Quick scope question

[Huntndog]

I have my 300wm dead on at 200 yds for elk. It has aSwarovski 3.5-18 on it and it was sighted on the highest power. I am now going to hunt whitetail with it and will almost certainly only shoot at 100 yds or less. Someone told me since it was sighted at 18 power I need to keep it there when shooting at game. Can I not dial it back to 4 and still be accurate at short ranges?

 

[Pickettpuncher]

Whatever distance you’re sighted in at doesn’t change with the magnification. What does change is if you a holdover type scope. This is also only true if it’s a SFP, and not ffp. So your initial zero is fine, but the holdovers change as you zoom in and out

 

[Scottf270]

Whoever you spoke to is an idiot.

 

[Huntndog]

So in other wordsI should quit worrying about it and just hunt?

 

[willtim]

Yep...at low power.

 

[Macintosh]

Older second-focal plane scopes did shift zero as zoom was changed, although only a small amount. A decent modern 2fp scope wont shift enough that you could tell. Reticle hash marks will change value as noted above, but the center crosshair wont. Use on low power and dont worry about it.