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
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.
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
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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