What power scope

[Dr. Rx]

Gents
Question..
Friend of mine drew a tag of a lifetime.
The guide said you may need to shoot cross canyon shots up to 700 yards..
Understanding that practice is a must, what power scope would you use?

Kris

 

[wannakillabigbull]

4-16ish will do fine. Maybe 5-20x if you don't think you'll have any close shots in the timber.

 

[deerkiller]

IF you are talking "elk" then 10x-12x will do everything a shooter needs at 700, practice (like you recognize) is a more important aspect of this equation I've lost count of elk I've killed, I use 3.5 x 10 x 40mm only now, although I pass at shooting 700 yards on game I can surely enough tell what I'm looking at through 10x VX3, then I start stalking …..

 

[DRUSS]

4-16ish will do fine. Maybe 5-20x if you don't think you'll have any close shots in the timber.

I agree. I just finished a shooting class with MOA and used a 5.5-22x but was quite impressed with the view of the 4-16x ATAC-R that a couple guys were using.

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

 

[LaGriz]

Dr. Rx,
I would be a lot more comfortable if a potential guide worded it different. Like: "Of course we will try and get you closer, but a long shot may present itself and you should be ready for opportunities up to 700 yards." I'm thinking that a guide worth his salt should have a game plan to get me closer than a 1/2 mile. It's not a technology contest, its a hunting trip. A comment like this might make me look for another outfitter.

I have always felt that a quality 2X10 or 3X9 scope was a good match on a big game hunting rifle. I don't like the looks of huge "thermos bottle-looking" scopes on my rifle, and I don't like the extra weight of them either. If was shooting steel at 1000 yards on a regular basis I would of course have more magnification. Good luck with your research. LaGriz

 

[ramont]

I'm going to second LaGriz' comments, if your guide is saying that 700 yard shots are common then he's not the guy I'd pick.

I live in SW Montana and most of my hunting is treed country with lots of mountains. I have a Vortex PST Gen II 3-35x44mm on my elk rifle. I can take close shots or longer range shots. I use 168gr bullets in a .308 Win and I don't like to take shots longer than about 300 yards (I might stretch it to 400 yards if the circumstances are perfect).

In my opinion most of the self proclaimed long range hunters are full of hot air. I've done enough long range competition shooting to say, with confidence, that probably only 10 or 15 percent of everybody that claims that they are expert long range marksmen really are. The reality is that the heart/lung kill zone on an elk is about a 6 inch circle. When you aim, your desired point of impact (POI) is the center of that 6 inch circle. So your margin of error, from the center of that kill zone, is plus or minus 3 inches. A 3 inch error at 700 yards is about 0.43 MOA. Do you feel confident that under any circumstances you can keep your bullet impacts to within a half MOA at 700 yards? At 300 yards that error is equivalent to 1 MOA, that's a lot easier to do than a half MOA, especially when you remember that the elk looks a lot bigger in your scope at 300 yards than at 700 yards.

 

[Formidilosus]

The reality is that the heart/lung kill zone on an elk is about a 6 inch circle.

What elk are you shooting? That’s the size of a coyote. Every elk I’ve seen has lungs more than 15” tall by 18” long.

 

[Dr. Rx]

I really appreciate your feedback gents. Deerkiller, LaGriz, Ramont, 406Smith..you guys are spot on. I'm not a LR shooter at all, but was perplexed when the guide mentioned that!
You guys help validated that its a hunt, not a shooting competition.

Thank you all

Kris

 

[deerkiller]

Yeah man, remember to provide a notarized affidavit from your buddy's guide before asking an optics question on an internet forum....geez, what a rookie mistake to paraphrase!

I think, 2.5-10, 3-9, 3-12, 3-15, 3-18, 4-12, 4-16, 4-20, and anything in that general range would work just fine. If any of his current scopes are mechanically sound, then maybe spend the money elsewhere?

what's wrong with "rookies" ? everyone makes mistakes and that one is a little bitty one - most of us were glad to discuss it ….

 

[deerkiller]

Don’t be so literal man. Nothing wrong with the OP. It was amusing to me that guys latch onto a third-hand paraphrased statement used to contextualize the question.

roger that ….

 

[mcseal2]

One thing to remember is that seeing bullet impacts and follow up shots get more difficult as power increases. If your field of view gets to small and your gun recoils much, it can be harder to relocate and hit the target. I have a 5-30x scope on one rifle for longer range shooting, mostly because I got a great deal on it, but I really like something in the 3-12x or 4-16x range better.

I shoot both quite a bit out to 600 yards, slightly less to 800 yards. I don't feel handicapped at 600 yards at all with my 3-12x. It's pretty light to carry and good for close shots on 3x also. Maybe someday I'll get one of those close shots with it! I think everything I've shot with that rifle so far has been between 300 and 380 yards. I shoot a Nosler E tip from that rifle and my velocity starts to get questionable past that 600 yard mark for good expansion so I wouldn't hunt with it farther.

FWIW the old 4.5-14x Leupold VX-III scopes I used on the first big game rifles I bought had a 19.9' field of view at 100 yards on 4.5x. I learned to find animals in the scope quickly on that power and that became my minimum. Any scope I buy for hunting I want to have at least that much FOV at 100 yards and I prefer to have 30' or more. I worry more about that, low light performance, reliable tracking, and weight than top end magnification.

That's what works for me, not necessarily what will be best for your buddy.

 

[CApighunter]

I’d like something in the 3-18 or 4-16 range.