Thread: Help on scope magnification range??

Originally Posted by Beetroot

10X magnification is more than enough for 99% of hunting applications, and with the right reticle will still work well at 500m.

As Beetroot has added above, the reticle needs to be considered along with the magnification range. With some "thick" reticles, placement of your shots at 500m with the scope set to 10x could be tricky on small red or fallow sized animals. This is from having taken but also having passed up a number of shots around 300m with a 5x scope. I'd always felt that with a standard reticle in the same situations 300m+ would have become straightforward and have from time to time played with the idea of changing it, but then I appreciate the thicker reticle at 1.5x when close up. So add reticle design to FOV, clarity, forgiving eyebox, on top of magnification, weight & compactness, and cost, and we've got you that much closer to a decision haven't we?

With hunting gear the war of compromise rages nowhere more fiercely than between choices in scopes!