My 6.5/06

[todd]

Speaking as a Eastern USA hunter, I have never been a 3x9 fan. No particular reason but probably same that the 30/06 never excited me.
CW

i'm a PA and WV woods hunter and tho i like the '06(esp. rem m760), i just wasn't enthused either. my dad had a m760(so did my grandpap, my late uncle was m7600, everyone one them had '06) and a 1.5 - 5x scope(i'm thinking weaver, but its probably wrong) on see thru mounts. he used only the rem 180gr rn factory loads. he shot alot of deer with it, but only using his open sights. he would go every year to make sure it was sighted in and he would use the scope.

then one year when he was sighting in, the grouping wasn't there. it kept on changing to the left. so he goes to hardware store, buys brand new see thru mounts, he changes them and the group keeps changing to the left. this is in the early days of human-kind, there is no internet or cell phones. so he goes to the hardware store and kmart to try and find a 1.5-5x scope, but it ain't there. then someone talks him into buying a 3-9x(i think its either bushnell or tasco). he put the 3-9x on and shoots it in. later, he buys a swift 4x (over the counter warranty) and he puts that on. i have the rifle in my safe with 4x swift still on.

he bought a rem m7 in 7-08 with a 3-9x swift, but he would only go to 9x when he was sighting it in. when hunting, 4x was it.

 

[CWLONGSHOT]

I think thats the biggest reason the 3x9 is so popular!!

9x for site in and 3x for everything else!!!!! How many times do ya really adjust the power of a scope when a deer inside 200 yards is walking in??

#1 more power is not needed
#2 too much motion changing power

Folks hunting past this can glass and watch decide where an animal is going and going to be. So movement altho one still need be cautious is t as big a factor and turning the scope all the way up for that 1/4 mile shot is realistic.
CW

 

[Jeff H]

There's a lot of good GLASS out there today, I just don't like what they wrap around it - over-sized turrets/caps, extra turrets, HUGE occulars, even MORE huge objectives, dials, hashmarks, logos,... Reticles are too busy for me these days. Fanciest I want o get with that is the old Bushnell Command Post that you can flip up or flip back down and I even let my last one of those go last spring.

The scopes I like are out of my price range.

A couple years ago, I snagged a Japanese Weaver V3 Classic for my 357 Carbine for cheap, on sale. I was replacing a Leupold "Vari-Something-Freedom"(?), which was a huge disappointment, compared to my old Vari-X IIs. The Weaver was plain old, solid, basic scope in a 1-3 x 20 configuration, no fancy stuff I didn't need, no Gameboy reticle, sleek, compact and SIMPLE. PERFECT.

I really wanted to find another for my 357 MAX carbine barrel, but held little hope that I would catch one on sale again and started looking and found a second one even cheaper! I couldn't place the order fast enough! Come to find out, they were cheap because they had been discontinued and are now sourced from the Philippines. Maybe they're good scopes, but the worst scope I ever bought was a Philippine scope and I returned it without even mounting it.

I have several bits of Japanese glass and it's all great stuff. What's not an old Leupold or Redfield is Japanese Weavers and B&L. Older stuff, I guess and missing all the cool, new marketing gee-gaw that makes it so hard for me to find a scope today.

 

[Bret4207]

I prefer the older Weaver, Redfield and Leupolds. Even the older Tascos seemed better. I think once we get to about 1985 or so things went down hill. I love a lot of the scopes produced in the 60s and would be perfectly happy with them as long as they don't need repair. Fixing one is often why new ones are purchased IME!

 

[CWLONGSHOT]

I grew up on the post Xhair scope. Bushnells and Redfields.

I just swapped a Old Bushnell Banner 1-4 post onto my 357 Maxi H&R and sited it.
I have a Burris 1 3/4-5 post on my 35 Whelen.

Some years back I sent four Leupolds back to be changed to German #1 or 3 reticules.

Fast bold reticules for close (er) shots. They work well for the hunting here.

CW

 

[fiver]

those huge ocular things just kill me.
they put a 40mm bell on the scope and then a 50mm diameter ocular lens on the back of it so i can scrape the hell out of my palm when i work the bolt.
that or raise the scope up so high i have to hold a foot low at 100yds. and then be dead on again at 400.

