Light gathering

glasshalffull

Well-Known Member
Had a conversation with a microscope boffin at work and to cut to the chase he informed me that a variable power scope, because of the internal mechanisms, would not have as good light gathering properties as fixed magnification. So being that a good percentage of shots at deer are going to be in poorish light conditions, well what's the point in paying extra for variable if it impedes efficiency and as said many times before on this forum most with variable leave on X6 anyway???
 
I usually start with the magnification down low, better in low light, but if I see something I turn it up high and get a closer look at it, that way I don’t have so far to walk if I hit it..... I’ll just grab my hat and cloak :)
 
Had a conversation with a microscope boffin at work and to cut to the chase he informed me that a variable power scope, because of the internal mechanisms, would not have as good light gathering properties as fixed magnification. So being that a good percentage of shots at deer are going to be in poorish light conditions, well what's the point in paying extra for variable if it impedes efficiency and as said many times before on this forum most with variable leave on X6 anyway???

Some blooming boffin if he's talking about light gathering rather than light transmission. :rofl:
 
Don,t get me wrong if i was competition shooting maybe? but as most shooting in uk is under 300yds give or take no need,christ you can throw a stone 75 of those yards! ,but don,t try head shots ;)
 
Because I shoot both "on the hill" and in woodland and so use a 3-9x36 Zeiss Diavar C. If I could I have preferred a 2-7x36 but Zeiss didn't make one at that time.
 
No doubt about it, the fewer lens assemblies the light has to pass through, the more light will pass, assuming that we are talking about top quality glass and coatings, of course.
 
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Horses for courses. The main advantage of a variable scope is that you can, um, vary the magnification. Even though most people will keep in on 6X or whatever most of the time, there will be that occasional long shot to be taken. It's like that old AYA boxlock languishing in your cabinet. Hardly gets used from one year to the next. But it's there if you need it, when the posh Beretta goes wrong.

But I guess it's true that a fixed scope will transmit more light and it's simpler so there's less to go wrong.
 
IME the hand made Beretta's though pretty are more prone to going wrong than the machine made ones. The jury is still out as to whether the Brescia gun outlasts the Eibar offering, but I've seen more of the latter (particularly thier lower end offerings) in need of repair than the former.
 
IME the hand made Beretta's though pretty are more prone to going wrong than the machine made ones. The jury is still out as to whether the Brescia gun outlasts the Eibar offering, but I've seen more of the latter (particularly thier lower end offerings) in need of repair than the former.

Probably true. My Silver Pigeon just goes on and on. As for the spare - the AYA boxlock, that does okay too but the top lever spring broke on it one time, which made for an annoying hour or two.
 
IME the hand made Beretta's though pretty are more prone to going wrong than the machine made ones. The jury is still out as to whether the Brescia gun outlasts the Eibar offering, but I've personally seen many more of the latter (particularly thier lower end offerings) in need of repair than the former.

Had a conversation with a microscope boffin at work and to cut to the chase he informed me that a variable power scope, because of the internal mechanisms, would not have as good light gathering properties as fixed magnification. So being that a good percentage of shots at deer are going to be in poorish light conditions, well what's the point in paying extra for variable if it impedes efficiency and as said many times before on this forum most with variable leave on X6 anyway???

I think it's not really so much a 'given' that the light is going to be so poor that they cannot be seen to be shot sufficiently clearly, or perhaps rather that many folk will simply decide 'it is too dark to shoot now', and call it a day, when the 8/56 can still operate effectively for another extra few minutes. Those using top end fixed glass know this of course, but a great many others may have little or no experience of same; but it has to be said also that of the many thousands of shots fired 'in the last twenty minutes of light' a greater proportion will be taken well before the very last two to three minutes of that useable light.

In the end it is indeed a personal choice, and many more nowadays either have not tried both side by side, or in any event prefer the more sophisticated variable to the more functional but fixed magnification scope, and I'd suspect too that for most recreational stalkers, that is "good enough", which for them it probably is.
 
The shops are always closed at last light so you would have to spend the 2K up front to experience the improvement an 8x56 top scope will bring unless you can go late stalking with a loaner rifle so fitted which seems to be illegal in the UK unless the lendee?? is sitting next to you.
 
I’m lucky to live near Mike Dickinson at Calton Moor. When I wanted a good low light scope, I went to Mikes before dark, we got all of the scopes out on his garden wall, had a brew and spent an hour looking through them at cows & sheep at various distances until near dark. This meant I got the scope that suited my eyes the best in real world conditions.
 
Nicest scope I ever looked through for image quality and resolution was a Zeiss 7 x 50, but I have very limited experience of scopes so probably not worth taking too seriously.

David.
 
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