10x zoom too much for 100-300 yard hunting?

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Kharn

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I've come to look at the Tasco Super Sniper line of scopes to top my Remington 700P in .308, with my main focus being on the 10x42 setup. (the Leupold Mark 4 I previously wanted is just too far outside my price range, as I need to save as much as possible so I can buy a house in June)

Is a 10x scope too much zoom to hunt effectively in the 100-300 yard zone? I've never been hunting before and most of my buddies use about a 4x zoom, hunting will be on a fallow farm. Will I be looking at individual hairs on the deer and unable to tell if I'm looking at his butt or shoulder?

Kharn
 
Reckon ya buds use 4X for a reason?

Excess forfiets all gains.

If to be doing serious prarie doggin' at 400 yards, yea, maybe.

But, in my not-so-humble-opinion, particularly for a guy looking to buy first house, something along the lines of the relatively-new 3X to 9X "poor man's Leupold" would be a better place to put the next $200 budgeted for "toys".
;)

Beyond that, 300 yard shots are quite difficult for most new shooters and should simply not be taken (except in dreams) until hundreds, if not thousands, of rounds have been put down range on targets the size of 8" paper plates - or until consistently successful on prarie dogs. :cool:
 
My friends also stalk hunt; my coworker's setting me up in the loft of the barn for my first so I wont have to move once the sun comes up.

A Leupold would cost as much as the Super Sniper, SWFA sells them for $300 new.

Kharn
 
I'm a lazy dude ( :eek: ), and this rifle's more for punching paper than hunting. I dont see much stalking with this rifle in the future, I've got an FAL and an AK I could use for that.

Kharn
 
"I'm a lazy dude ( ), and this rifle's more for punching paper than hunting."

Aaaaaah yes, now more of the facts come out. :D

FWIW, I had a Tasco "World Class" scope on an '06 for only a couple of years before it began to come unhinged from just moderate amounts of shooting of mostly mid-range 168 grainers. It must not haved soured me on 'em too bad tho because I sussequently bought their "Bantam" scope for Savage .222/20 gauge combo gun. In the past few days, I've done my best to see if it's going to hold up. Put at least 3 dozen 20 gauge slugs thru it this week and got it dead-on at 50 yards ... but it played heck with the zero for .222 barrel ...

But, back to the huntin' rather than paper punchin' ... A wise man once said that deer huntin' can be kinda like sex - exciting and all for a while, but once ya pull the trigger, *someone* has got to clean up the mess ... ;)
 
WalMart sells Leupold VX1 3x9s for around $180. I recently bought a good used Leupold VX II 3x9 for $160.

I've killed a buck at 350 yards with the scope set on 3X (Hadn't planned on that; that's where the scope happened to be set.)

I have no trouble at 9X on making good groups at 500 yards.

I have a Weaver V3 on a lightweight walking-around 7mm08; I can get three-shot one MOA groups. I wouldn't call it a paper-puncher, though.

But the field of vision is real narrow for deer hunting, if it's a fixed-power 10X.

Art
 
I find a 3X or 4X about right for me in the 100-300 yard ranges.

Remember, Kharn, as the power increases the field of vision (distance across the target) becomes narrower so that 10X at 100 yards would be really, really narrow.

I suspect, only because I don't have a 10X here, that the field of vision of a 10X would only allow you 10 foot across at 100 yards...just a guess, mind ya.

Even if not, with narrowing field of vision it becomes harder and harder to pick up your target.

If you insist on a high power you might want to invest in a variable power....using the lower power to acquire your game and then dial higher to bring it in.
 
In a Non variable don't go above 6X, and that is a little high. I like 3-4X for most situations, then if I think I want to try one of the longer shoots I have plenty of time to dial the power up.

I have been trying to come up with a scenario that illustrates this for several threads on this subject. And it fell into my my brain finally. Take your rifle out on 10x and glass antelope at 250-300 yds. The goats are constantally moving and you will be forever trying to find them in you scope even at that range. About 1/2 hour later you will have your answer why 6x even at that range is better. I am not going to say 10x doesn't have a place in the hunting fields but 95% of the time you will get more use out of the lower power settings.
 
Is a 10x scope too much zoom to hunt effectively in the 100-300 yard zone? I've never been hunting before and most of my buddies use about a 4x zoom, hunting will be on a fallow farm.
Click to expand...

As a fellow newbie, 10X is too much for me. 10X is really nice at the range, but not in the field.

patent

edited to clarify: a fixed 10X is too much in the field, IMHO. I actually think its nice to be able to go up to 10X, I just don't want to start there.
 
Looks like I'll be slapping my 3-9x32 Bushnell on my 700P until deer season's over, I snagged a deal on a Super Sniper that was too good to pass up. I'll swap over to the SS should I detect the first sign of something wrong with the Bushnell.

Kharn
 
I have that scope you mention.
It is on an AR15 with a 24" barrel that I use strictly for paper.
I am not sure that 10X is too much depending on your situation, although I will admit that I have never tried to hunt with a scope at such high magnification. However, If you were hunting eastern whitetails from a fixed stand (such as the loft of a barn), you could probably get away with it. Another factor is that you probably have a good idea where the deer are going to be and can shoot off a bipod or a rest of some kind in the barn. It is definitely too much for doing much of anything else.
This has been mentioned, but the big problem isn't that all you see is fur. The problem is that you see the animal, and then you have a hard time finding it with the scope because you are looking at such a small area though the scope with high magnification.
 
Had two nice does walk out in front of me in January, at about 170 yards. I found that my scope was stuck at just above 2x, but I dropped that first deer at a measured 173 yards, and I'm no great shot. Point being- 10x is probably a bit
much.

John
 
My normal hunting setup is a .30-06 (Win model 70) and a Bushnell 3X9 scope. Yes you might get shots at 1-300 yards. But what happens (and it's happened to me several times) when that deer appears at 15 yards? You're going to be hard pressed to see anything but VERY LARGE hairs at 10X, maybe the occasional wood tick that looks like a Mac truck. For the range, 10X would be ok, but I think you'd be seriously limiting yourself under most normal hunting conditions.
 
I always keep my 3X9 on 3X. If you have a long shot 100+ yards you can always increase the power without alerting the deer. Try fiddling with the power when the deer is 20 yards from you and you’ll see what I mean.
 
I use a Leupold vari-x II 2x7 which to me is perfect- if set to 2x.

A local club has a running deer target range that you can shoot at at a distance of 100 yards. I tried it with the scope set at 7x once and it was very difficult to find the target quickly.
 
With me the setting depends on both the type of stand and whether I'm on the ground. In the stand I've hunted for years...I could adjust the scope for the close ones with hidden hands and had a couple of possible 300yd. shots (distance measured by laser). In that stand I kept the setting on 9X. On the ground or on an open stand I keep it on 3X.
 
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