Buckmasters Magazine

How to pick a scope that’s right for your gun and hunting style.

It’s called Queeny’s Landing, a historic wooden deer stand on the brushy shore of Peckerwood Lake on Wingmead Farms in east-central Arkansas.

Wingmead is a waterfowling destination of large repute, the lake formed when long-ago owner Edgar Queeny dammed local streams and flooded 4,000 acres for waterfowl hunting.

The impound was locally known as Peckerhead Lake, reflecting neighbors’ sentiment toward Queeny’s alteration of their countryside.

It’s been a world-class duck hunting paradise since the 1930s, but I was there for deer. Before dawn, I’d caught the outline of one antler moving against the sandy shoreline.

An hour later, dawn fulfilled its promise and the buck moved again, silhouetted in the early morning light as he ghosted through the scrub 75 yards away.

The brush was too thick to shoot through. There could have been an opening in the branches, but there wasn’t enough light for my eyes to define one. Luckily, the scope through which I was tracking the buck enhanced the view through magnification and illumination.

Thanks to the scope, I was able to find an opening. It wasn’t much, maybe 4 or 5 inches across, but it offered an opportunity. I trained the crosshairs on the opening and squeezed the trigger just as the buck’s shoulder darkened the lens.

A mule kick and a desperate lunge indicated a solid hit. The buck bolted out of sight and all went quiet again, except for the ringing in my ears and the sound of waves lapping the shore.

Minutes later, I found my buck on the sandy shoreline about 40 yards from the point of impact. It was a wide 9-pointer that, at the time, was my biggest ever.

Without the scope, I won’t make that shot. Couldn’t. But the aged 4x Leupold Compact — the first scope I ever owned and my virtual mentor in hunting optics — had made it possible.

Understand that a scope doesn’t make you shoot more accurately. It does, however, enhance the target through magnification and, seemingly, illumination. Unlike open sights where your eyes try to concentrate on the target, front sight and rear sight simultaneously, the scope puts the target and crosshairs on the same focal plane.

As evidenced in the opening scenario, a scope can make the impossible quite possible.

Today I have scopes of one sort or another on every rifle, slug gun, muzzleloader and pistol — even my crossbow — that I own.

THE MODERN RIFLE SCOPE

It wasn’t always thus. In my formative years, scopes were for snipers or rich guys taking long shots at elk or sheep in the Rockies.

They were expensive, fragile and totally unnecessary in the shotgun-only environs where I hunted. Besides, early scopes — before lens coating became common in the 1960s — often gave a dimmer view of the target than the naked eye, since untreated lenses actually reflect light entering the scope.

When I got into the gun business, it was obvious that optics were a major player. I put that secondhand Leupold on whatever rifle or slug gun I was using.

Eventually my knowledge and access to sports optics increased, and variable scopes adorned all my firearms according to their use. A Nikon 1.5-5x20 Lustre went on a slug gun; a 0-5x32 Pentax Lightseeker on my .22 LR squirrel rifle; a 6-18x35 Redfield Tracker on my .22-250 varmint rifle; various 3-9x Bushnell, Burris and Nikon variants on my centerfire rifles and muzzleloaders; Aimpoint illuminated-dot scopes and Bushnell HOLOsights on my handguns and turkey shotguns.

CHOOSING A SCOPE

But what type of scope does today’s deer hunter want or need? Do you want a fixed or variable-power scope? And what size or quality?

I could do all my deer hunting with a fixed 4x scope with a 32mm objective. Fixed powers are more inherently rugged and brighter (fewer lenses). Nevertheless, today I have dozens of scopes, mostly variables, because they’re the industry standard.

The 3-9x variable is by far the most common scope in use today. If I have one on a gun, it’s set at 4x constantly. Higher magnification decreases field of view and enhances reticle movement on the target, amplifying every heartbeat, twitch or heat mirage.

I believe a magnification of 4x is plenty for shooting out to 200 yards, and the average hunter isn’t going to hit much beyond that. Western hunters, to whom 300-plus yard shots are common, can do it all with a 6x scope.

You say that you want a variable so you can turn up the magnification to peruse antler points and tine length at a distance? Here’s some advice: Don’t.

Using a scope for observation means you are pointing the gun in a direction that you don’t necessarily want to shoot, which is bad on many levels. Besides, a scope gives you less than half the sight picture and clarity that a binocular of equal magnification provides.

And if you have a variable scope turned to higher magnification when a buck trots by at close range, you’ll hate yourself when you can’t find him or you see only a fuzzy close-up of hair.

How about scope quality? At seminars, when I contend that a hunter should spend as much, if not more, for a scope as for a firearm, the audience usually stares at me like a calf at a new gate.

Think about it. If that scope doesn’t work, the gun is pretty much a tomato stake. Unless it’s fitted with a bayonet, you are virtually unarmed.

Does the average deer hunter need a $1,000-$1,800 scope? Not really. They simply aren’t going to give the average deer hunter enough difference in performance to warrant the cost.

