Greetings All,
I'm trying to figure out a scope to purchase and the more I read this site and watch reviews, the more confused I feel! Primarily I'm having difficulty deciding on the most useful magnification range (or fixed magnification).
I'm new to hunting and I will be hunting primarily snowshoe hare and ptarmigan if they present an opportunity. This past spring was my first hunting season and I used a BSA springer that I bought used with an included Nikko Stirling Night Eater 3-9x40 with side parallax adjustment and duplex reticle. The gun just didn't produce enough power for my liking and I'm replacing it with a (used) Daystate Huntsman Regal XL .22 (tried to go nice now that I'm sure I want to stick with airguns and get into PCP). I also have a 3-9 Leupold Freedom on my PB (which is also new to me). Frankly, I never did enough research to give the zoom range much consideration. With the springer it pretty much never left 3x when I took a couple hare this spring. I don't have enough experience yet with the Leupold to have formed any opinions, it has mostly stayed parked on 9x at the range but deer season hasn't started where I am yet so I have no field experience with it.
I'm in Kodiak, AK. Thus far, the hare hunting has been at pretty close range, all about 30 yards as I'm not super great at spotting them when they are in their in-season coats (ie white on snow, brown in brush). There's also a lot of hiking involved and a lot of brush, brambles, alders; light weight is a priority/preference. Ptarmigan would be potentially much farther on open ridges, though I doubt I'd take shots out to 100yds, I simply don't have the skills at this time.
I'm hoping for decent quality optics but I have to keep the budget pretty limited because the wife already wasn't happy about the surprise Daystate purchase. Been looking at Hawke's Vantage or Airmax lines but really just get tripped up over zoom ranges and its hard to differentiate the quality between the two since I can't handle them.
Thanks for your suggestions and collective wisdom!
Zac
I'm trying to figure out a scope to purchase and the more I read this site and watch reviews, the more confused I feel! Primarily I'm having difficulty deciding on the most useful magnification range (or fixed magnification).
I'm new to hunting and I will be hunting primarily snowshoe hare and ptarmigan if they present an opportunity. This past spring was my first hunting season and I used a BSA springer that I bought used with an included Nikko Stirling Night Eater 3-9x40 with side parallax adjustment and duplex reticle. The gun just didn't produce enough power for my liking and I'm replacing it with a (used) Daystate Huntsman Regal XL .22 (tried to go nice now that I'm sure I want to stick with airguns and get into PCP). I also have a 3-9 Leupold Freedom on my PB (which is also new to me). Frankly, I never did enough research to give the zoom range much consideration. With the springer it pretty much never left 3x when I took a couple hare this spring. I don't have enough experience yet with the Leupold to have formed any opinions, it has mostly stayed parked on 9x at the range but deer season hasn't started where I am yet so I have no field experience with it.
I'm in Kodiak, AK. Thus far, the hare hunting has been at pretty close range, all about 30 yards as I'm not super great at spotting them when they are in their in-season coats (ie white on snow, brown in brush). There's also a lot of hiking involved and a lot of brush, brambles, alders; light weight is a priority/preference. Ptarmigan would be potentially much farther on open ridges, though I doubt I'd take shots out to 100yds, I simply don't have the skills at this time.
I'm hoping for decent quality optics but I have to keep the budget pretty limited because the wife already wasn't happy about the surprise Daystate purchase. Been looking at Hawke's Vantage or Airmax lines but really just get tripped up over zoom ranges and its hard to differentiate the quality between the two since I can't handle them.
Thanks for your suggestions and collective wisdom!
Zac
