I will be going antelope hunting this fall. Would a 8.5X25 Leupold scope be too much for this hunt? I used a 2.5X10 bushnell for the last hunt but I would to use the target knobs on the leupold for range adj. The antelpoe I shot in 06 was at 244 yards with the scope set on 10X.
JDY
I would say you could get away with it. I am not sure how much you will be able to use the upper end do to heat waves. It depends on where you hunt and the conditions of coarse. I and friends have used 6.5 X 20's on several occasions and had good luck. I used a NF NXS 5.5x22x50 on my last hunt. It is really clsoe to perfect. We shot two antelope with that rilfe, one at 40 yards and one at 300. Good Luck on your hunt.
IMO the 8x is too high of a low end for hunting. I don't think you'll ever have the need for the 25x top end either. For me, I like the 4.5-14x Leupy's as it is a good balance. If you are planning on shooting way out there (over 1K) you might look into the 6.5-20, but you could still get by with the 14x. Plenty of folks make long shots with that 10x scope too
I use a V3 6.5-20X 50mm and it is enough for about 1400 yards on antelope. I almost never set up the spotting scope being the Luepy is good enough for what needs to be done at that range.
If you are not going to shoot under 300 yards then there is not real problem in going to the 8X-25X.
Scope for Antelope
Linear Mode
