Jaggy13 Wrote:If you don't care about weight, then throw a telescope up there!
I have a 4.5x30 on my precision rifle. I can't tell you how much, maybe 90% of the time, I'm around 10-12 power.
But when I want to really zoom in, I can.
good glass is addicting. get some and start enjoying it.
Plus on that thing weight just soaks up the recoil.
I'm going with a 2-12 but I got the nicest glass I could afford. It's not as light as your PST, but that was a consideration.
I'm planning on varmitting or deer hunting with mine, so trying to keep weight down.
For me instead of magnification its the focus that I really embrace.
you can roll the focus from near to far and see the mirage for the given distance it's focus at.
I do that to watch for swirls or eddies in the wind.
Plus if you get something really nice and build a bolt gun later, you can just move that over and decide what to do then.
+1, nicely said Jaggy.
'Buy once, cry once'. You will never wear out a scope by looking through it, and unless you use it as a tyre lever you will be able to hand it down to you kids. With good quality glass you will be able to see impact holes in paper out to 500M. That will save you walking downrange or carrying an extra spotting scope. Or, having to shoot with someone down in the butts with a radio (at least to 500m).
I first started F Class competition with a Leupold 6.5-20*50 (Leupold admit their 20* in the Mk4 LR-T is actually only 19*). 19* worked out to 1,000yds, but only because the holes were being spotted, and more recently by the Kongsberg electronic target system with a TV monitor next you. At the lower end it's 6.5 is a reasonable hunting magnification so that's why I chose it. F-Class targets are huge so you can get away with lower magnifications. I wouldn't go less than 20* however for 1,000yd shooting. long range shooters nowadays use 40*- 60* scopes. March sells a very expensive 8-80*56mm scope. This is of course useless for typical hunting so it's going to be a compromise in your situation. You can get away with a 10* scope for long range shooting but you will always be on 10* and always wanting more zoom.
Painting steel is another way around needing good glass. Big splash marks and sound to let you know what's happening. Obviously the further the steel is the less chance you're going to hear it, especially when wearing double-ear protection.