Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Predators and Varmints What magnification is best all-around for varmints?

i have a 17 remington fireball that shoots straight and fast as the day is long. it wears a 14 power Nikon that I adore more than any other scope in my arsenal. in fact, i am slowly trying to replace all my scopes with Nikons. i have owned and shot lots of different brands and i keep going back to the Nikon's. my friend is picking up a vortex pretty soon for his 22-250, looking forward to checking that out.

Now most of our rifles are wearing Leupold & Bushnell Tactical scopes! The power is 5 x 15 for the most part but I do have a 6 x 24 & an 8 x 32 that hasn't been really tested as of yet, hope to this weekend with the 25-06.

For a walking varminter a 3-9x40, 2-10x40 or 3-12x40 are good choices. I like the Nikon Monarch 3-12x42 Side Focus.

Well then I won't try and this will be for the rest of you guys out there........Any shot I've missed at 200 yards with 9x magnification has been my fault not a lack of magnification. 200 yards isn't far and with 9x it's like shooting 1x at 22 yards. Who here can't hit a 2" target with a rifle zero magnification at 22 yards? Magnification does not correct shooting errors. Now on a dedicated varmint rifle I'd go bigger than 3-9x without a doubt but for 200 yards a miss isn't the scope fault.

In general, I think most shooters are over scoped for the job at hand. With a 2-7x on my predator guns I would be fairly confident that any shot I miss out to 400 yards was due to my bad judgment of range/wind or my bad shooting. Where as I know I've had close up critters get away clean due to too much magnification. Case in point: I had shot a bedded fox one morning and had turned my 4-16x to 10x. Later that day we spotted a moving coyote heading down a fence row. I got around the section, got out of the truck and waited. A couple minutes later the coyote popped up over a hill at dead run. When he hit the 75 yard mark I pulled up the rifle and couldn't get on target to save my life. Forgot to turn the scope down and the yote disappeared without a shot being fired.

On a walking gun the most scope I'd go with is 4-16x, probably less.

CB

Agree with Chris. 3-10x is all you need on a walking varmint...And keep the setting magnification on the low end....You always have time to dial up on a long shot....Never time to dial down on a close shot.

The biggest issue is going to be the thickness of your recticule!!! A medium size recticle will cover up that P-dog at 200 yards, you will need a scope with a very "FINE" recticle in a 4 x 12 power. I have even used a 2 x 7 FINE recticle on my 25-06 walking gun but I am shooting groundhogs understand, not P-dogs.

wow. after reading this I feel way lucky that the prarie dogs and crows I have shot over the years with a 3x9 and my favorite 4x12 Leupolds were pure luck, might want to see what the hunter rifle benchrest boys do with 6X at 200 yards Russ

I used to be a 3-9 guy. Now, 4.5-14 is perfect for these 55 year old eyes.

Im fond of the Nikon's also. The Pentax scopes are also nice varmint scopes.

Here is a picture of a prairie dog shoot I took to central Montana. There are elk below the ridge just above the orange box on the front of the quad. There are prairie dog mounds just over the ridge behind the box on the rear of the quad.


To hit these varmints at these distances with a 9-power and even a 12-power scope will be pure luck. These guys do not let you get within 200 yards and you have to shoot them at much longer distances. It is very difficult to carry a brenchrest bench with you, but you can try. Then you can use your 6-power and try to find a dog at 200 yards. I expect you will get very tired moving that bench within 200 yards only to pick it up and move it again when the dogs dissappear.

Carlm.........Yeah, things do change for the worst with the eyes after 50 for sure, now when you hit 60 it will be a brand new experience. I had to change lenses twice in one year, then diebetes hit me and I have had to change lenses in my glasses every 6 months lately. I wish I was 55 yrs old again.....Wow!

A 6.5-20 is just about perfect for shooting rodents. You keep it at 6.5 unless you are taking a long shot and need more precisions.

It can be a bit much for coyote calling though. I would rather have a lower power scope such as 2.5-8 for coyotes. As you don't need a lot of magnification to shoot coyotes and the lower power give you a wider field of view.

I have had a ton of success using a 4 x 12 power scope for groundhogs, deer, antelope and so on. It just seems to fit the bill for most things, rifle usually weighs in at 8.25 with the scope attached.

Depends. I can't entirely separate the choice of scope from the choice of rifle and cartridge. There's "balance" to be had.

For a general purpose varminter, I like a Remington 700 VSSF pattern, 26" fluted varmint weight barrel, matched with a 6.5-20X scope.

For a walking rifle, I'll go with a lighter rifle and smaller scope. Anything 2.5-8X or 3-9X up to maybe 4-12x or 4-16X.

With a rifle you might want to deploy in a hurry, like a calling rifle, having everything fit you so the gun comes up with the crosshairs lined up is more important than any specific choice of scope, etc. So ... more than anything else ... it depends on what you are comfortable and familiar with.

Tom

I use a 3x9 Redfield Illuminator (old scope) on my Remington 788, 22-250. You only ever use a variable on the lowest or highest setting. I do not recall a single instance where I needed 8X instead of 9X. IMO.

This pretty much sums up my outlook and would add 6X for a truck/calling gun.

A Leupie VX-I 4-12x40 is housed in the same exact body as the standard 3-9. Seems to work just about perfect for most things that need to be shot from 150-300 yards. Keeps the size and weight down, gives a good variation on the low and high ends, and is reasonably priced. Can be had with dots too if so desired.

I haven't used one but seems like a Z6 Swarovski 3x18x50 (or maybe a 5x30x50) would be very nice for this use. Anyone used one?

Like puttin' a truck muffler on a weed wacker IMO.

Our mileage do vary! There's a lot of truth to your comment, but I also shoot a lot of critters at medium range with one quick twist of the power ring without looking at it as the rifle comes up. On my old Redfield 2-7 that turned out to be 5.5 power, and on my new 2-7 it is 4 power. Such settings were checked after the shot to see what it was set on.