Scope power

If you have been following this blog there is an extensive review of head position as dictated by the location of the scope.  High, low, forward, back.  It is a case of personal preference.  I am not going to suggest what works for me works for everyone.

Recently there has been some interest in scope power.  "What power do you shoot at?" the line goes.  This is a fairly common debate among shooters and it is similar to scope height/location.  You have to do what you like after extensive experimentation.

But, unlike scope height, there is this allure that more power is better.  Many a shooter rationalizes "if I just had more power I could shoot more animals".  Me too!  I learned more power can get you in more trouble than you would expect because it introduces what I will call "pass shooting" and "snatching" at the trigger.  Neither of these are good habits to get into.

It comes down to what I call "perceived movement" vs. 'actual movement".  We've all looked through a high power telescope I assume and we recall just walking on the floor can cause the image to "move" or vibrate.  The high magnification will show you this movement when it would otherwise go unnoticed.  It is the same thing with a high power scope.  It will appear you are moving all over the place.  Pick up a 15x scope and you will feel like you have a fairly solid hold.  Pick up a 30x scope and the retical will appear to be dancing all around the animal.  Folks think their hold has deteriorated.  Not the case, the higher power is just making your movement more apparent or it "magnifies" your movement.  Funny how that works! 

Often shooters upgrade to a higher power scope too early in the process under the rule of thumb "more is better".  This can cause one to start snatching the trigger as the dot sweeps by the animal.  AKA pass shooting.  This will never yield a better score.  Sure, you might get lucky some of the time but on a whole it will not improve results.

My 24x vs 36x target test post demonstrates this.  My hold was not ready for 36x  Not sure it will ever be ready.  I have tried training with 36x and then for the big event, I shoot 24x so it fools me into thinking my hold is GREAT!  I tried it and I believe it helps.  The downside, you have to waste more time and ammo swapping scopes and getting zeros.  So, I use the high power scope on my airgun for practice and then shoot lower power for the real deal.

So, when people ask, I now shoot a Weaver T24.  I would shoot a Leupold M8 24x (no longer sold) but it is heavier than the Weaver.  They are both great scopes.  Repeatability is the single most important thing with scopes.  I find optical clarity helps one focus in on the task at hand but that is personal.