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What power do you set your scope?

JJ3 said:
Generally at lowest setting. In woods at 3. If I'm hunting field then 5. I learned (read it somewhere 30 years ago) when I first started shooting rifle that it is easier to maintain steady hold at lower magnification. If you are dialed in too high, you see more movement of the crosshairs and try to compensate and actually make yourself more unsteady. So I've always followed that and taught my daughter to shoot that way. Rarely ever does my scope get set to 9. When I'm sighting in at 100 yards at the range I set it to 5 or 6.
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Yep great point and another benefit I failed to mention. Low magnification hides the shake and allows the shooter to get a steady aim and not fight the reticle.
 
What is this scope thing y'all talking about?

237D1D53-A94D-4483-B1E8-F8845FE8F2F8.jpeg


Mine never needs dialed up from zero and never fogs up !
😁😎
 
I find that I hardly ever use more than the lowest setting. Just too many woods where I hunt, plus you don't see all the shaking. On my air guns, I tend to leave them on 6 for some reason, but then I'm hunting squirrels.
 
I once left my scope on 6 and had a deer come through at less than 10 yards. Never could find it in the scope before it was gone. I have left it on the lowest setting ever since.
 
My reasoning is that when I have a deer show up close, if my scope is wide open on the lowest setting I'll be able to find the deer in that scope and I can put the cross hairs where they need to be when it's close like that. .

If the deer is farther away and it would help to turn it up to a higher power, the deer will likely not see or hear me do that, and it'll be easier to find the deer in the scope when it's farther away.

Early in my hunting career I had several deer get away because my scope was turned up high from target practice, I forgot to turn it down when I got in the woods and couldn't find the deer in the scope! I've gotten in the habit of checking that the scope is turned down any time I take off the lens covers.
 
PalsPal said:
I'm in the stand and bored, and just turned my 3x9 scope down from 9 to 6 as I'm hunting thick woods where any shots will be maybe 50 yds max.

Just curious what others do. I know most probably turn them to the max when expecting longer shots, but does anyone use the lower settings?
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My 2-7 never comes off 2. Shots usually 10-50 yards.
 
PalsPal said:
I'm in the stand and bored, and just turned my 3x9 scope down from 9 to 6 as I'm hunting thick woods where any shots will be maybe 50 yds max.

Just curious what others do. I know most probably turn them to the max when expecting longer shots, but does anyone use the lower settings?
Click to expand...
I will leave scope on the lowest power unless I need more magnification, which when hunting in the woods and not able to see much past 100 yards, is pretty much most of the time. I have dialed it up tho for shots that would be over 100 yards before, but those shots are rare. Also leaving the power dialed down allows for more light to be used by the lenses, allowing the sight picture to be brighter in low light conditions Very helpful at dusk and dawn. And the lowest setting also allows for the widest FOV which is also nice when a deer comes in close unexpectedly and you need to see the deer, instead of the hairs on it. 😄
 
Killed a decent 8 pointer this morning with the 3.5-10 Leupold set at 3.5. Deer was 280 yards. I did dial in 2.75 moa elevation but I didn't touch the magnification knob.
 

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