bit half asleep.

Curse those credit cards.

I had hunted big game with a variety of different variable power rifle scopes for my entire life. I’d also hunted small game with straight 4 power scopes on .22 rifles & had thought and read about the pros & cons of fixed power scopes for big game.
In 2012 at 51 years of age I found myself working in Angola, Africa and I promptly booked a plains game safari in the beautiful Kalahari Desert of Botswana. I hunted with a custom Mauser chambered in 30.06 wearing a Schmidt & Bender 6x42 that was owned by my PH, the late, great Jason Bridger of Kanana Safaris. Long story short, 10 days and 23 animals later I was a huge fan of the straight 6 and I soon collected a few Leupold 6x42’s of my own.
Sure, I have the high power, long range, dial for distance, high end optics on certain rifles like many do nowadays. But the simple fact is that in many and probably most hunting situations the advantage goes to the straight 6. It’s quick and uncomplicated and as previously stated will easily cover most hunting situations from close up to 300 yards ish.
If you try it you will probably like it!

A fellow who I hunted with for years used nothing but 6x on all of his rifles - from 25-06 to 35 Whelen. He swore by them and never had a problem hitting his target from hand shaking range to “way out yonder”.
Personally, I’m a 4x guy and wish there were more of them available. Unfortunately, marketing has all of the millennial shooters believing that it’s impossible to hit anything beyond 50 yds with a 4x so, the fixed 4x is pretty much a thing of the past.😢

I like my 1-4x20 the best.

On the lowest setting, you can see the Whole World as soon as you shoulder the rifle.
And then turn it up to 4 if you have time.

Or set it on two and a half for a more open area.

I look at what I want to hit, shoulder the rifle, and the 6x scope is pretty much right on it.

LOL, what kind of shoehorn would you need for that??

I don’t own a fixed power and never will.

I’m old enough to be a curmudgeon. I can’t believe the emphasis on high magnification for hunting rifles. I suppose there is some justification for that for the folks who can competently engage in long-range “hunting,” but most of us don’t shoot past 300 yards or so.

I haven't shot game at 500 with one, but enough steel to know that they work at that distance. I was pronghorn hunting once and belly-crawled to the top of a rise and the buck I was after was out at about 800 yds. I had my variable scope cranked all the way up to 14. I ranged a fence post at 500 and he was grazing toward me so I dialed the scope for 500 and waited. Long story short, he must have seen me peeking over the rise and made a beeline directly to me, at a fast walk. I was so focused on dialing the elevation down that I forgot about the magnification, left it at 14.

I was down below the rise waiting, and when he finally topped out and came close enough that I could see his neck for a shot he just about filled the scope, and it wasn't the best situation, felt like I was wobbling all over the place. Shot him at 50-60 yards, a 6X would have worked fine for both the 500 and the 60. And yes, not forgetting to dial the scope down would have worked too.

A young guy in our deer club has a 5-25x scope on his deer rifle. And like a lot of young people these days he won't listen to advice. Bush craft and stalking skills are disappearing.

I have a 6x42 S&B and took a moose at 267 yardswith a BLR.
I had it for sale on the fire and elsewhere.
After reading comments like these I’ll keep it until I get manic again for another scope to try out!

You should put a 6x scope on your grouse gun and get back to me on how effective you found it. I bet you wouldn't find many 6x scopes on the guns of the guys running deer with dogs down South and I know you won't find them on the rifles of the guys driving deer in the cedar swamps and regenerating clear cuts here.

Be practical.

Exactly what a 6x scope is not for the hunting situations I described above.

Your edit of the post I responded to causes an inaccurate representation of the conversation.

You responded while I was adding to it. I figured your response was only to the first sentence.

Yeah, but that's not how it reads now.

I can see where you're going regarding driven game, close in.

Well you can change it if you want to but I think most here will be able to figure it out when I said your response was only to the first sentence and I was adding the rest when you posted your response. Drive hunting thick cover is a popular and widely practiced deer hunting method here. One I have participated in a great deal over the years. In fact, my brothers and I and a few friends had a drive day just last season. Trust me when I say NOBODY showed up with a 6x scope on their rifle. All of them have decades of experienced driving deer in thick cover and all had low power variables set to the lowest power with the exception of my youngest brother who had a fixed 2.5 x scope on his .