I would say it has more to do with quality of glass than with actual power of magnification. Quality glass always trumps magnification in my opinion. I don't think anyone can definatively say you need X-power to see .308 holes at 300 yards, it will depend on the scope and conditions.
Posts: 40 | Location: Kuna, ID | Registered: 22 June 2007
I was testing two scopes at my local hunting store a couple of months ago. I could see sheet metal screws on a shop almost 700 yards away with the Leupold 12-40x60 on 40x, and I could not see them nearly as well with the Bushnell Elite 15-45x60 on 45x. Glass Quality is a big issue. Good shooting, Graham
Originally posted by RollinsB: I would say it has more to do with quality of glass than with actual power of magnification. Quality glass always trumps magnification in my opinion. I don't think anyone can definatively say you need X-power to see .308 holes at 300 yards, it will depend on the scope and conditions.
Theoretically, with perfect optics and perfect normal vision, you should be able to do it with 12x. With good light, a hole in an orange target that is roughly 1/4 inch in size that would be roughly a 1/4 MOA at 100 yards, and 1/12th MOA at 300 yards. Good human vision on such objects is around 1 MOA acuity. So enlarge 1/12th MOA 12 times and it should just barely be visible. To make it more than minimally visible you might want around 3 times this much.
So with good optics 35 or 40x should be enough. However, the air is often unstable enough in the daytime you get little added benefit from more than 25x or so. So a quality variable spotter of 40x or 45x on the top side should be enough. Just to put a ballpark number of what could work on it of course.
Reading Dsiteman's reply to this thread will give an idea why maybe more than 25x or so isn't useful. This is why cheap spotters are 15-45x or 60x while excellent Kowa's are often just 25x or 27x.
Posts: 852 | Location: USA | Registered: 01 September 2002
My spotting scope has a fixed 30x eyepiece, however, I haven't used it beyond 100 yards, so I really can't say wheter or not you can see bullet 30 caliber holes at 300 yards with it. But, I can see bullet holes are 100 with my Swaro PF 6x42 rifle scope, outside of the black.
Originally posted by DMB: My spotting scope has a fixed 30x eyepiece, however, I haven't used it beyond 100 yards, so I really can't say whether or not you can see bullet 30 caliber holes at 300 yards with it. But, I can see bullet holes are 100 with my Swaro PF 6x42 rifle scope, outside of the black.
I can see .30 cal holes every time at 500 yds with my Burris Signature 30 power. Sometimes 700 yds if conditions are right. My personal pick for a spotter is around 20 or 25 power, you have alot less heat waves in summer. Hope this helps. Louis
Posts: 1381 | Location: Mountains of North Carolina | Registered: 14 January 2008
