Just acquired and will be using it for gophers in Montana. Wondering if a fixed 6 would be best. Expected shots out to 150 yards.
Thanks in advance for your thoughts!

Ski+3
Whitefish, MT

Depending on the size of those gophers, I suspect a 6x would work, but a little more magnification wouldn't hurt my feelings. I have 3-9x40s on both of ours. They seem to work well on jack rabbits and prairie dogs at the ranges you mention.

I have 4-16x on mine. I like that. Sometimes all you see are heads looking from holes, grass and mounds.

I have a 4.5X14 Swarovski and a 4X12 Leupold on my two 17 WSM's. I prefer to have variable scopes on any of my rifles.

2x7 Weaver Rimfire works great on my Anschutz.
Clear, bright, looks like it grew on it.
12 woodchucks so far...which is pretty good for S.E Minnesota.......Grant

I have gone through a couple scope power ranges on my 17 HMR rifles and pistols. For me, a variable with 10x on the high end is the right choice. For ground squirrel size critters, going over 10x doesn't help shooting within the range of the HMR in actual field use. You can see further but variable wind issues are going to get in the way. I can hold off and hit squeaks to 150 yards in wind, but 200 yards in wind with a HMR amounts to a ridiculous amount of hold off.

For larger critters like rockchucks, you don't need more than 6x, as if they are too small at 6x then you are running out of bullet energy for a critter that size. This is for field use, if you were shooting at static targets on a range, I would not have an issue with up to 20x.

quote:

Originally posted by Use Enough Gun:
I have a 4.5X14 Swarovski and a 4X12 Leupold on my two 17 WSM's. I prefer to have variable scopes on any of my rifles.

Good choice. My goal is to get rid of duplicate guns and put good triggers and scopes on my rimfires.

Mike

Thanks guys.
Did some research last week. A fixed 6 scope is about $125 more expensive than a 3x9 variable. Apples to apples. I purchased the variable so I can buy more ammo.

Ski+3
Whitefish, MT

Good choice, I've got a 3x9 on my 17HMR

stay away from tasco's, cabela's, and bsa name brand scopes. you get what you pay for. experience over the years has taught me this..

Rimfires with center fire scopes can be a disaster. Center fire scopes are usually set to be parallax fee at somewhere around 150 yards. so shooting at 50 yards you can easily get an 1 1/2' of parallax. I usually use rim fires for shooting small things, squirrels and such......1 1/2" is a clear miss on a squirrel head....

I use Parallax adjustable scopes or rim fire scopes on my rim fire rifles. Rim fire scopes are usually set up to be parallax free at around fifty yards.

I have seen many people put center fire scopes on rim fire rifles and complain about the accuracy of their rifle when it was nothing more than parallax causing the cross hair to wander around.....

Cheek weld you'll say.....try to keep an exact same cheek weld when shooting up at 75 degrees as when shooting flat or down hill.

I agree with much of what JTex said. Parallax can cause problems. Good 4-12s and 4-16s have parallax adjustment. Here in Colorado, I get to shoot at many dogs beyond 150 yds. My two .17s get a lot of ssttrrettiinngg and I've killed a number of dogs at the further ranges with witnesses (lucky!). We've six Savage 93s among our group and every one of them have been accurate, though a couple have taken minor tuning.

quote:

Originally posted by Use Enough Gun:
I have a 4.5X14 Swarovski and a 4X12 Leupold on my two 17 WSM's. I prefer to have variable scopes on any of my rifles.

Old thread but not too many people mention the WSMs. If you have two, I assume you are happy with them. How do they shoot? Just to keep it relevant to the thread topic, by choice would be a 4.5-14 VX3 Leupold with AO.

I would use whatever I had left over in my scope draw..I would actually prefer a 4X or a 6X at the most..you can see any little head poked out with them at the guns range capabilities, and missing such a critter is no game changer anyway..I can live with a miss on those kind of critters..Thats the best part of varmint hunting..