How much magnification do you use?

[Arizona Hunter]

When I bought a scope for my .204 last year my friend with lots of p-dog shoots under his belt in SD & WY, said he no longer goes over 12 power, so I got a 4-12 x 40. And I must say that so far out to 400 yds. it has been plenty (sometimes though I wish it had the stadia hairs so I would feel more comfortable trying shots at 500, but I could just send it to the factory and have it done).

Last weekend during our shoot, as the temp got to around 80-90, one of the guys with a 6-24 VX III, said he had too much mirage, so he turned it down to 12 power and much of the mirage went away and he was still making hits at 400.

So, although many folks have very high magnification scopes, I'm curious as to how much "power" you normally use during your long range shooting.

[Odawgpw/204]

I have 6x24x50 simmons, I find myself using 6-12x alot maybe 14x once in a while. 24x is to much power and i shake sumting fearce @24x I can't get the target to hold still long enough to pull the trigger

[Hotshot]

I set my Leupolds on 14X and seldom move from there. Once in a while I have to turn it down a little for the heat mirage. On the occasional long range 400-600 yard situation I will turn it up a bit if the mirage allows. Seems you and your buddies have figured out what me and my buddies figured-12X-14X is perfect for most pd shooting.

[Captqc]

I have a 6.5 - 20X and I normally have it set at 14 sometimes up to 16X, 20X works fine in the morning but as soon the ground heats up the mirage factor comes into play. Gary

[Arizona Hunter]

Nice to hear that experienced pd shooters like you guys are saying these things. When I first got the scope (Bushnell Elite 3200) I had some guys saying "you need at least 18 power" for prairie dogs. But, these were guys that had never shot them before.

I'm going to call Bushnell and ask how much it costs to put the stadia hairs/mil dots on a scope, because I may wish to try making contact at 500 yds someday. But out to 400 I'm fine without them.

[Keith in Ga]

I use my scopes (mildots) set at 14 power. That is the designated mag for the mils to work out. Plus, it does fine for the pd's. I've shot them the last three years, both are Bushnell 3200, 7x21. I checked with Bushnell to see if they could change the reticle, to make the crosshairs and dots smaller. They only change the reticle on one 3200 mdl, think it's the 4-12. The extra power comes in handy when shooting at the range for groups, but in the pd fields, 14x is fine.

[Hotshot]

Bushnell 3200 offers a balistic reticle on the 4-12 only. It is a beauty with fine plex type with 4 additional fine cosshairs each at 3 minutes below the previous. I've been buggin' the local rep to try and get that reticle in 4-16 and 6-24 4200's. He told me 2 weeks ago they might make a trial run with balistic reticle in 4-16x50 for next spring. Warranty, rainguard, reasonable prices, great optics, if only they had usable reticles the Bushnells would be perfect.

[acloco]

I leave mine set at 16X...and use the mildots for ranging (know the size of a prairie dog...).

[Drew Jaeger]

My Leupold 4.5-14x40mm AO lives on 9x for general use. Have gone up to 14x a couple of times to belt a fox out past 300yds.

[Ahab]

I have a Mueller 8.5-25x 50 on my .204. Usually it stays on 14X. Only use 25X for spotting.

[Silverfox]

Well, it looks like I'm the exception to the rule for scope magnification setting. I have a 6.5x20x40mm Leupold VX-III Side focust on my Savage 12VLP .204 and when I am prairie doggin' that scope is set at 20x for everything from 50 yards on out. Once in awhile, when I get a stupid PD sitting at 25 yards or so, I will have to crank the power down a bit to get them in focus.

For coyote calling, though, I usually have it set between 6 and 8 power and if I have a coyote hang up way out yonder, I'll crank it up to near the top power.

With my two .17 Remingtons I have one with a Burris Signature 6-24x and I like that scope on about 20x for PDs and 6 to 8 power for coyotes. The other .17 Rem has a Sightron II 6.5-20x 50mm side focus scope and that is cranked to the max for prairie dogs and in the 6 to 8 power range for coyotes unless the coyote is hanging up way out there.

I seldom notice much mirage problems, but maybe I'm so blind I can't tell.

[Critter]

Those of you that can recall for example the 6x Weaver .22 rifle scope will recall that most varmint shooting in those days was done with fixed power scopes, and while the classic 10-12x Unertl had more than enough power do the job with the average accuracy prevalent in box stock hunting rifles of the day, the problem was finding the creatures at those relatively high powers while in the field. The scenario went some thing like this:

Looking through your binoculars 8x, you would scan for PDs and then exclaim: "There he is two feet left of the third straight fence post from the gate."

So then through that Unertl you would see wire, fence posts and grass, but no PD. Back to the Binos and there he is, two feet left of the third straight fence post from the gate.

Then some dude came up with the variable that you could set on the same power as your glasses and then once you had found him you could roll up to 9x or so in those days. No problem.

Then the rifle technology (blue printing, better barrels, match triggers, and the like) caught up with these scopes requiring more raw power.

The scope manufactures responded, but being cheap (Not unlike many hunters and for different reasons) elected to stay with the same 3:1 zoom eye piece from the good old days, which worked fairly well in the 6-20x range for varmints.

Then some European scope manufacturers offered the 4:1 zoom which extend the power performance range considerably.

(I won't even mention that the USO scopes have a 5:1 eyepiece which allows my varmint rifle to have a high resolution 6 to 30x range, which allows me to count the chest hairs at 400 yards, if I so desire. (This scope has been replaced by the 3.8-22x44 version which does a fine job at long range with a 35mm tube.)

Below: USO 3.2-17x44 with Horus Reticle (H-25) on M70 in 7mm WSM (100 grain SVHP)

[Sagebrush Burns]

Been using a Leupold VX-III 6.5 - 20 on my 223 for some years. Use it more in the range of 12X to 14X than at higher power, but still want the full range. Use 20X often enough that it is worth having, especially for longer shots. It goes without saying that a really solid rest is important at higher magnification.

[Kiwishooter]

For my new .204 Kimber Pro Varmint I purchased a Bushnell Elite 4200 4-16x 40, as I felt this was going to be the best option. I previously owned a Remington 700 VS 22-250 that had a Leupold Vari X III 8.5 - 25 x 50 LRT. Beautiful scope, but optically I think my Elite is sharper, something that a few of my mates have also said.

I felt that the Leupold Vari X III 8.5 - 25 x 50 LRT probably wasn't the idea scope for my hunting. Here in New Zealand, we shoot Possums at night and the shooting can be quite close - sometimes 25m, so the Leupold had too much magnification at the low end. I never actually needed the higher magnification either, longest shot at just over 500m was made on 14x.

I find this 4-16 Elite 4200 to be absolutely perfect, I would highly recommend 14x or 16x at the top end to anyone.

Regards,


Michael.