Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics The Perfect Whitetail Scope

battue,

You're welcome.

Yeah, I rarely go that far anymore, due to age--though had cataract surgery on both eyes last year, and still see the front sight pretty well, especially with "progessive reading glasses. Have an 1893 Marlin .32-40 that I want to kill a deer with, and thanks to a Skinner Sights aperture should be able to.

Before going to Botswana worked up a load with the 220 Hornady flat-nose at .38-55 velocities in my .375 H&H, which shot to the same POI as as full-house 300-grain loads. Shot some prairie dogs out the around 150 with it, which increased my confidence considerably.

Generally try to get in some iron-sight "hunting" every year, even if just for prairie dogs, to keep my confidence up--and figure out my limitations.

Have mentioned this before, here and there, but have used fixed 6x scopes to kill running whitetails at 25 yards, and "still" whitetails at 350+.

But apparently there's a PERFECT magnification for every possible range these days--which to me seems as elusive as a PERFECT bullet/cartridge, etc. for every range and animal.

However, what the hell, the Campfire wouldn't be what it is if hunters didn't strive for perfection.....

I’ve generally got 6-10 ‘Whitetail’ specific rigs in the safe at any given time. Not a single one wears the same scope, maybe 2-3 are even the exact same power range, none have the exact same reticles, objectives, size, make, etc. Why? ….cuz whitetails ain’t the same, terrain ain’t the same, cover ain’t the same, and hunting style ain’t the same…. from one place to the next. There’s no one ‘perfect’ gun or optic for them, only the one perfect for that specific situation at the break.

battue,

Have used aperture sights considerably, both in North America and Africa. The longest shot was around 350 yards, lasered, on a bull caribou in Quebec. Used a pre-'64 Model 70 Winchester "standard weight" in .270 Winchester, with the 150-grain Hornady Spire Point at around 2950 fps.

Before the hunt I figured out how much the factory bead front sight "subtended" at 100 yards, and also filed the bead's face flat, slightly angling away, which is how I prefer bead sights, since it eliminates glare on one side of a bead, and also results in a slight "glow" to the bead. Both from math and shooting the rifle considerably before the hunt, I knew that with the 150s landing 2" above the bead at 100, they would land in the middle of the bead at 350--about where the bead would "cover" the typical 24" chest of a Quebec bull. So centered the bead on the bull's chest, and the bullet landed in the middle of the bead--and lungs.

Went on an all-irons hunt in Botswana 20 years ago, and used the same system with my .375 H&H Ruger No. 1 Tropical to take animals out to 225 yards. The only one I missed was an impala at about 175--which spooked just as I pulled the trigger, due to a couple of giraffes spooking just beforehand, as I crawled on the ground. (Giraffes not only have very good eyesight, but can see DOWN more than other animals!)

I’ve generally got 6-10 ‘Whitetail’ specific rigs in the safe at any given time. Not a single one wears the same scope, maybe 2-3 are even the exact same power range, none have the exact same reticles, objectives, size, make, etc. Why? ….cuz whitetails ain’t the same, terrain ain’t the same, cover ain’t the same, and hunting style ain’t the same…. from one place to the next. There’s no one ‘perfect’ gun or optic for them, only the one perfect for that specific situation at the break.

I almost feel sorry for anyone who has, but has not. You've got so many choices but don't have the one rifle you'd carry anywhere and feel prepared for any whitetail shot that comes? Or maybe you're just overthinking things a bit.
I'd actually put a beer on the line that you've got one rifle that you'd take anywhere for anything and not sweat it.

I've got 3 rifles on the left wall of one safe that I'd take on any whitetail hunt anywhere anytime, and not have a thought that maybe I might find a need for something better. The oldest of these rifles has been carried on deer hunts from the Spring River hills to the Black River of the Arkansas Delta, to S.W. Wisconsin, to the south shore of Superior, to the Arkansas River drainage of eastern Colorado. And that's just for whitetails...
The two more recent rifles are of the same pattern, with the same safety, same trigger, similar scopes, similar cartridges. Two of the three are walnut/blued, no less...

Note, as mentioned above that I don't push extremes, and I don't feel like life is a bust if a deer wins the contest, on occasion.
I haven't used thousands of different scopes.
I haven't hunted an hour after sunset.

What I have used has worked from delta canebreaks, to northern timbers in days long storms of grainy snow, to dusty midwestern plains

I think you missed that entire point. If I didn’t like them all, I wouldn’t have them all. If they all didn’t have a niche, they’d all be compromises of some sort. None of that means I couldn’t grab any one of them and hunt anywhere. None of that means I don’t have a preference for some, or confidence in all. There’s no reason for me to have just one or 3, even if there’s no reason I couldn’t just pick one.

But to stay on topic, I have 1-4s with #1s, to 2-10s, and most stuff in between. Nothing on a ‘deer’ (Med-big game) gun above 10x. They’re all hunting rifle scopes, not LR target or cross canyon scopes. Other stuff will work, but low to medium power is my preference on variables, and IF I ever went back to fixed, it’d be 4x or lower. I’ve never had a fixed 6x I wanted to keep vs anything else. Just me.

Yep, Skinner understands non-optical sights. Mine dropped right into the factory-drilled holes, on a rifle made in the 1890s--and works very well with the factory front sight.