Anybody still hunt with a fixed-power scope?

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diaperchanger

New member
I've been reading "The Complete Book of Rifles and Shotguns" by Jack O'Conner. Though written 40 years ago and a bit dated, it is still relevent and informative. I'm especially intrigued by his chapter on rifle scopes. He writes...

"Variable-power scopes are extremely popular, particularly with riflemen of modest experience. However, the variables are at their optical best at only one power. They are more fragile and more complicated than fixed-power scopes. If a scope of a certain power is ideal for a certain purpose, then the variable feature is of no value. Most users of variables set them at one power and leave them that way."

Of course, it's a given that optics are more sophisticated, tougher, and more precise than they were in 1961. And variable scopes are not necessarily more expensive than fixed power any more. It just seems natural to just go ahead and get that 3-9x40 because it covers so many possibilities. And yet, the arguement for a fixed 2.5x or 4x for whitetail deer is compelling. I remember Art Eatmans' post about killing a deer at 300+ yards with a snap shot and his scope dialed down to 3X. ( It may have been 400 yards. Sorry Art if I'm mis-remembering.)

So anyway, who hunts with fixed power? What type of terrain? gun?
 
Ultrolux 4X fixed on see-thru mount on Mini-14. Generally quite adequate for both 2 and 4 legged varmints out to 100 yards in most types of terrain. In a pinch, integral bullet drop compensator in 100 yard increments out to 500.
 
The wife's scope

My wife, bless her gun-luvin' heart, has an old Bushnell ScopeChief II 2 3/4X scope on her Mauser Model 96 straight-pull 30-06. I am jealous, of both the gun and the scope. That damn scope is the most natural piece of optics that I've ever looked through. It also has a flip up post that comes to the bottom of the cross hairs. The post really focuses your eye quickly to the CH's. I have no idea how old the scope is. We bought it used and would not trade it for anything. This is the combo that she is gonna get her moose with this year. (She got drawn for a moose last year and I got a bull as her sub-permittee, and as luck would have it I got drawn for a permit this year and she is my sub-permittee.) Ain't life grand!!!??

I hope you folks have a good and safe season and bag your limit. I also hope that my back survives another round of skinning another swampmule.:)
 
At least three of my friends use fixed scopes on one rifle or another. I use a Weaver 2.5 on my brush rifle. Several years ago I stocked up on 2.5 x 8 Varix IIIs for my medium rifles. I've found through the years that I tend to scout/walk in with the scope set on 2.5 for the field of view and usually go to 8 power when on the stand.

While I agree that variables are tougher now, I have yet to have a quality fixed power scope break. A couple of Leupolds have gotten a trip back for service.

My best friend has a Ziess 6x on his everything rifle - pre - 64 Winchester 70 chambered in .300 Weatherby. Other friend has a Leupold 10x on a .308 M700 Varmit - it's his bean field deer/hog rifle. Other friend has a fixed 4 power on his 6.5 Swede - deer and hogs, though he just got backk from South Africa where he had great results with the combo. My 2.5 Weaver has been on and ff several different rifles - nich seems to be brush/swamps out to 200 yards for me.
 
I use fixed power scopes on all of my rifles that take scopes. On the .45-70 it is a fixed 2 3/4X Kollmorgen. One .308 has a 6X Unertl and the other one has a 4X Litschert. The .22 Hi-Power wears a 2 1/2X Norman Ford. Everything else I own you cannot put a scope on.
I feel that a fixed power serves my needs and there is less to go wrong. The K.I.S.S. principal (keep it simple stupid). :D
 
My Savage Scout rifle has a fixed 2x Simmons on it that works just fine. My Remington PSS has a fixed 10x Leupold M4, that works equally well. For years I hunted with a Leupold M8 fixed 4x scope on my Model 70 .30-06.

On all the variables I've had, I usually left it on the highest power, so it ends up being a fixed power anyway!
 
For almost 40 years, my father hunted with a couple of "pet" sporterized Springfields. He probably killed over 200 deer, since he got invited to "help" the drunks and poker-players and suchlike. One rifle has an old Stith Bear Cub 4X; the other a Weaver K6. He was known to call neck shots Way Out Yonder.

I guess if I stayed with "small" hunting country--CenTex hills, Florida swamps--I'd be quite happy with a Weaver K4. When I started mixing wide-open country into the equation, the variable became attractive if not strictly or particularly necessary.

On that long 3X shot, I held about a foot over where I wanted to hit, so for an '06 I figured my 350-yard guess was pretty close. I still like to look at that rack and feel smug. :)

Art
 
I've got a 2.5X on one and a 4X on a couple others. All work fine. I feel pretty comfortable with a 4 power, even as close as 5 or 10 yards.

That said, the variables of today have improved a lot since Mr. O wrote that. I think quality makes a bigger difference than whether or not it's a variable. I would probably trust a good quality variable of today than a good quality fixed power from 40 years ago.
 
4X fixed on my .308 Remington 788. Just never saw the need for a variable since the fixed has always done everything I've ever wanted.
 
I've a few with straight 4X, but main guns sport variables & usually 1.5/2 to 3X at the low end & 7 to 9X at the upper (varmints excluded).

I like the advantage of the lower powers at dark timber/close-in & the flexibility of higher powers at longer.

Scopes are always set at the lower end for a larger field of view in case a closer quick opportunity & further usually allows time to dial it up.
 
4x tasco on my 10/22, and a 4x bushnell on my 30/30 from time to time. Fixed powers have one advantage in that many lower end variables still experience reticle shift when changing powers. This seems to happen to some degree with every scope of lesser quality than Leupold.
Also, I've found that learning to shoot iron sights at distance in highpower has made me less concerned with really high powered scopes.
 
Yup, sure do. Got an original Weaver K-4 on a customized 03A3 that I put on it in about 63 or so. Still there and still is as good as new. I have 3 to 9's on other rifles and hunt with them locked in the 3X position so there is no loss in a fixed 4X.
 
4X Burris on a H&R Topper 30-30
6X Leapers on my SKS
6X Leupold on my H&R Topper .22 Hornet
4X Kassnar on my Nylon 66 .22
4X Bushnell on my Springfield Bolt-Cocker .22
4X OLDER Weaver K4 on my Win. Mod. 94 30-30
4X Weaver J-4 on my Pre-64 Win Mod. 70 .243

one might say I have a few hunting guns with fixed-power scopes...
 
Count me amoung the fixed power scope bunch. I buy fixed power whenever I can with a 6X 42mm obj being my favorite. Currently have at least 6 that I can count off the top of my head mounted on rifles.

I find a variable is almost always on the wrong setting when you need to throw the rifle to your shoulder and if you have time to make an adjustment to a variable then you have time to estimate the range and make your shot anyway using a fixed power scope.

Don't even get me started discussing idiots who use their scopes instead of binoculars. Nothing is worse than to have some yahoo out yonder looking at you through his scope mounted on the latest spittzenfire-loudenboomer.
 
Elkslayer, I found long ago that the low setting on a variable is "standard", unless I'm sitting in a blind. There, I'll reset the scope to whatever seems reasonable for the probable length of shot.

I've had numerous occasions to see a buck a fair ways out and crank the scope up while sitting down for a firmer rest. I can check him out at the higher magnification to see if I really want him. ("Checking out" a specific target ain't the same as "searching the countryside" with a scoped rifle.)

But I made it a habit to crank a scope down when leaving a blind and setting off walking...

:), Art
 
I've got a beautiful old 3x Sears, made by Weaver, scope on my Marlin 22. One of the cleanest pieces of glass I've seen in a long time. I also have a fixed 2x on my Dan Wesson revolver.
 
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