Short range optic for heavy woods whitetail

[omicron1792]

I like the Steiner h6xi in 2-12 or 3-18. I have two and love them.

 

[KenLee]

@KenLee “delusional”? Since you obviously know where and how I hunt, know my eyes better than I do, and know what I should be seeing, maybe PM me a few onx pins of where I hunt? Having another set of eyes on things can shed new light, ya know?

Your hunting hours are not my hunting hours. Your eyes are not my eyes. Your terrain is not my terrain. Your style of hunting is not mine. Your priorities are not mine. Have you considered that perhaps no single persons experiences are universal?



If you are the “other folks”, thats fine. The most extreme situation of low light is not
my priority. Im fine on this scope having 30min past legal in dark woods most of the time, as opposed to under the darkest conditions I see maybe once or twice a season—because in this use other priorities are more important to me. Again, if your priorities are different, you do you. But yes, more often than not my 28mm scope sees me to the end of legal light in the woods.

I went too far with the "delusional" comment. That afternoon/evening consisted of making funeral arrangements, fajitas and margaritas. There's no good excuse for a grown man to be pissy over a scope discussion.

 

[KenLee]

So I can’t hear anything moving because it’s raining. And it must be too dark to see the deer with the naked eye, or I’d just pull up with my scoped rifle. At this point am I to be scanning the “dense” woods constantly with binoculars for, idk, 30mins or however long this absurd theoretical situation requires?

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30 minutes vs. Hours glassing on a mountain or watching the prarie. How is that absurd?

 

[Macintosh]

Dont worry Man. We are, after all, grown men passionately discussing the nuances of inanimate objects with other grown men whom we’ve never met. There is some level of absurdity regardless! I’ll therefore not be casting any stones from inside my glass house.

Sorry to hear you had a loss. I do love me some fajitas though, cant think of a better way to make a bad situation better. Lets not discuss the tradeoffs of various size tortillas though, that could get ugly.

 

[plebe]

30 minutes vs. Hours glassing on a mountain or watching the prarie. How is that absurd?

It’s the totality of information.

I see you have never actually hunted to 30 minutes past sunset on a rainy and/or moonless night in dense woods.

How far can you see in dense woods? Maybe your woods are less dense than mine. Glassing dense woods past sunset on a rainy moonless night isn’t going to be productive to me. To each his or her own.

I don’t think your scope recommendation is a bad one, I don’t think it’s as tailored to OP’s needs as it could be. You disagree with my thoughts on that, and that’s fine. Whatever OP decides has no bearing on my success in the woods. And we apparently have very different experiences while hunting, and that’s fine too.

But we can look at the numbers and maybe someone can make something of it for his/herself.

Ignoring coatings and lens/erector configuration, or rather considering them equal. Here’s some math:

42/8 = 5.25

28/4 = 7
28/3 = 9.333
28/2 = 14
28/1 = 28

56/8 = 7
56/7 = 8
56/6 = 9.333
56/5 = 11.2
56/4 = 14
56/3 = 18.666
56/2.5 = 22.4

Looking solely at exit pupil, we see that a 28mm objective at 5x offers more exit pupil than a pair of 8x42 binos. But you have two eyes, yada yada yada. Both are below the 7mm/8mm best case low light human pupil size.

A 28mm scope hits 7mm exit pupil at 4x. The 56 is at 7mm at 8x. So double, which is a pattern we see (6x vs 3x, 4x vs 2x) given it’s times two objective size. Ignoring discussion of perceived performance benefit and/or measured (in minutes of twilight visibility) from some extra mm in exit pupil (of course this is of utmost importance), the numbers clearly favor the 56mm objective, for the sake of argument.

Still, the 28mm scope is completely adequate for the given hunting scenario, imo, with 7mm or better exit pupil from 4x and below.
Folks can decide for themselves, don’t take it from me:

Stop Buying Scopes with Big Objectives to Gather Light - Petersen's Hunting

Large objective lenses have advantages, but it has nothing to do with light gathering.

www.petersenshunting.com

 

[juju]

I see some claims in this thread that just aren't so. Arguing them is a waste of time. It's not like you can't take these things to the woods and try them. If you need to see if one is better than the other, order from opticsplanet. Keep the winner. Send the loser back.

 

[Balderdash]

In the states I hunt with some regularity - WI, MI, CO, MT, WY - most scopes built in the last 10 years that I've looked through, even cheaper ones, will get you to close shots at closing time without too much issue. If shots are far and/or seasons last longer than 30 min past sunset, then extra brightness and clarity are certainly worth figuring out.

I ran 1" Leupold 1.5-5's on Northwoods "woods'" rifles for years and years. They're not the brightest rig going by any stretch, and in fact a lot of modern scopes are significantly brighter. Just the same, I don't recall a situation in which I couldn't have made a shot at closing time, even in heavy, heavy cover on overcast days, with the old Leupolds.

 

[Long Cut]

A point that hasn’t been made is for States/Properties with strict harvest rules or laws. Some States have a # of points, spread etc..
Several properties that I hunt have “Shoot” and “No Shoot” lists for specific bucks. Shooting a “No Shoot” buck = Dismissal from the Club.

So imagine you’re hunting a food plot, creek bottom etc and you have several bucks in the plot. You glass and ID the “shooter” with binos, pull up your rifle and they’ve moved.. now which buck is the shooter? Will the 4x vs 7x be adequate magnification depending on the range, conditions, light, my eye sight etc..

All food for thought. Everyone will have different wants and needs. There’s no “right” or “wrong” here…

 

[plebe]

A point that hasn’t been made is for States/Properties with strict harvest rules or laws. Some States have a # of points, spread etc..
Several properties that I hunt have “Shoot” and “No Shoot” lists for specific bucks. Shooting a “No Shoot” buck = Dismissal from the Club.

So imagine you’re hunting a food plot, creek bottom etc and you have several bucks in the plot. You glass and ID the “shooter” with binos, pull up your rifle and they’ve moved.. now which buck is the shooter? Will the 4x vs 7x be adequate magnification depending on the range, conditions, light, my eye sight etc..

All food for thought. Everyone will have different wants and needs. There’s no “right” or “wrong” here…

I can’t say for certain but it doesn’t sound like that’s the situation OP has.

I hunt a lot of thick swamps, tamarack woods, cattails in northern WI and MN. This style of hunting I've only had one shot opportunity over 100 yards which was because I set up in a sole tree in a large area that had just been logged.

Currently I have a Vortex Diamondback tactical 3-9 on that rifle and I'm not a fan. Along with putting this rifle in a new stock I want to switch up the optic. I am thinking of something like a 1x red dot, LVPO or even a red dot with a magnifier. Quick target acquisition is very important to me and the ability to have 1x magnification would be very helpful. Anyone have any ideas or do something similar?

 

[twfreemyer]

SIG Tango 1-8x LVPO is the way to go IMO