Re: What scope do you use for 600-1000 yard F T/R?
Aub,
I've been thinking about this a bit, and I will qualify some of what I said a bit.
As mentioned, when the conditions are right, including target visibility, high magnification is a wonderful thing. When the target visibility goes to pot, that same high magnification goes to waste, so to speak. It drives some people absolutely nutty seeing their target fluttering in the mirage - I know I've spent plenty of time grinding my teeth watching the target center dance around the center of my crosshairs instead of the other way around! At that point, the question of 'where the hell do I aim?' comes to the fore front. For the F/Open types, with a solid front rest and a fore-end stop (not quite a return-to-battery setup, but damn near) it may not be as frustrating - I don't know.
Something else to consider - some of the very best shooters like Jeff & Darrell *do* have incredibly small shot call areas - the region around where the shot broke that, all things like wind call, etc. lining up, the spotter should reasonably appear. Some days I can do that - other days, not so much. I think some (a lot of?) people tend to fall into a mental trap of thinking their gun is a laser - the crosshair was right *there*, so the bullet should be right there on that pin-point spot as well. Reality... is that ain't the way it works most days. Backing off a little and realizing that the shot spotter being a couple inches left of where you held is most likely exactly where it should be given the +/- error in wind reading, judging the mirage, shooter hold, muzzle velocity, average (not best) group size, etc. Using high magnification scopes, some folks (at least *I*) tend to hold off perhaps more than they should, chasing that spotter all over the target center, actually making their group (and score) worse than it might have been if they just held center - which is about all you could do with a lower power scope to begin with. When thats actually the case and when you really do need to hold off to compensate for a vertical draft due to range topography or lighting or something else... well thats what makes this stuff interesting
Monte