All Round Scope

You say your new to stalking

I wouldnt worry too much about the different type of scope for different game youll have your hands full just with that 3006 lol


joking aside maybe a z6i in 2.5x15x56 its illuminated and has a very low mag and a very high mag and great in low light

other than a specific scope for different game or situations i think its a very good happy medium


+1 on this as a compromise. I do have a Meopta 3-9x42 spare if that would suit your needs.
 
Thankyou for all the help chaps, interesting to see what everyone thinks on the matter, will have to study the comments again and get online and see what deals are going, thanks again, sam
 
Hi mate I'v done a spiel a while ago for my Brother in Law who is choosing a scope for his 7mm 08 in NZ. Ill post it here and hope you dont mind;
Busting The Bulldust About Scopes

1. 30mm tubes don’t help light gathering they only give the ability to wind the elevation up more if you want to shoot out beyond 800m. Not recommended when hunting deer with a 7mm 08. 30mm scopes cost more. They weigh a lot more too. Vortex 6-24x50 PST weighs a ton, when compared to a Zeiss 6.5-20 x50 HD. Theres a brand new Vortex on my desk as I write this. The bloke who just bought it and brought it in to show me is a new shooter and has ignored every suggestion here.
2. Zoom scopes are versatile but in practice the zoom is just one more thing that can complicate and delay a shot. Never get snobbish about fixed power scopes. They are more durable. Cheaper (so that expensive high end brand is easier to afford). They gather more light at the same magnification than a zoom scope, as there’s less glass in the way. In practice most killing shots are made at the setting you see it first in, there simply isn’t time to faff about. Zoom scope are dearer, good zoom scopes are expensive, the best zoom scopes are poisonously expensive.
3. 1st focal plane is helpful in Tactical equipment for ranging when using the milradian system because it works at any zoom setting. But the first focal plane feature is useless anywhere else like hunting. It cannot be used with a scope that has a Bullet Drop Compensator reticle, unless the rifle you use under it and the ammo is perfectly matched with the reticle, pretty unlikely. Most BDCs in 1st FP scopes are set for: 5.56x45 NATO, 7.62x51 NATO, .338 Lapua Magnum. FFP scopes cost more. The reticle on a Vortex PST 6-24 for example is so fine at the low power it is useless for snap shots and thick at high zoom when peering at a target far away.
4. Parallax adjustment on a scope is important in Tactical and Target applications but a pain in the butt when hunting. Basically the scope has to be focused each and every time you raise it to your shoulder; as the game (very unfairly) will not appear at the range you last set, so it will be out of focus. Parallax adjustment is dear, side parallax is dearer still.
5. Tactical turrets get in the way and if you have stop to play with the elevation or windage when hunting deer you obviously weren’t ready to go hunting in the first place. TT scopes cost more.
6. Huge objective lenses on cheaper scopes are there to help overcome the poor coatings they used. Manufacturers can cover up the fuzzy edges (cheap glass, poor lens grinding gear) by making the sight picture smaller. Good brands coat all their lenses properly both sides so improving light gathering and their sight picture is wide (field of view) and the picture is not fuzzy at the edges. A huge objective is for hunting at twilight (German style). The bigger the objective the higher the cost and the weight.
7. Illuminated crosshairs can be distracting and don’t make up for poor optics, but they do help at twilight or when spotlighting (lamping).
8. Monstrous magnification is great for Tactical sniping shots or target shooting but of little use when hunting unless you do a lot of looong range hunting from a hide or perch. First the sights at 15 - 20x will wobble around like an old lady on a pizpot. Acquiring a target at high magnification can take days. The light gathering at high mag is generally poor unless you have several thousands of moneys to spend on a top end scope. Unless the it is high end the zoom rate is going to make the scope worse (more prone to damage). ie A 3-9 has a rate of 3. A 3-15 has a rate of 5. High end scopes are ok.
9. Tactical reticles are for Tactical use. Hunting reticles are for hunting.
10. A) A bullet drop compensator reticle (BDC) is only as good as the person who uses it and requires practice. The ability to judge distance accurately is essential. As is a good memory for which bar is which range when in times of stress, (like when you see that stag with all the exciting pointy bits for the first time). It only works properly in a 2nd Plane scope at one magnification. You have to know where that is. The same goes for milradians in a 2nd focal plane scope, they will only be correct for 1 power setting. Mine is 12x in the Zeiss .65-20 x 50 HD with RapidZ Varmint reticle.
b) It is better to set a limit on the range you are going to shoot at using the Maximum Mid Range sighting technique. In short; sight the rifle so the impact will go no higher at the mid-way point and no lower at the maximum range than half the vital area of the animal you are gunning for. This is determined by the vital area size, so if it is 150mm that’s 75mm high and 75mm low or 6” and 3” high, 3” low. This is a chart on a site that explains it all but is in imperial. It is Chuck Hawks site. Set the rifle up to this and your rifle will now shoot into the vital area if you centre the crosshairs on the vital area and shoot. The only range you have to judge is the extreme limit of the trajectory. That’s just one range as opposed to hundreds of possibilities.
http://www.chuckhawks.com/rifle_trajectory_table.htm
Ive used this sighting method for 20 years now and have not regretted it. I teach Rifle Safety and assess registered shooters for my Mining/Refinery company so they can use the .270 Win to euthanise wounded or trapped animals. We have settling dams 1.5kms square and roos get in once or twice a year and get bogged in the mud up to 400m from the bank. The shooter needs to know that all they have to do is point it and shoot. We have a method of range estimation that I won't go into here.
 
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Forget variable mag, it is merely a novelty toy and beloved of marketing depts. For deerstalking, a used Zeiss Diatal 7x50 is all you ever need.
 
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Great list of reasons to go 6x, Hybrid !!

One more:
6x is about as high as most shooters can hold offhand without seeing their shaking and overcompensating. It is just easy to shoot. 6x makes 300 yards look like 50 yards, which is iron sight range. It doesn't hurt to be accustomed to looking at targets and game through the same power scope.
 
All my scopes are variable; none of them have ever been off 6x.

(The original idea was that having a bit above and a bit below would give me peace of mind, but I never end up using it.)

Cheers,
Jeff.
 
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