Well it's really surprising the different ideas in the US to Europe and the UK. On another forum, UK based, there was such a discussion and in it I noticed those who were pushing the variable were the vermin shooters. Vermin in the UK usually means our Red Fox and that is usually done with lamps at night their being mainly nocturnal. Those who were more into deer stalking were the ones who voiced their choice of fixed power scopes and one of the ones most commonly put forward to dual use of deer/fox was the various 8x50's and 8x56's.
The general advice given to those starting out or looking for a scope upgrade (if they were lured into buying a mediocre scope make) for deer stalking including woodland stalking is to get a Schmidt & Bender, Zeiss, Swaroski, Khales, Doctor or Meopta scope of 6x42.
Sadly due to the volume sales in the US more European makers are concentrating upon large variables and neglecting the UK customer
but with a good fixed magnification scope one spends more time shooting and less time playing with adjustments.
I have brought and tried many types of scopes to try out their features. Beign on a very low fixed budget it's been hard and more often than not means having to buy used. I have tried the Mil dot reticle and cannot see what all the fuss is about for normal hunting
. have tried two scopes with it one a budget scope from a pretty poor maker................. Hawke which I would not avoid like the plauge............................. yep that good. The other is a 7.5x56 CSS fixed mag scope with side parallax. On another note I have come to the conclusion that this side parallax feature is a sop to get around the fact that their using inferior lenses
as the Meopta 7x50 does not need it but of course they have good glass fitted.
Now one thing that really does stand out in all this is that not many here in the UK will you find using Leupold fixed mag scopes for deer stalking. you might find a few who have Leupold variables but they do tend to be newcomers to the sport. The Leupold's simply lack the light transmission and unless one orders the European model the reticles are too fine for first and last light shooting.
Comparing a Leupold 6x40 against a Swaroski, Zeiss, Doctor,Schmidt & Bender, Khales or Meopta 6x42 is in most cases a revelation to those who have never used a top European scope before and yes I do have a couple of Leupold scopes and not their base models either although they are few decades old now being a 2.3-8 vari X 111 and the afore mentioned M8 compact 4x. The vari X 111 came on a used rifle and I brought the M8 used from the local gunshop. It does fine a .22 rimfire.
However finding new decent 6x42's is getting harder and of course I cannot afford them new
Oh yes the old sage advice still stands.........................
spend the majority of your budget on a good scope and the change on the rifle. You cannot hit what you cannot see.
