Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics Fixed 4X for new hunters

I use a Leupold 36x Benchrest scope for load development, then switch to a fixed 4x or 6x for hunting. I have rifles equipped with each of these fixed power scopes. They work.

Don: Yes, they do. I really think it has more to do with what you're confident with. Some people(me) can do without the distraction of worrying about power settings. Others get a lot of cold comfort from having the ability to change power. But for new shooters, I think they're better off keeping things as simple as possible.

Amen Brother! Very well stated too.

Don

Don't really know what the "practical" limit of 4x is. Partly this is because I have taken game out to 350 with iron sights (Lyman 48 and bead front) so anybody arguning that a 4x is somehow limited to, say, 350 on big game would get an argument out of me.

Do know that I took two rifles with x Leupolds to Africa in May, both using loads that started around 2650-2700 fps. Killed game out to 375 yards with them, the longest shots when culling springbok, animals that are somewhere between a coyote and a pronghorn in size.

JB

I am returning to fixed 4x scopes, Zeiss Conquests and spare Leupies on my main rifles as I have found that they do everything I need. I never used a variable from 1964 to 1985 and seldoom have shot game with more than 4x, works for me.

While Jeff Cooper had more than one complaint about variable power scopes...

Cooper's main complaint was that the hunter spent too much time fiddling with the scope magnification rather than getting about the business of closing the hunt with the successful first shot. The game animal is on its own clock and might flee at any second. The hunter, and especially if there is a PH involved, needs to be quick about the business of readying for the shot and taking it.

To Cooper, shot placement was everything. On Babamkulu Trek, Cooper encouraged us to take a 257 Roberts, 270 Winchester, or the like. All of us took 308 Winchester class rifles (my brother took a 7 x 57). We took 48 animals including zebra, kudu, wildebeest, etc without any troubles using 308 class rifles and fixed power / low magnification scopes. Median range was 110 yards with the longest shot being 400 yards.

The rifle scope is not the binoculars for scanning and trophy evaluation.

Have heard African PHs complain about Americans who take forever fiddling with their scopes when they should be shooting.

Cooper commented that in all the years of Gunsite and the Saturday morning shoot-offs, he never saw a correlation between scope magnification and who won or placed highly on Saturday morning.



.

I had the same problem when I was guiding pronghorn and deer hunters 20 years ago. A nervous pronghorn buck would be getting ready to follow his does over the hill, 200 yards away, and then hunter would be lying there dinking with his 4-12x, because he thought 4x wasn't enough!

Interesting that nobody had trouble taking plains game to 400 with a .308 or something like it. That has also been my experience in Africa, but a lot of other people insist some sort of magnum is the only way to go....

JB

I see that there is a new Zeiss Conquest fixed 4x now rather than just zooms.

I'm going to have to consider one of these with a #4 reticle for my .375 H&H for non-dangerous game... a little over 4 inches of eye relief too.

John

This is probably the BEST single big game scope for BC hunting that I have ever had in over 40 years, a tremendous product for the price. I am putting these on all my .338s and will on my one 9.3x62 with a low enough bolt handle.

I have a Type B Obie in 9.3x62 that wears a Leupie 4x in EAW swing mounts as the bolt will not clear the objective housing of the Zeiss and I will not modify it. But, this Zeiss Conquest 4x is a BOMB for BC hunting.

damn, kutenay...

Thanks to your post, I can't decide between the 3-9x Conquest and the 4x Conquest.

Cheers from a fellow Canuck,

John

.375 H&H = 4x, IMO.

in this case the 4X Leup FX-II at $269.00 does not look bad for the application. Do they make a matte with a regular duplex, the 6X seems reasonable but a 6X might be a little much for me on a 15 yard deer!

jimmy,
Check Rick's pages for the answer to the Matte finish question, I don't know.
I have bought several Leupy 4x scopes from Rick, all gloss. And, I had several before I came to the Campfire. Most of my rifles now have the 4x scopes on them, along with three that have Leupy 6x42's. Quite honestly, 4x is more than enough for hunting up here in the swamps.

Don

kute-
Would you be kind enough to measure the tube length of the 4x Conquest for me? I don't beleive that is a measurement that Zeiss puts on the their website, but I need it to see if it will fit my action.

thanks much

the plain 6x proved a little tight for me in the woods.
the plain 4x was - and will be - sufficient.

Fish: I sorta feel the same about 6X; I know JB will disagree a bit here since he feels 6X is useable in the woods, which it is; but I lean towrds 4X. My 223 wears a 6X and I love it.

Jimmy: if you want the 4X matte with a regular duplex, you gotta send it to the custom shop. I checked.Don't know why they did it that way....(?)

So, JB, when I go over to Africa, I will be fixed up OK with a 270, and a 4X for plains game, right?

If anything, I find that a 2.5X is just about perfect where I hunt. I have low power variables on some of my lever guns, and most of the time, the setting is 2.5X, or less.

Bob,

Unless you have some eyesight problem that demands more X's, why not?

JB