Thread: Hunting Scope Magnification

What scope magnification do you blokes use on your hunting rifles ?
I’m not talking target / range scopes but your knocking over animals rifles .
Variable power scopes are the norm these days ( I’m old enough to remember when you had to be a Flash Harry to own a good variable scope ) so I thought it would be interesting to have a ask around of what power range everyone uses.
Personally my 3 main hunting scopes are .
3-9 x 40
3-10 x 50
3-12 x 50

I really like the low end of 3 power on a hunting scope and the upper end of no more than about 10 power ( my 3-12 doesn’t get used on 12 very much )
What say you all ?

Horses for courses....
For open country I use a 4-20×50
For varminting I uses a 4-16×44
I think for bush hunting anything with a lower end mag of 2 or less would be sweet (currently I don't ownna bush rifle)

2.5-8 × 36 on my main rifle.
4.5-14 on project rifle, one day I'll get it shooting well enough to hunt with, can't ever see me using 14 power though.

2.5-25x42 on my do it all rifle I’m a huge fan of the 3-13 to 3-15 sort of range of scopes nothing they can’t do hunting big game

1-8, 3-9, 4-16 all have their place. I probably use the rifle with the 1-8 most.

I'm old-fashioned and think that most people these days are over-magnifing.
4x32 on my 7x57 and 22
6x42 on my 25-06
3-9x40 on both my 25-08 and 222 (only cos it's hard to get fixed power scopes these days).

However I've just turned fifty and noticed my eyesight is changing, so i might need a bit more magnification in 20 years time?.

Originally Posted by Basenjiboy

I'm old-fashioned and think that most people these days are over-magnifing.

I agree

2.5-8 and 2-10 on hunting rifles.

Ive tried to standardise to 3-12x.
Interestingly, Leupold dont offer one in that range.
Nothing wrong with 3-15 but just a bit big and heavier than I need mostly.
I use the 12x mag a lot. Makes it easier to get good shot placement at 100-200m.

Originally Posted by Basenjiboy

… cos it's hard to get fixed power scopes these days).

However I've just turned fifty and noticed my eyesight is changing, so i might need a bit more magnification in 20 years time?.

Ive worked on that principle.
The main thing is you need to have the scope set up just right for. Eye relief and cheek weld if you routinely use higher power. And a varipower scope is extra good as most shooting will be at 4-6x and you still need that.
For older eyes, “side focus” ie a parallax knob is really useful nut unfortunately seldom offered even at 12x scope and you have to go higher to getvit.

I ended up with a 4-16x44 simply because it had the features I was after. For shooting the highest power I use is 8-10x. A 3-9x40 is nothing to be sneezed at though.

3-10 is perfect for a hunting rifle I’ve been there some that with all sorts of telescopes mounted to my rifles but appreciate a rifle that carry’s and handles well these days and 10x is plenty to shoot out as far as you can ethically take game reliably and consistently. I’m still on the hunt for another z3 3-10 to put on my other hunting rifle but picked up a 3-15x44 signature HD yesterday to be able to do some load development and I don’t know how I ever put up with dragging rifles around with scopes of that sort of proportion on them I will probably move it on or keep it for load development or a gong gun or something when I finally manage to find another swaro.

Depends on the scope.

If someone made a scope that went from 3-30x, FFP mil dot, illuminated reticle, was as good on the bottom end of magnification as the top (most either 'tunnel' at the bottom or wash out at the top, or both! ), weighed around 500-800 grams, 30mm tube, 50 mil worth of adjustment on the elevation dial, either capped or locking windage, side focus down to 10m (for NV clip on use) and cost less than $1000 USD then I'd be using it.

Sadly this spec does not exist as physics is a bitch.

1.5-5x for bush hunting (real bush hunting, average range 15m)
4.5-14x for everything else

I unashamedly like magnification. If you successfully shoot to 500 metres with a 4x scope, I'm happy for you, but not my thing.

3-9 2-12 and 3-18 on my hunting rifles.

I find 3x ideal for bush and most stalking winding up from there if a longer shot presents itself in open country.
I hardly ever have the 2-12 on 2 as I can see the barrel in the scope.

As I started shooting further I found myself wanting a bit more mag than 9x

I got a 4.5x 14 but found the 4.5 a bit much in the bush.

Good glass is more important than high magnification but that said if I was long range hunting rabbits or wallabys down south I would probably want more top end mag than I currently have.