Part XI: Scopes For Dummies (Like Me)
March 12, 2003
11:03 AM CST
A couple people have asked me about choosing rifle scopes, but truthfully, I’m the wrong guy to ask. If I know a lot about a topic, I’m comfortable talking about it in detail; if I know a little, I’ll talk a little, ask a few questions, and listen a lot; and if I know very little, I’ll pass.
Scopes fall into the last category with me: I seldom use them, unless hunting in wide-open countryside (not my favorite environment anyway), and the technicalities of scopes bore me.
That doesn’t stop me from having any opinions, though, from a user’s perspective. I’ve seen many a hunt (not mine) screwed up because some guy dropped his rifle and busted the scope (hence my insistence that rifles always have iron sights as backup). And it has been my experience, once again with other people’s experience, that variable-power scopes (eg. 3-9x, 4.5-10x) are just one more unnecessary thing to go wrong.
What I’ve noticed is that people have a “favorite” power on their variable scopes, and once they’ve found it, they seldom change it—turning it, in essence, into a fixed-power scope, only more fragile.
And guess what that “favorite” power is? About 5x. Which is why I prefer to use a fixed-power scope of either 4x or 6x magnification.
Because I’m stupid about the tech stuff, though, my modus operandi for buying a scope is simple: buy the most expensive fixed-power scope I can afford, and use that.
I have one stupid preference, though: I prefer a “post"-type reticle (the thingy you aim with), sometimes called a “German 3 Post” or “picket post"):
Of course, I can’t make shots at extreme distances (the post is too big for really fine shooting). But as my eyesight is lousy anyway, most super-precise long-distance shots are beyond my capability—and as the post is easier to see in the scope, it makes low-light shooting easier (eg. at dusk and in deep-woods). Ditto, it’s easier to make a “running shot” with a post, as I’ve discovered on more than one occasion.
Bausch & Lomb apparently have a thing called a “Command Post”, which apparently allows you to create a 3-post reticle out of a regular “plex” (crosshairs) type of reticle, but annoyingly, it’s only available on their variable-power scopes.
A lot of people have mocked me about this preference, but the hell with them. I am generally unable to put all my shots into a 3"-sized target at 300 yards. At 300 yards, I’m lucky to get all my shots into a 6” circle.
But when it’s late dusk, and I have to make a quick, almost instinctive shot at something running perhaps a hundred yards away, I’ll get the shot in, with regularity.
Post reticles are not popular in the United States, because it seems that everyone fancies themselves as a pinhole-shooter, so I invariably have to special-order the scopes with a post, which makes them more expensive [sigh], and which means I’ve had to get used to the normal plex reticle because I am a Cheap Bastard. Oh well, maybe when the lottery is won…
