Will a 12X work at HP? Is this power a handicap, will it hurt your ability to see at 500M?
thanks
chuck

chuck d wrote:Will a 12X work at HP? Is this power a handicap, will it hurt your ability to see at 500M?
thanks
chuck

The 12x is one of McAlice's favorite scopes for highpower silhouette and I must say, he does quite well with it!

I'm one of the oddballs that likes 30x on everything, but lots of people do very well with lower powers. Because the animals are scaled for distance, you basically have the same site picture on HP animals as you do on SB. So if a power works for you on one, most likely it will work on the other. But, some people do prefer a lower-power scope for HP to get a larger field of view. This helps with keeping an eye on conditions, and with target indexing (making sure you stay on the right bank/target).

chuck d wrote:Will a 12X work at HP? Is this power a handicap, will it hurt your ability to see at 500M?
thanks
chuck

My understanding is that the animals, scaling with size as they do distance, always look the same relative size in your scope regardless of your scope magnification. I always shoot at 10x, though I play with 12x every so often. I have tried as high as 15x in the past and have practiced with up to 20x and I personally feel more comfortable at lower magnification and my scores keep improving as I practice, so I don't think it's holding me back. To be clear, I am shooting smallbore only right now, but am ramping up for high power and plan to shoot it the same. I shoot with at least one master who shoots nothing but 10x as well (which is why I tried it out) and it works for him!

Depends on how good your vision and hold is, if your vision is poor you probably need at least 16x at the farther targets. Same could be said if your your hold looks like you have the tremors, keep the power low, if you have great vision and hold go for the big powered scopes. I like to match the power of my scope to how I'm shooting that day hence the 8.5x25. How windy it is effects your daily choice as well, I've shot a couple of smallbore matches on 8.5 and wasn't really bothered by the 15mph gusts.Whatever you decide go with the a Leupold variable the widest range you can afford, 6x18's are a great value.

Chuck if you have the chance try out one of leupold's 25x silhouette scopes. It may seem like a lot of magnification but the clarity and precision of the adjustments is amazing. I use them on my smallbore and high power silhouette rifles and they've done wonders for my scores. Add to the equation that they are only $500 last time I checked. My 79 year old dad cries about 25x being too much for him but the fact is he shot his best ever score with my 1712 and a fixed 25x scope on top. Mileage may vary of course but that's my $0.02 worth.