Fellow hunters, need advice

[HUAINAMACHERO]

I am a new member, and a passionate hunter as all of you. I live in Quito, Ecuador, South America. I hunt whitetail deer in the Andes Mountains, and I frequently have deer that I could shoot out from 500 yards or more. I own a Winchester Model 70, 270 winchester, Pre 64, 22 inch barrel, worked on beddings, full floating, and trigger. I reload my shots which I learned by myself reading books and articles. Not a lot of people is interested here in hunting, and presicion shooting and reloading. My longest shoot has been to a 8 point whitetail buck and 325 yards, ranged with my Leupold rangefinder. I know my limits, and I am very interested in learning about long range shooting. Need advice on what scope would you guys recommend between the nightforce 3.5x15x50 or nightforce 5.5x20x50 or a Leupold Mark IV 6.5x20x50. Need also a spotting scope, what would you recommend.
Thanks for the advice.
If interested in hunting in Ecuador just let me know.

 

[James Jones]

If your max range is gonna be 500yds then needing a 20x scope is realy not needed , 10-12 will work fine , but if you want one then their no better reason to get one. I would personaly get the Nightforce if you can afford it but the Leupold is certainly nothing to sneeze at.

The 150gr Ballistic tip in your gun loaded with some 4831 should get you around 2800for and that will certainly be more than any whitetail can handel.

 

[HUAINAMACHERO]

Thank you James. I am planing on getting the Nightforce 5.5x20x50, I hunt in really open spaces, so being able to see deer in the long range will be the first step to hunt them. That is exactly the powder I am using to reload, but not with 150gr, I am actually shooting 130gr, will follow your advice and practice with that load to see how it goes.

 

[ol mike]

Armando ,

Good choice on the 5.5x22-50 NF -the bigger power works great for fine tuning your longrange loads.And 5.5x will never be -too- much.

On the spotting scope question -it depends on how far you walk and have to carry it.
Get the biggest and best you can afford -if you put in a lot of miles on foot get the best -plus compact size.
In glass stick with top names for top performing glass -zeiss,sworovski,leica etc. and you won't go wrong.
Myself i prefer powerful binos -never owned a spotting scope.

You say there aren't many people interested in longrange hunting/shooting down there -all the better -you have it all to yourself!
Best of luck -Mike