Narrowed my scope options down to Nikon Monarch 3 & Leupold VX-3

leupold

Leupold. Don't need that much magnification.

Leupold for sure.

Ive never been overly impressed by Nikon

I say go with the bigger magnification. I'd rather have it and not need than need and not have. Most of my scopes are a minimum of 12 power but I normally shoot at 10 power, it's just nice to zoom in on antlers every once in a while.

2-7x32 is my favorite scope size

quote:

---

any downside to over zooming?

---

Harder to find the animal if it's a quick get up and on him shot. Like if a buck trotted across a pipeline and you only had 6 seconds to get on him and squeeze the trigger.

quote:

---

I zoom the shite outta my scope, any downside to over zooming?

---

Parallax, less light transmission, and field of view. If you get over about 10x-12x zoom, depending on scope, you are going to want to make sure it has parallax adjustment-and preferably side focus. The more zoom, the smaller the exit pupil, and the less light transmitted to your eye. Obviously, field of view will be smaller.

I've been looking at the 4-16x42 Monarch 3 for a .338 mag (haven't decided which one), and for the price it's hard to beat (about $400.00 +/- on Gunbroker).

Seriously-you probably don't need anything more than 3-9x40 on a 30-06. But as with my thread on elk calibers-everyone has their reasons for wanting their certain this or that, so have at it.

quote:

---

Have you looked at the Vortex scopes?

---

Of those two brands and models I would pick Leupold every time. Would definitely research the other brands mentioned too.

For the power, I have a 14x Ziess, which is overkill. I'm not a competition marksman and haven't shot 500yd targets at 6x power, maybe that means I need to practice more but to me 12x is a good compromise.