I have noticed that it is getting harder and harder to find a high power scope with out AO. What setting do you carry your rifle in the field on. I usually set it at the infinity setting and leave it unless I know the yardage. Is there a better all around setting?

In my opinnion there is no place for an AO on a hunting scope, thats for varmints and target, like varible scopes it is just another element to go south...I will use a 1x4 or something with a 20 MM obj.in a varible.

All you guys that like thoes big belled scopes try smaking it smartly after you sight in and watch the impact point change!!

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Ray Atkinson

ray@atkinsonhunting.com
atkinsonhunting.com

Ray must know what he's talking about as I usually agree with him.

I have a 270 WBY with a Leupold 3.5-14 that has AO. In that case for me, I'm thinking more in lines of a long range shot. A little pronghorn, they try their best to keep their distance, long range shot, I don't think the AO handicaps me there.

But in a normal big game hunting situation I don't believe you would prefer one. I can only think of one time I used over 6x while hunting. Prone, 247 yards, turned the power up. At nine, you're almost looking for fault in the animals coat rather then a kill zone.

I think, as I do now, I'd leave camp with the scope on its lowest power. I'd set the AO to 100 yards. Most of my shooting won't be too much further. I wouldn't set it on infinity as that raises problems with focus and defeats the AO's main purpose.

But think about all your hunts and the range that you normally shoot......pick a middle grown. If you hunt at ranges from 100 to 300, pick 200 for the AO. It is a covering your bases situation however. I'd rather, not have one, unless I'm stretching my shooting range quite a bit.

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Live Free! Madison, Jefferson and all the boys paid for it, and so did our very own fathers.

Some of my hunting scopes have an AO and some do not. I am comfortable with either. If I think my shots are likely to be close, I'll set it on 150. If I think they will be farther out, I will set it on 300.

I have used AO scope a lot on my varmit guns no trouble in the accurcy dept. unless you buy a cheap scope to begin with. All my big game scopes are fixed O. You really don't need any thing over a 3x9 for big game any way. p dogs and vermits at long range it is nice but a deer is a lot bigger the a p dog.

My 2 cents worth. I have used fixed powered, variable powered with and without AO in the course of 30 years big game hunting and have come to the conclusion that if it moves it has the potential to break, and if it has the potential to break it will break at the worst possible moment! If it is adjustable it will be adjusted wrong at the wrong time. Some people make the argument that they need high power scopes to see. For big game hunting I think that is hog wash! My eyes are not very good and I have taken animals at 500+ yards with a 4X fixed scope. With the exception of varmit guns I believe that most big game hunters are way over scoped. If a hunter needs more that 4X magnification to take a big game animal at reasonable ranges (ie less than 300 yards) something is wrong!

When I started this topic my intent was to see if someone had any information from the manufactures of scopes. Or personal test firing OA scopes.
I use variable power scopes for several reasons.

1. Some times light conditions call for high power magnification.

2. Verification of trophy quality.

Except for varmint guns all of my scopes have 4x or less for the low end. And I prefer 2.5x. The upper end the higher the better in my opinion.
I hunt with the lowest power setting and only turn it up when needed. I also check it often to make sure that it is on the lowest setting.
This topic sent me to the range to do some test firing on different settings.
6 different rifles were used, all have OA scopes on them. All were set on lowest power setting, OA set at exact yardage then 100 yd then infinity. Then repeated with highest power setting. 5 shot groups were used. 15 shots max were fired then gun was thurally cleaned.

Rifle #1 Remington 700 bdl 22-250
varmiter special. Tasco
8x32x44 target scope

100 yd OA set 100 LP.27 HP .14
OA set inf LP.75 HP .38

200 yd OA set 100 LP 1.5 HP .46
OA set 200 LP.65 HP .34
OA set inf LP 1.1 HP .5

300 yd OA set 100 LP 2.5 HP 1.8
OA set 300 LP 1.3 HP .87
OA set inf LP 1.9 HP 1.25

Rifle #2 Win mod 70 270 win
Leupold VXIII 3.5x10x40

100 yd OA set 100 LP .9 HP.6
OA set inf LP 1.1 HP.9

200 YD OA set 100 LP 2.9 HP 2.5
OA set 200 LP 1.3 HP 1.5
OA set inf LP 2.4 HP 2.0

300 YD OA set 100 LP 4.1 HP 3.5
OA set 300 LP 2.5 HP 1.9
OA set inf LP 2.9 HP 2.5

Rifle #3 Remington mod 700 280 rem
Leupold vXIII 2.5x8x36

100 YD OA set 100 LP 1.1 HP .8
OA set inf LP 1.7 HP 1.0

200 YD OA set 100 LP 3.3 HP 2.8
OA set 200 LP 2.5 HP 1.6
OA set inf LP 2.9 HP 2.1

300 YD OA set 100 LP 4.9 HP 4.2
OA set 300 LP 2.1 HP 1.8
OA set inf LP 3.8 HP 2.9

This was typical of all my rifles all grouped best with exact setting. and Inf setting grouped better than 100 YD setting esp at 300 yd.
Also something of interest the other 3 scopes are 2 Springfield tact 4x14x56 generation 3's and 1 Simmons aetec 2.8x10x44
These are on an 8mm rem mag, 358 sta and a 378 Weatherby mag. Of all the scopes the leuopolds were the least accurate when set at inf or 100 yd compared to the exact yardage. The Springfield�s were vary close when set on inf at all yardages

As I understand it from the point of view of a field shooter, AO adjustment is available to accomodate what manifests itself as the scope being "out of focus" at extreme range, particularly at higher magnifications.

In practice, this adjustability can be used to provide range-finding, or to compensate for the eyesight of the shooter.

I've got fixed mag scopes, zoom scopes without and with AO and whilst I tell myself I'll calibrate the range-finding effect, I'm waiting for a nice dry warm day with nothing better to do than focus on a line of telegraph poles I know to be 100 yards apart.

The answer seems to be that you can manage perfectly well without an AO adjustable scope. Whether you can manage without it on a scope so equipped might be a different thing.

Maybe it's just another example of the stuff you don't need but the manufacturers want you to have?

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Most non-adjustable objective scopes are set at 150 yards paralax-free range. The paralax error at 50 yards or 400 yards is going to be negligible on any scope set at 150 for deer-sized game. For game, non AO us much to be preferred (as well as an objective under 40mm and a low range no higher than 3x. The Leupold 2.5-8 Vari-X III may just be the most versatile hunting scope made, followed closely (and more economically) by the 3-9 and 2-7 VXII's. I had a notion recently to try a 4.5-14 on a 7mm STW, and soon swapped it out for a 3-9.