What scope magnification do you like to shoot and why?

[Vana2]

Most of my 6 decades of shooting was for small game and later deer in heavy bush. To that end I chose scopes for their minimum magnification (1.5 to 3 power) because field of view was the main concern. The upper end of the zoom range was only used for sighting in.

I still use lower power settings (up to 6 power now) for the plinking, pesting and small game hunting I do but I'm doing more tuning, testing and bench shooting these days and prefer higher magnification. Many of my scopes feature 16 and 24 power at maximum and I use those settings because there's no hurry, the targets will wait patiently while I get comfortable behind the rifle.

Cheers!

 

[Feinwerk]

I find that 10x is a good all-around magnification for pesting and occasional target shooting out to 50yd. I make my stick-on range tables for 10x. Changing magnification means changing the range table unless I'm using a First Focal Plane (FFP) scope that compensates for this. I like FFP scopes but only have two for now. Most of my rifles have Second Focal Plane (SFP) scopes that top out from 9 to 12x magnification. Those few that have more, up to 16 or 20x , get set to 10x for standardization and improved clarity, unless I'm shooting targets beyond 30yd from a steady rest in good lighting. For my modest optics, low to mid tier, setting to max magnification tends to reduce clarity.

Regards,
Feinwerk

 

[tnt68]

I like 6x @25m and mostly mantaining this proportion 2.4x @10m, 4.8x @20m, 12x @50m and so on trying to mantain the dimensions of the target and the field of view. My choice in magnification is between 2-7x to 4-16x max.

 

[jarmstrong]

biggest use is for yard and garden pesting 20 to 35 yds
sfp, 12 to 14 power, zero @ 30 yds,,, old eyes need help shooting English House sparrows, to be sure they are Eng House sparrows and not other speices
don't care about chairgun or reticle lines ,,, I just use my sense of windage, ala JohnWayne
took over 80 Starlings this last cold snap and snow/cloudy weather,,, Weihrauch HW 44 in carbine stock, Optisan cp,, out the bedroom window
like shooting fish in a barrel , so easy,,, your personal use , determines how to use your scope,,,
competition is the arena of more advanced use of optics, I can miss a bird and no problem, but miss in competition, that's a no winner, no chix dinner

 

[TnCnDn]

I only use FFP scopes. Unless it's a Top Tier scope I typically use them a bit under full magnification because the eye box/eye relief is more forgiving.

Oh come on now...everything you have is top tier
.