Having said that, buy the best you can afford. I can guarantee that a $400-$600 scope from any of the name-brand manufacturers will be a lifetime investment and will provide all the performance the average deer hunter will ever need. For that matter, models in the $150-$350 range will be more than adequate under good conditions on a quality gun. Almost all the scopes come with a lifetime warranty. If something goes wrong, simply return it for repair or replacement.

Be advised that shotguns, muzzleloaders, big-bore handguns and even airguns need special scopes. A riflescope might work for awhile, but you are better off getting one designed for the gun you’re using. Some have nasty recoil requiring extra eye relief, and others have non-standard design characteristics.

LIGHT GATHERING

To my way of thinking, light transmission and eye relief are the primary considerations in selecting a scope.

While “light gathering ability” is a common description, scopes don’t actually gather light. Optics allow available light through the lenses to your eye. No scope allows all of the available light to reach your eye, since some light is reflected and lost off both lens surfaces.

Virtually all scopes today have coated lenses. Lens coatings reduce the reflection and glare and provide sharper contrast.

About 95 percent transmission is excellent; 92-93 will be more than sufficient for virtually any situation a deer hunter will encounter. Even cheaper scopes today are around 85-90 percent.

The coatings vary in type, number and quality, and you pay for them. A lens described as coated means a single layer of magnesium flouride or something similar. Fully coated means a single layer on all glass surfaces. Multicoated means multiple layers on at least one surface, and fully multicoated means multiple layers on all surfaces.

Looking through a scope at a fluorescent-lit gun counter isn’t going to tell you anything except the reticle type. You need to look through the scope outside in low light to determine the light-gathering ability.

That ability is determined by the size of the exit pupil. Take a variable scope at its lowest power and hold it at arm’s length. The circle of light in the ocular (nearest) lens is the exit pupil, the diameter of which is measured in millimeters. Now turn the scope up to its highest power and try it again. See how much smaller it gets? Imagine if you are using this scope in low light as is common in hunting situations. How small and dark will that exit pupil be? How well do you think you’ll be able to see through that tiny circle?

The more magnification you have, the less light gets to your eyepiece. The larger the objective lens, the more light gets through your eyepiece.

If you are 40 or older, your eyes probably only dilate to about 4.5 millimeters — which is why grandpa doesn’t like to drive at night. Young eyes open up to about 7 millimeters.

You can determine a scope’s exit pupil by dividing the objective (front) lens size by the magnification. For example, if your 4-12x42mm scope is set at 3x, 42 divided by 3 equals 14 millimeters, which is large enough for anyone in all low-light applications. If your scope is set at 12x, however, 42 divided by 12 equals 3.5 millimeters, which means things are very dim for middle-age adults. The difference in available light from the larger exit pupil is significant.

EYE RELIEF

This is where eye relief comes into play. The larger the exit pupil, the less critical the position of your head in relation to the scope. The distance that your eye must be from the ocular lens at full magnification in order to get a full-lens picture is called eye relief. Higher-powered scopes can be very critical in relation to the centering of your eye through the middle of the tube and the distance your eye must be from the ocular lens.

You’ll need at least 3 inches of eye relief on most centerfire rifles, a minimum of 3.5 inches for magnums, and more for big kickers like shotguns and muzzleloaders. Leupolds are renowned for good eye relief, and Nikon’s Slug Hunter and Omega (muzzleloader) scopes offer a full 5 inches, which is about as big as it gets.

The shorter the eye relief, the more you cheat forward to see through the lens — and the greater the possibility of the rim around the ocular lens coming back under recoil to dent your eyebrow.

OTHER CONSIDERATIONS

While parallax isn’t a big consideration at normal whitetail ranges, reticle shift can be.

I’ve seen several variable scopes in the sub-$250 range that demonstrated a considerable shift of impact at various magnifications. Not all 3-9xs are built alike.

Choice of reticle is largely personal. I question whether mil-dot or other multi-point, or “range-finding” reticles are needed for most centerfire whitetail applications.

Granted, I’ve found them to be extremely effective in short-range weapons such as slug guns and muzzleloaders — Nikon’s BDC (bullet drop compensating), Bushnell’s DOA (dead on accurate), Burris’ Eliminator, Leupold’s SABR (sabot ballistic reticle) are very useful. But their value on centerfire rifles with point-blank range commonly out past 250 yards is questionable.

If you’re using such a specialty reticle, however, be advised that it will probably be accurate at only one magnification setting, usually the highest. Your 4-12x scope will be right on at 12x but may miss or wound the same deer at long range if the scope is set at 6x.

Compact scopes, while light and capable of good magnification ranges and light transmission, are limited on where they can be mounted. For example, they won’t fit long-action bolt guns because of their short tubes.

Your firearm is only as good as it aiming device, so do your homework, choose wisely and buy the best you can afford. You won’t regret it.

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