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Old 12-01-2011, 11:47 PM
  #27  
Nomercy448
Nontypical Buck
 
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Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Kansas
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Originally Posted by skiking
You can use a 4X scope effectively at over 300 yds, but you are gonna kick yourself if you need a quick shot in the brush at 40 yds and you have a 10X.
You must be talking to my wife, becaue you sure know where all of my buttons are. Frankly, in a quarter century of deer hunting, I've never felt as if I've EVER had "too much scope".

There are tons of guys that will swear you can't use a "high mag" scope at close ranges. Personally, I've never had a problem, and mathematically, the numbers don't lie. At 20yrds, a 3-9x scope has an FOV of 7ft. My Leupold VX-3 LRT 6.5-20x50mm has a FOV at 20yrds of 4ft. Dropping a deer at 20yrds isn't going to be easy with a 7ft FOV, nor will it be with a 4ft FOV, but even then, BOTH scopes will have the deer fully in frame. If we're really honest about it, neither of them are "easy" to catch a moving deer at close range, without a lot of practice, so saying one is better at close range than the other is mostly like saying red is better than green, purely speculative.

I'm not saying that everyone needs a 40x fixed power scope. But in my experience, there is no rifle hunting purpose where I'd rather have a 3-9x over a 4-16x, or 6-24x. Frankly, the most versatile scope I own is a 4.5-30x, followed by a 5.5-22x and that 6.5-20x. To the original post's point, I have absolutely no purpose for a 1.75-4x, I'd rather have iron sights, or a 4x open red dot sight for anything that I'd be shooting that short.

If I'm brutally honest, if I'm heading afield with a hunt shorter than 40yrds in mind, I don't bother carrying anything over a 7" barrel (well, besides that stick and string I carry around sometimes...)
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