300 yds......500 yds
The trend these days seems to be shooting at big game at longer and longer distances, and casually mentioning 500 yd shots in this post is just another example of same. Five hundred is a heck of a long way in my book, especially to shoot at an animal as regal and resilient as a deer. Gut shoot a groundhog, he's dead, not so with a deer.
From a field position, dealing with wind ( and getting it right so as not to wound) and actually getting the range right ( is it really 450, or 525, etc). I'm still of the opinion, very old school I know, that most of us reach our effective limit under 400 yds, and 300 could be better for shots at medium and big game. I very willingly put myself in that group.
I realize that different terrain in different parts of the country have a bearing on this matter.....there's very little cross canyon shooting in AL, but we do have ROW's and large cutover area's. I've shot at enough gongs at known distances of 500-600 yds, from a bench, with a spotter, to realize I've got no business shooting at game at that distance.
Rant over,......now about scopes.....I'm a Leupold guy first, and I like Burris next. No experience with Vortex. I have a newer Bushnell Elite 10x with kn obs that is holding up good, and an affordable Nikon 3-9x , maybe an earlier Prostaff, that has done well on several rifles to date. Buy a lot of my Leupolds from ebay, used, at some savings, but I pick and choose my buys carefully. My deer scopes are all set and forget knobs, no twirling for me, easily done as I don't shoot that far at deer and simply get a usable zero and go hunting.