 

[todd]

i should just go back to aperture sights!!!!!! oh, wait a minute.......i have them lol!!!

 

[Michael]

25-06.... 85gr Ballistic Tips and RL-19. Woof..... talk about taking a small critter apart... Bang, Splat. Shot so well never had any urge to try something different.

 

[CWLONGSHOT]

Im not a fan of huge objectives either. I think they are silly and unbalanced looking. My hunting buddy LOVES THEM and feels the bigger the better somehow anything small is lesser... I have repeated ly explained quality glass and costings can exceed a large lense. That any more then a 6mm shaft of light is wasted. It falls on def ears. I thought he would get the point one late November afternoon we sat on a cut field for coyotes where he could see better thru my scope then his or with his own naked eyes, but it didnt last long as he seemingly forgot. Of well his gun his choice.

40mm looks OK. 32/33mm more pleasing to me on the scale of most of my scopes.

CW

 

[Bret4207]

Those are the same guys that drive the giant pickup with the 6" lift kit and a 500 hp engine, but they never put anything hevier thana set of golf clubs in the back. They're compensating for something...

 

[todd]

back in '84, i think, my dad gave me a new marlin 25n with a CHEAP 4x Tasco (i think....lol). the scope was like 25mm and it didn't like the dark, so 1/2 hour before sunset and a 1/2 hour after sunrise you couldn't see the squirrel. the next year i missed a turkey at around 10 yards with the scope. i took it home and i shot it at 25 yards and it would always go to left. i broke the crosshair adjustment. so i took it off and smashed the scope on the sidewalk. it was open sights fer me for a couple of years and i bought a 4x Bushnell or Tasco 40mm (i think).

i like the way the 33mm looks on my rifles, bolts and single shots. although i have 40mm , it is just something about i don't like....

2-7x leopold freedom

3-9x swift(an old good one, not the junk that they have now)

bubba's best scope mount ever!!!!!!

 

[Bret4207]

My first scope was on my first 22. An Ithaca 49 Saddle Gun, the Martini type falling block single shot. Got it the Christmas when I was maybe 10 or 11. The following Christmas a family friend gave me a Weaver D4 scope. My Dad built a mount and I was in heaven! That rifle could shoot! The D4 wasn't anything fancy, it was probably a $10.00 scope, but it worked great. A couple years later I got a Winchester 320 and the D4 went on it. That 320 was a marvelous rifle and I never, ever should have let it go. So I've been a Weaver fan since 70 or 71 an see no reason to change now.

 

[Michael]

bubba's best scope mount ever!!!!!!

Would hate to see what kind of work he does on a mold.

 

[todd]

bubba's best scope mount ever!!!!!!

Would hate to see what kind of work he does on a mold.

i don't where i got the picture from, but i think its on a forum somewhere.

 

[CWLONGSHOT]

I cannot find it now. But I have seen a video of a Savage 340 with its scope mounted TO THE BOLT!!!

CW

 

[todd]

WOW.......I MEAN HOW IN THE WORLD.......LOL!!!!!

 

[RBHarter]

I know this guy that drove a Ford P'up 90 miles home with vice grips on the rear brake flex line to the axle .

If it can be screwed up, maimed , or stupified via improbable chance or red neck engumnerin' , there's one out there somewhere .

 

[Bret4207]

There are some people out there that should never, ever, under any circumstances be allowed access to a welder, backhoe, high powered car/motorcycle/snowmobile/boat, chainsaw, grinder larger than a Dremel or political office.

 

[todd]

There are some people out there that should never, ever, under any circumstances be allowed access to a welder, backhoe, high powered car/motorcycle/snowmobile/boat, chainsaw, grinder larger than a Dremel or political office.

hey!!!!! sleepy joe resembles that remark!!!

 

[CWLONGSHOT]

I had a few of these bullets remaining in my old bullet box and set aside to shoot off but decided to pull them.

GUESS WHAT! THEY WAS HEAVIER powder chg then what was written!! Unsure what happened as theyw as loaded long time back.

New ladder loaded.

Bottom Line. If it walks and talks like a duck..