Varmint Hunter
Well-Known Member
I like high magnification hunting scopes (ex: 5-20x50) for two reasons:
1) I spend a lot of time at the bench working up loads and do most of the work at 400yds. It's hard to maintain a good hold on a small target, at distance, without the magnification.
2) Most of the places I hunt have antler restrictions. Animals have to have X number of points or X amount of antler width. Sometimes you can see tines up but can't see brow tines. Other times you need to know if the buck meets the 15" width rule. Sometimes you need to be able to see if that doe isn't really a spike or other small buck. Cranking the scope up to its maximum magnification can really help you KNOW before you pull the trigger.
There's also the issue of, "is this the buck I really want" or should I pass and hope for something else. It's funny how that ground-shrinkage thing happens when you didn't have a sufficient look at the animal before the hammer fell.
With that being said, you don't need 20x to harvest animals at almost any reasonable distance. On a groundhog hunt a few years back I was carrying a heavy varmint rig with a Nightforce 12-42x56 scope. Just as we loaded the car to go home, 3 crows landed in a dead tree, 500yds away. There was an earthen hill behind the tree so taking a shot was safe. My buddy couldn't be bothered unpacking his rifle for a crow so I figured that I'd try. I set up quickly and took the shot. Only two crows flew off and the 3rd headless crow fell to the bottom of the tree. As I was repacking my rifle I glanced at the scope to see what magnification it was on, I was surprised to see that it was set on 12x.
1) I spend a lot of time at the bench working up loads and do most of the work at 400yds. It's hard to maintain a good hold on a small target, at distance, without the magnification.
2) Most of the places I hunt have antler restrictions. Animals have to have X number of points or X amount of antler width. Sometimes you can see tines up but can't see brow tines. Other times you need to know if the buck meets the 15" width rule. Sometimes you need to be able to see if that doe isn't really a spike or other small buck. Cranking the scope up to its maximum magnification can really help you KNOW before you pull the trigger.
There's also the issue of, "is this the buck I really want" or should I pass and hope for something else. It's funny how that ground-shrinkage thing happens when you didn't have a sufficient look at the animal before the hammer fell.
With that being said, you don't need 20x to harvest animals at almost any reasonable distance. On a groundhog hunt a few years back I was carrying a heavy varmint rig with a Nightforce 12-42x56 scope. Just as we loaded the car to go home, 3 crows landed in a dead tree, 500yds away. There was an earthen hill behind the tree so taking a shot was safe. My buddy couldn't be bothered unpacking his rifle for a crow so I figured that I'd try. I set up quickly and took the shot. Only two crows flew off and the 3rd headless crow fell to the bottom of the tree. As I was repacking my rifle I glanced at the scope to see what magnification it was on, I was surprised to see that it was set on 12x.
