As I’ve stated before…I didn’t grow up hunting, however, I do know that the most popular scope that was sold with the majority of hunting rifles, for the longest time was a 3 x 9 power optic. Even if you walked into an old mom and pops gun shop and checked out the used rifle rack, I could almost guarantee there’s some sort of dusty lever gun or bolt gun sitting there with a 3 x 9 on top of it. Not to say that a 3 x 9 isn’t a good scope, but for most of us, we aren’t using great granddaddy’s gun anymore, and there’s far better options out there.
LPVO or Low Power Variable Optics have come a long way in recent years. The most popular ones, 1 x 4, 1 x 6, and most recently 1 x 8 and 1 x 10 power scopes are really changing the game out to a few hundred yards. I’ve shot animals at 700 yards and I’ve shot them at 7 yards. At no point in time, while in the field, did I ever say to myself “I wish I had more base magnification”. However, there were plenty of times where I said “I wish this scope would zoom out more for a wider field of view”. This is where the versatility of the LPVO is king for anything from 10 to 500 yards.
This past season, thanks to my relationship with Sightmark, I had the ability to test many different variable power scopes, and always came back to something with as low of a base power as possible.
Starting with the base power…3X can be A LOT depending on what and where you’re hunting. Most folks PROBABLY aren’t shooting bear and deer much past 100 yards, and even at 3 times magnification, scanning a field or wood line, there’s a lot you could miss. This is where the ability to dial your scope down to 1 or 1.5X really comes in handy…from 10 to 100 yards. Honestly, if you can’t use iron sights or a red dot, and hit what you’re aiming at, at 100 yards (barring any physical ailment), then you’ve got bigger problems. A base power of 1X or 1.5X really is perfect for anything inside of 100 yards. Let’s face it, our great grandfathers were shooting enemy soldiers at 1000m with iron sights…you can shoot a deer in the chest at 100 with a 1X scope.
As we go up in power, a few things happen. First, obviously, we zoom in on the target and can get a positive ID. Second, our field of view narrows…think of it as a cone. The widest part of the cone is your base magnification. You can fit WAY more inside the mouth of the cone than you can the tip. So, as we zoom in, field of view shrinks, and while we can pick out details of the target, the surroundings are blurred, essentially creating tunnel vision. The other thing that happens as we zoom in, we notice the cross hairs rise and fall with each breath we take. The crosshairs move up, down, left and right. This is called deviation. When you increase deviation…you increase the chance of a miss, so staying at a lower magnification, allows you to make a steadier shot.
In every aspect of shooting, you have speed and precision. Lower base level magnification will make us quicker on target. Increased magnification will make us more precise. All shooting is a balance of speed and precision, and finding the balance is where we want to be at the end of the day. An LPVO, specifically a 1 x 8 or 1 x 10, in my eyes, is the perfect balance between speed and precision out to 500 yards.
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