Using Variable Power Scopes in 3-Gun

[rhino]

On Saturday I cheated myself out of some points on a rifle stage because 1) I lost track of the targets as I was engaging them and 2) I set the power too high and my wobble was magnified, making me go too slowly.

It was standing/offhand shooting six metric targets at 100 yards with just the heads poking above no-shoot heads on the top, and just the lower half of the body poking below the bodies of the no-shoots. When I took a sight picture before loading, those heads looked mighty tiny at 1X through my Leupold Vari-X II 1-4X20mm. So I cranked up to 2-2.5 and they still looked too small to me. Foolishly I went to 4X and left it there for the start of the stage.

When I started shooting, I was wobbling too much because I never use the 4X ... I had to stop and take a breath and hold if several times, costing me valuable seconds. Worse than that, I lost track of the targets as I was doing this because my field of view was smaller than usual, so I had only one hit on the bottom of the center target and five on the right bottom (I was throwing three shots on each just in case!). I had a miss each on two of the heads as well, which is my own fault, but I suspect using too much magnification didn't help.

So I was third on the stage in Tactical (actually I was third overall in the whole match), but I could have been second easily or maybe even first if I'd not cheated myself. Since I suck so badly at pistol and I can't shoot (or reload) my shotgun very well anymore, I need all the rifle points I can get!

So ... how do you guys decide how much magnification to use? Obviously some situations are no-brainers. On close/CQB type stuff, you turn it down as low as it will go. On long stuff when you can achieve some kind of supported position (like a bipod, monopod, prone, etc.), you can crank that baby as high as it will go without worries. But what about in between, especially when you have to shoot unsupported?

Is there a rule of thumb, or do I need to just shoot more and get a feel for it?

The last time I left it on 2X for 100 yard shots on wide open targets and did very well (a 100 yard rifle El Prez). Should I have done the same with much smaller targets at the same distance?

[George]

I used to run a variable and would always use the lowest power if it wasn’t a supported position for the wobble reasons you mentioned. On longer shots with support available, I would only crank on enough mag to still have the entire target array visible at once. Basically field of view is quite often more important than seeing the details of the target.

I ran a test with a 3.5-10x scope from a bipod at 200 yards trying to do it as fast as I could get settled comfortably again after each shot and I got pretty much the same sized groups at either end of the magnification ratio (5 rounds in 2” at 3.5x and 1.5” at 10x, target = 2” orange dot). Yeah, that’s a difference, but not much for what we are talking about here. I was able to get the shots off a whole lot quicker with the lower magnification because I spent less time dressing up the sight picture.

More mag is only better with a stable, supported position and even then, it can be quite a bit of a time waster compared to just enough magnification to get the job done.

--

Regards,

Edited August 2, 2004 by George

[benny hill]

Rhino, my rule on this is to turn my power up or down untill I can see at least 2 targets at a time so as to know where to index to next.

[uscbigdawg]

Too, if you are cranked up a little high, using both eyes to index to the next target (if you're not doing it already) is great for picking up some time (I tend to engage rifle targets right to left, 'cause of this. Also, 'cause I can pull the bi-pod towards me).

Rich

[Mickster]

Several weeks ago I did a test to figure out an answer to this question.

I set up a 10" steel plate at 150 yards. Using a 1.1x4 scope on a flattop shooting "one shot draws" I found the most hits in the shortest times came at 1.1 and 2 power. Going up past that slowed down the times.

Wobble and searching for the perfect sight picture made me try to snap the trigger at the right time, usually resulting in a miss and taking longer to achieve that miss.

Lesson learned: Generally, unless the shooting position is super stable, go with the lower magnification. A Rule of Thumb could be one power for every 100 yards.

[rhino]

Thanks, guys!

It sounds like my intuition is correct. I just need to trust myself when it comes to match time!