Is 5x "good enough" for close range target acquisition for hunting?

[Mykolaivka887]

Honest question. Wouldn’t looking through the scope in this scenario potentially end poorly for you?

Not necessarily, but depends on the magnification setting you're dialed into. When I follow up wounded bears in cover, I have my scope cranked down to 1x magnification. Of course, it's always set on 1x unless I happen to be sitting on a bear at more than 100 yds.

 

[Thebigbaby]

I love the Maven RS3. (5-30x) But I wish it was 3 or 4x on the low end. I don't want to spend $1600 bucks and find myself annoyed during close range target acquisition. Does the jump from 3x to 5x on the low end make a big difference during hunting applications? (I am mounting the optic of an Alamo Precision 300 win mag)

My background is lots of upland game bird hunting, but not a lot of big game hunting. Only one Elk hunting trip where the only animal we saw was from the truck on the drive in. I also shot one Wisconsin White Tail doe from 50 yards with my Bushmaster 5.56... just so you know I have some serious hunting street cred.

I don't think I'd actually ever use the 30X for practical hunting purposes but I like some of the feature that RS3 provides over the RS1, for example a true zero stop.

My intended use is out west hunting (and long range shooting) but I know that I could find myself hunting in situations that would require a "close" shot (inside 75 yards).

Thanks!

In my opinion and from my experience (not much), I think it would be better to have something around 3x on the low end. With that, I shot a deer last year with my 6-24 vortex on 6x at 30 yards. Yes it works but is not optimal. I felt lucky more that anything that I was able to acquire the deer so quickly.

 

[WV Mountaineer]

You’ll do fine with that. Ask any eastern hunter where the rifle shots range from 10 yards to way under a 100. On average.

 

[moxford]

Had the same questions myself so I took an existing scope, dialed to 5x, and checked mag/FOV with some quick shouldering. IMO, even in my garage, 5X was very very doable. Canadian moose at 10', maybe not though ... lol.

Cheers,
-mox

 

[MeatMissile]

Probably been seen already... but ol' Jack O'Conner used 4x eastern and 6x western-- back in the day

Call me a throwback, but I have a fixed 4x on my 30-06 and a fixed 6x on my 270. Elk at 400 yards still look good size through a 4x. Same with deer and a 6x.

 

[Mykolaivka887]

Call me a throwback, but I have a fixed 4x on my 30-06 and a fixed 6x on my 270. Elk at 400 yards still look good size through a 4x. Same with deer and a 6x.

Totally agree. I have a fixed 4x on my .270 and that's plenty of magnification on deer and elk out to 400 yards. Same principle on my .375 H&H where I have a 1-4x variable on it and that's plenty of magnification for elk out to 400 yards as well. The other rifles I have are packing 2-7x variables and most of the time they're pre-set at 4x and rarely if ever get turned higher than that setting.

 

[GWHunter]

One thing my dad and I have done is use two scopes. Most of our rifles and one piece picatinny rails type scope bases. We have a few rifles that we want low power scopes on .444 marlin, a shorty AR. When doing load development we have a higher power scope to mount on them to get the most accurate load for the rifle then switched to the LPVO and sighted that in. We recently picked up a Swampfox 1-10 power, and after shooting and looking through it at some known size steel plates out to 400 I'm really liking that power range for the type of hunting and shooting I do. I'll always remember this story when it comes to magnification in scope. My very first year deer hunting an a doe comes running in to about 20 yards on my dads side of the blowdown we are against. I told him its on his side and it'll probably spook by the time I could get into position to shoot so I tell him to take it. He shoots it with a .243 on 6x power its actually runs closer to us to like 12 yards and stops. He goes to put another shot into and fires three rounds at her never hit her. Turns the scope down to 3x and there was an old fence post right over her vitals that was blurred out in the scope. All three round where in one big hole in the fence post. He popped in the neck with the 4th round.