Large objective scopes on large calibre rifles

[Opposite Pole]

You don’t need large magnification when hunting at normal ranges any you most certainly ought not to use one hunting DG as it drastically limits your field of view, but large objective and large magnification are not the same thing. Whenever I’m out hunting my scope is always in it’s lowest zoom setting. My rationale is that any shot opportunity requiring fast action will be in close quarters wheres if higher magnification is required there’s plenty of time to settle in and zoom the scope. I once made a mistake of zooming my 308 Win rifle to it’s maximum 12x and took a shot at a Fallow doe at about 80m. I completely lost the sight of the animal following the shot and it took me a while to find it. I shot it through the heart and it only ran about 20 metres but the place was surrounded by thick foliage and I had no idea which way it went. With low zoom settings it’s easy to keep both eyes open and the field of view through the scope is less limited. I love my illuminated 1x4 and 1x6 scopes as at 1x magnification they work like a red dot but for night hunting they are not bright enough.

 

[Inline6]

You don’t need large magnification when hunting at normal ranges any you most certainly ought not to use one hunting DG as it drastically limits your field of view, but large objective and large magnification are not the same thing. Whenever I’m out hunting my scope is always in it’s lowest zoom setting. My rationale is that any shot opportunity requiring fast action will be in close quarters wheres if higher magnification is required there’s plenty of time to settle in and zoom the scope. I once made a mistake of zooming my 308 Win rifle to it’s maximum 12x and took a shot at a Fallow doe at about 80m. I completely lost the sight of the animal following the shot and it took me a while to find it. I shot it through the heart and it only ran about 20 metres but the place was surrounded by thick foliage and I had no idea which way it went. With low zoom settings it’s easy to keep both eyes open and the field of view through the scope is less limited. I love my illuminated 1x4 and 1x6 scopes as at 1x magnification they work like a red dot but for night hunting they are not bright enough.

What do you mean for night hunting they are not bright enough? Most of the time they are to bright and they wash everything out.

 

[Opposite Pole]

What do you mean for night hunting they are not bright enough? Most of the time they are to bright and they wash everything out.

In places where you are allowed to hunt at night but without artificial light sources, so using moon and light pollution only, you’re often able to see the animal through the binos but not through darker scope. My 1-6 and 1-4 Leicas are an example of such scopes, and exit pupil doesn’t tell the whole story as you can dial the scope down and increase the exit pupil. These scopes in fact have very large exit pupil on low magnification which helps to acquire sight very quickly but they are not particularly bright by night standard. In Poland we are allowed to hunt pigs and predators at night (not deer) so this is something that people here are quite familiar with.

I’m not sure what you mean by “they wash everything out”. Good glass should not wash anything out no matter the brightness.

 

[Philip Glass]

I have Leupold 2-12X42 VX6 on my .375 Ruger and 1-6X24 on my .416. I am putting the Swaro Z8 1.7-13.3X42 on my new R8 .375. It has the illuminated red dot that can change to a circle dot for close range shooting. A versatile DG scope.
You don’t have to have a 1X scope on a DG gun for most situations.
Philip

 

[Inline6]

In places where you are allowed to hunt at night but without artificial light sources, so using moon and light pollution only, you’re often able to see the animal through the binos but not through darker scope. My 1-6 and 1-4 Leicas are an example of such scopes, and exit pupil doesn’t tell the whole story as you can dial the scope down and increase the exit pupil. These scopes in fact have very large exit pupil on low magnification which helps to acquire sight very quickly but they are not particularly bright by night standard. In Poland we are allowed to hunt pigs and predators at night (not deer) so this is something that people here are quite familiar with.

I’m not sure what you mean by “they wash everything out”. Good glass should not wash anything out no matter the brightness.

When I say wash out, I mean the illumination can't be turned down enough. So the light inside the scope is to bright and washes your target out.

If I were night hunting like you are describing I personally would and have used an Aim point red dot optic. I don't do a lot of it but they work well in that environment.