My brother has a Vari-ii 3x9x40 on a Rem 700 30-06 and he is thinking he needs a more powerful scope. He has been deer hunting for 4 days and did not get anything. The hunting areas would be NE WA, SW OR, and NE MT.

I realy love my Swaro 3-12x50 on my Remington 700 .30-06: And I agree with your brother: I love higher magnifition!

That 3x9 goes with that rifle like peas and carrots. If it's too far for 9X, it's too far for anything you can shoot from your shoulder. Hope this helps
31 bertram

I must agree with the 3-9 Leupold on the 30/06, it is what I have on my 30/06 and have shot game from 21 paces to 425 yards with excellent results, you can't ask for anything more of a scoped 30/06.

Tell your brother to quit with the excuses and get back in the field, you got to pay your dues sometimes you just need to put in more time cuz it ain't always easy.

It´s not the size of the scope that determinds wheter you get the game or not.

However 2,5-10x50 or 56 models of scopes will in one great package bring you short and long distance capabilities as well as lowlight/poor weather abilities.

Swarowski, Ziess, S&B, Helia and others offer these in both 1' and 30 mm tubes.

Best of luck.

/C

since the most popular scope is a 3-9, i'd say 6 is thebest power. alot of people are actually going back to the fixed 6 and from what i understand leupold sold more 6x in the last 3 years than the 10 before.

IMHO, anything from 2-10.

quote:

Originally posted by scubapro:
I realy love my Swaro 3-12x50 on my Remington 700 .30-06: And I agree with your brother: I love higher magnifition!

Scubapro,

I'm interested in your titanium mount, looks a lovely piece of engineering but why is it so incredibly high? It looks like a 56mm would fit with considerable room to spare.

quote:

Scubapro,

I'm interested in your titanium mount, looks a lovely piece of engineering but why is it so incredibly high? It looks like a 56mm would fit with considerable room to spare.[/QUOTE]

Hi 1894mk2,

it´s same height like other European manufacturer like Recknagel and EAW and it is 2-3mm deeper than Kilic... So the point of view of this image may look some extraordinary as the barrl of that gun is very slim...

If You wanna know more, you could reach my by pm...

Thanks
Klaus

quote:

The hunting areas would be NE WA, SW OR, and NE MT.

NE MT ispretty much open areas. For it and an '06, I think he has got exactly what he needs.

For SW OR, NE WA, I'd vote for LESS scope magnification, like a 1.5-6X or a 2-7X, or plain old K-3.

The one thing I would caution him in particular about is not getting a scope with bells/tube so big that the rifle becomes top-heavy and unbalanced.

Once you get up to 3-9X, or even 2-7X, I believe rifle balance is a hell of a lot more important to hitting than is any amount of magnification

quote:

Originally posted by tnekkcc:
My brother has a Vari-ii 3x9x40 on a Rem 700 30-06 and he is thinking he needs a more powerful scope. He has been deer hunting for 4 days and did not get anything. The hunting areas would be NE WA, SW OR, and NE MT.

I have 3 bolt action deer rifles - They are scoped 2.5, 2.5 and 4X. I prefer the lower fixed power scopes.

For a 30/06, I would stick with a 3-9X scope. At 9X, magnification, at least for me, is good enough for deer out to 400 to 500 yards. I doubt many people would or should shoot further than that with a 30/06 and most shots would be much closer.

This Kahles would be a good one for the 30-06. The TDS reticle would fit the trajectory with a little work.

Good price.

quote:

My brother has a Vari-ii 3x9x40 on a Rem 700 30-06 and he is thinking he needs a more powerful scope. He has been deer hunting for 4 days and did not get anything.

He is right.
he needs a 300 WSM and a zeiss 4.5-14x44 at least.
and then he will only be able to kill does and perhaps a button buck or two.
if he wants a decent buck he's gonna need a 340 weatherby and a nightforce 5.5-20x50 scope.
advise him that he wont be able to kill anything bigger than an 8 point with this set up.
if he decides he wants to shoot 140"+ deer he's will have to buy a Blaser 375 H&H w/ a US Optics SN3.

3 - 9x 40 mm. Leupold VX II or III on a bolt action 30-06 is a classic deer rig.

In the Western Oregon and Washington woods it works well for Blacktail. Although there are better arrangements, brush guns with lesser power scopes.

For general "deer hunting" it's basic like meat and potatoes.

East of the Cascades, high desert Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana . . . It can be a stretch. But it's stretching the 30-06 as much as the scope.

If you can't hit a deer with a 9x and a 30-06, it's because you're out of range on the caliber, not on the scope.

If you were shooting prairie dogs with a 30-06, then you'd need a larger magnification. -- But you'd also want a smaller bullet, flatter trajectory, and a heap of other considerations.

30-06 with a 3 - 9x scope, (especially a Leupold) is like macaroni and cheese, meat and potatoes, hot dogs and potato salad, Smith & Wesson . . .

If you can't get a deer with it, it's not about the rig. It's about the hunter.

when it comes to doing the load development and range shooting id prefer my 4.5-14X40LR VX-3, and its much more usuable for shooting targets at 600 yards. but out in the field if you stumble across a deer thats really close, under 20yards, its hard to put in a really well placed shot with it in 4.5X.

with a 3-9 it is easier at closer ranges and i have looked at deer at 500yards, i was deffinately able to tell where i was putting the cross hairs. didnt take the shot though.

i think scuba mentioned a 3-12X50 swaro, that would be pretty ideal but as i understand they have a 2-12out now, i think its called a swaro V6??

Hi Paul,

yep the new one is the Z6 (i) 2-12x50, but the difference to it is not so big having a 2 or 3 power in the low to the old style 3-12x50 and that old one is about 400 € cheaper!!! So for me it was no decission, also I get them for wholesale prices, but I took another 3-12x50 for myself!

But the difference in the other Z6 scopes is much bigger, so it´s just the 3-12x50 where I prefer to take the old style...

Klaus

oh its the Z6, i thought v6 didnt sound quite right. id be like you, id rather have the 400pound than the 2x rather than 3x. did the new Z6s bring the price down of the older models??

quote:

Originally posted by Paul from nz:
oh its the Z6, i thought v6 didnt sound quite right. id be like you, id rather have the 400pound than the 2x rather than 3x. did the new Z6s bring the price down of the older models??

no the price of the older ones was going up about 3 % a few weeks ago. The said it was because of raising materials but I think they wanted to reduce the distance to the Z6 too...
I guess the older models are running out in the near future. The first editions are just gone...

But no worry, the Z6 is realy superb, but at that one model, I think the older edition has had some advantages over the Z6i, so...

But if You wanna know more, feel free to drop me an email...

Klaus

If he is experienced with rifle shooting, I recommend a 4.5-14.

Some complain about not being able to find game in a higher mag scope, I've never had a problem with it. I love zooming in to 14x when they are over 150yds.

Good Luck

Reloader

Leupold M-8 4x.

And he has to shoot at least 300 rounds a year, offhand, sitting, prone, off the pack, etc, etc. at varying ranges out to 250 yds.

Then he needs a pair of high end binoculars, Swarovski, Leica, Zeiss, etc. And he needs to practice with them too, birdwatching, girlwatching, looking for game of any type to get his eyes trained in how to actually 'look' for game.