How much XX?

Scope magnification? Personally, anything over 15-16x is counterproductive at the range. At high magnification I can't find the darn target, and when I do it messes with my concentration. I shoot at reasonable ranges, <800 yards.

When hunting I prefer even less XX, seldom shooting at game with the scope any higher than 6x. Deer and Elk are big and IMO do not require more.

I guess I'm missing something because I see scopes on LR rifles that top out at 25 or even 40x.

I use 6.5-20. I find 6.5 is too much magnification for close encounters and in the bush. I do like the higher magnification for identifying if an animal is legal or species at distance. Bino's don t cut it at longer ranges and I usually don't sport my spotting scope for day hunts.

You are the only one to answer your question. Use what works for you.
I like having up to 16 myself on hunting rifles and up to 25 for bench shooting.

Had 6.5-20x....can't hunt brush with that....but good for fine tuning longer shots at 20x.....
New scopes are 3-15x.......binos tell me if the critter is worth pursuing....

This little fork was at nearly 500 yds...

This little 4x was at 1670yds...
Leupold SwitchPower 10-17 binos on a tripod......long ways..about 15" high...10" wide.......hope he made it thru the winter...but I want his grandpa.....

We hunt in mixed terrain….I want no more than 4X on the low end! We're presently runn'n 3.5-10's…..they'll take us as far as we will shoot big game! memtb

The lowest mag scopes I have a 3-15x the biggest ones are 6-24x. I've never had any issue finding targets at the range. I like having the extra magnification when hunting too. Close range stuff the FOV of the larger magnification can be tough but even still it's not terrible. I also don't carry the 6-24x for close range hunting.

My longer range rifles wear 4X20 or 5X25. Longest I've taken game is 738 yds, it was a 5X25 and I don't recall what I used but it wasn't 25, probably 18-20X. I once shot an elk at 629 yds with a 4X16 at full 16X and I lost the animal in the recoil, it managed to move enough I could not find it again in the scope before it walked off a bit and fell down. Too much scope is a real thing.

In 1000yd competition my scope goes up to 60X, that's really only usable in cold weather but I'm mostly north of 40X. But it's a really controlled situation and it is still not rare for people to cross-shoot onto other targets because the gun moves in recoil and their field of view is so small they can't see the target number.

Shooting prairie dogs I'm not sure there is too much scope. I'm up to 20-25X at 500-600 yds to see them well and spot hits.

The only scope I've got that has higher than 16 power magnification is an old Vari-X III 6.5-20 on a bull barreled 22-250. I will probably buy a 4-20 for a dedicated long range steel banger, but it's unlikely that I'd ever use the rifle for hunting. At a very solid bench, 25 power might be completely usable, but I don't haul one with my for field shooting.

The 3-15 is a good all-purpose range. I've got one 2.5-15, and I doubt it'll be my last.

myshootinstinks said:

Scope magnification? Personally, anything over 15-16x is counterproductive at the range. At high magnification I can't find the darn target, and when I do it messes with my concentration. I shoot at reasonable ranges, <800 yards.

When hunting I prefer even less XX, seldom shooting at game with the scope any higher than 6x. Deer and Elk are big and IMO do not require more.

I guess I'm missing something because I see scopes on LR rifles that top out at 25 or even 40x.

Click to expand...

That depends on a person's quality of vision. For instance, my son shot a target at 966Y with 6X. I needed 12X to see the same target. The scope was 5-20X. I'd rather have it and not need it than the other way around.

This is why I like variable power. I hunt with my power all the way down. If I need more power, typically I'll have time to turn it up because the animal is far way and unaware of my presence.

That being said, I use scopes in the 3-15ish range for hunting. Although I blasted my elk with a 5-20 razor last year.

Perhaps my vision is nearly shot. When I shoot at a 100 yard target I use 15 X. When I shoot 200 yards or farther I use 25X.

My next scope looks like it's going to be a 5- 50X56. I had a 5-25X52 Swarovski and there were times when I needed a little more.

When I'm hunting whatever the scope is it's on its lowest power. I turn it up if I want to see something up closer.

This is my take on this, disregarding actual magnification, if you wear glasses like I do, parallax adjustment is so important that it is fundamental that it is correct at all magnification settings.
Second is the size of the objective for enhanced visibility and target size.
I bought a March that had 45x magnification at the upper end, one of the best scopes I have ever used, BUT, I could not use it above about 30x because the eye relief and parallax didn't suit me.
I now use scopes set on 4.5-27x50 for both hunting LR and F-class, everything the same just suits me better, if they upgrade these same scopes to a 56mm objective, I will upgrade.
With my glasses, I find it very annoying, this is a recent development I'm still not used to…

Cheers.

2-12 and 3-15 are my preferences, although my lightweight brush .308 wears a 1.75-6 which is handy as heck

3-18 should be sufficient. I am working on getting all my scopes into this range. Sold most the stuff that was different already.