CamoCop

i've been hunting and shooting my entire life. i like to believe i am a proficient rifleman but i have never claimed to know everything. so if something can make my shooting better, i'd be estatic. however, i have heard something recently that i was wondering if it held water.

i heard, when shooting a rifle with a scope...it is better and you will shoot better if you shoot using the lowest power possible on your scope. is this true?

i thought about it for sometime but could not come up with the logic behind this statement. the only thing i could think of is when you are shaking or not completely steady it throws off your shot BUT it also would seem your shot would be thrown off if your shaking or not completely steady on a lower power. i have always shot utilizing the highest power on my scope at distances over 100 yards. like i said, my shooting is fine..but like anyone, i'm always looking for improvement. no one is perfect.

so if there is any bench rest shooters or long distance shooters out there that could clarify this, i would very much appreciate it.

JagMagMan

CC, I usually shoot with the scope cranked up. At higher magnifications though, scope movement will also be magnified, especially when using higher power at short range!

deernutz

In reply to shooting better. There are 3 basics to shooting better. Breathing, trigger squeeze, and sight picture. Its kinda hard to explain in writing, but I'll try.
Breathing: You never want to shoot holding your breath. You want to shoot at the bottom of your breath.
Trigger squeeze: You never want to jerk the squeeze. Slowly squeeze the trigger till the fire arm goes off. It should be a surprise every time.
Sight picture: This is subject to change in every person. You just want to be comfortable. You shouldn't have any muscle strain, and you trigger arm should be down not straight out.

And never anticipate the recoil, or you will throw your rounds down range.

Arrowmaster

I say crank it up.

SlyInTheWoods

I second that, crank it up

newguy23

Umm... well in a way that might be true... I am not sure but I think the paralex on a scope is less at lower powers on adjustable scopes. But I think that change in "accuracy" would be so minimal it would be unnoticable. At higher powers you are always going to be a more accurate shooter because of amplification. But that is why target shooters typically shoot fixed power scopes (10x, 20x, 36x, or whatever). I don't play that game though.

Anyway CRANK IT UP!

CamoCop

i appreciate the feedback guys. the scope i am currently using is a swift 4-12x50....so far it has done me right. i've always lived by the phrase, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it.". however, my dad recently purchased a leupold 6-20x50 (or 6-24x50, one of the two i can't remember which) for his .25-06 and he does not like it...says it's too much scope for his rifle. he offered to sell it to me for $300.00, he paid almost $1,000.00 for it.

that's why i asked the above question. i know that's a big scope but it will be going on my weatherby .300 mag. should i buy it from him or leave my set up alone since i have had no problems?

FlDeerman

No question is stupid,and I like to crank it up too.

CamoCop

any suggestions? leave set up alone or take the good buy?

kevin1

A $1,000 Leupold for $300 ? Oh yeah , I'd take that deal in a New York minute !

I generally crank the scope to where I feel comfortable with the image I'm getting , I don't crank it to the max on short to medium range shots . The 3-9 on my .22 is usually set around 4-6x , I don't normally get long range shots here so there is no need for a higher mag .