How far does 12x get you?

[Lone Tree]

For hunting, I’m good to 300y but want to get deadly out to 450-500y. Do I need more magnification than 12?
What are your thoughts/experiences?

 

[PathFinder]

12x will get you out beyond 1k. It's more than enough for 450-500. 9x is plenty for that max range.

 

[Chase16]

Absolutely not. My shooting partner does quite a bit with his fixed 12 SWFA out to 1600. I shood on about 16 at those ranges just because my reticle is busier than his and need to distinguish the different stadia, but I agree with above you do not need a lot of magnification at all. Specifically hunting, I would be dialed out as far as I could be, I care a lot about seeing impacts.

 

[Q_Sertorius]

I’ve shot well at 500 with a 4x scope.


____________________
“Keep on keepin’ on…”

 

[AndrewMT34]

12x will take you 1000+ easy.

 

[TaperPin]

For hunting, I’m good to 300y but want to get deadly out to 450-500y. Do I need more magnification than 12?
What are your thoughts/experiences?

There’s a test floating around online of a gun writer that used a quite accurate 223 or 22-250 and used a few scopes and shot from 1.5x all the way up to 12x or 14x if I’m remembering right. As magnification went up groups shrank until 5x or 6x then essentially didn’t decrease more after that. However, any varmint or coyote hunter will say you have to be able to see them to hit ‘em and 6x isn’t enough for small targets. 6x is a great magnification for 95% of all big game shots out west I’ve ever seen out to 500 yards. Not everyone sees the same, and as we get older many don’t see in the shadows as well or the animal is behind something and it’s more important to have magnification available if needed.

The old 3x9 or 4x12 is plenty for big game, everything else is marketing. I hunt big game at 8x in the open, 4x in the timber, 12x for coyotes and 20x for small varmints.

One of the joys of being in wide places in the off season is shooting little targets way out there, so a top end of 18x, 20x, or 24x will get used when that one big prairie dog is waaaay out there taunting you, or your buddies have a bet who can hit a little rock at 800 yards. 12x runs out of steam well short of 500 yards for that use.

 

[wind gypsy]

3-9 is plenty for shots most of us should be taking but I certainly enjoy more mag for paper punching and steel shooting.

 

[atmat]

For hunting, I’m good to 300y but want to get deadly out to 450-500y. Do I need more magnification than 12?
What are your thoughts/experiences?

What are you hunting?

Big game, you’d be fine with a 4-6x at that distance.

Prairie dogs? You’re gonna need more than 4x

 

[doc holiday13]

12x will take you 1000+ easy.

12x will get you out beyond 1k. It's more than enough for 450-500. 9x is plenty for that max range.

This.. Generally when shooting NRL if you have a lot of wind at 800+ yards you'll need to stay dialed at 12 so you can spot your miss. The places I've shot NRL had targets smaller than elk at those distances

 

[pender1]

12x is roughly double what you need at that range.

 

[Dave Thomas]

12x should be fine for big game hunting. Now target shooting is different. On my f class rifle I use 80x. While hunting you probably won't even use 12x at 500 yards.

 

[N2TRKYS]

12-15 power is good out to 500 yards. Much farther than that and I prefer more magnification.

 

[Mike D Texas]

I shoot past 1000 yards with a fixed 10x SWFA.


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[MuleyFever]

I don't tend to move my magnification over 10x for anything. Just gives me a good balance of magnification and FOV.

 

[Diamondback]

The Field of View gets smaller for the more magnification used.

At 500yds 6x looks like:





At 500yds 9x looks like:




At 500yds 12x looks like:




At 500yds 14x looks like:

 

[Southern Lights]

I usually use 1-1.5X for each 100 yards distance. My minimum is usually 2-4X at 100. At 500 I'd be 3-6X or so. In ELR out to 2K I'd usually be at 12-15X max. I wouldn't want 12X at 500 yards. The field of view would be narrow and it would be hard to get the crosshairs back on the target after the shot even with a low recoiling rifle.

 

[NorthIdahoDude]

Do you think you could hit a deer-sized Target at 56 yards with a red dot on your rifle? Of course you good, it would be trivially easy. That's 500 yd with a 3-9 dialed to max.

Punching paper is one thing, I like a lot of zoom if I am sitting comfortably at a bench with the front and rear rest and I'm trying to hit a point in the size of a fly from a long ways out. But if I am just trying to get the bullet placed in the center mass of the chest cavity, I actually find it distracting to have a lot of zoom. I've never taken a shot at an animal at 500 (not that I wouldn't if conditions were right, it's just never happened), but I have at 300, and in the moment it never even occurred to me to dial the scope up from 3, I just set it up, crosshairs on center mass of the chest then raised them a bit higher because of the yardage, and sent it - center punched the heart lungs. Realized later I had done that with scope on 3.

 

[Lone Tree]

What are you hunting?

Big game, you’d be fine with a 4-6x at that distance.

Prairie dogs? You’re gonna need more than 4x

Yeah I’m hunting deer in the mountains so no prairie dogs…

 

[Lone Tree]

Thanks everyone, a lot of great info. I’ll be good to go with 12x max then.

 

[Ajsomp]

Just my experience- you need less magnification for killing critters than marketing will tell you. I shot nearly 700 combined rounds yesterday from ranges of 100-923 yards with an 8x being the highest power I had with me. My two hunting guns are set up with fixed 6x and I had no issues seeing my target, my impacts, and misses out to those distances. In fact the image was better on my SWFA 6x’s than my ATACR 1-8 at 8 (which isn’t a fair comparison given the objective lens difference).

This is coming from someone who spent years with a 4-16, 5-25 atacr and 4-32 NX8.

So to answer your question- yes 12x will be more than enough.