what power of scope for fullbore silhouette shooting

[maver]

Hi There

What power/magnification of rifle scope do you all recommend for fullbore silhouette shooting.  I had a premier reticle leupold on my steyr and had it sitting at 40x but that was just to powerfull for me as it introduced alot of movement for me.

I am thinking on a leupold or weaver from 6 - 20x or something along those lines..

what say you

Maver 

[WayneS]

I take it that the 40 X is fixed and not an 18 -40 X ?
  Power on a scope for silhouettes is as individual  a thing as preference in women . Health, physical fitness, and life style all play a part in how much power you can handle.
 My suggestion would be to find a Var. that either has the size dot you want OR will change to what you want and go from there.

[Graybeard]

I don't comprehend the term "full bore". It to me smacks of the kinda logic antigun TV shows use when speaking a "high calibers" which I also have no clue what that means.

[1armoured]

It's a British'ism, probably been around longer than you have Gb.
It was not conceived to be PC or anti-gun.....Just 'British' !

It's the opposite of smallbore, (as opposed to big-bore, which is used some nowadays)

In the mid/late 1800's, anything under the then military calibre of .577" was referred to as smallbore.

cheers,

[GTKF]

The majority of shooters in the NJ/PA area use 20 - 24X settings on their scopes. A few use 36X and a few use 16 - 18X or less. If you're starting out I'd get a variable that can be set around 9-12X to reduce movement and work up to the the power you're most comfortable with

[Graybeard]

It's a British'ism, probably been around longer than you have Gb.
It was not conceived to be PC or anti-gun.....Just 'British' !

It's the opposite of smallbore, (as opposed to big-bore, which is used some nowadays)

In the mid/late 1800's, anything under the then military calibre of .577" was referred to as smallbore.

cheers,

Thanks for the info. I quite honestly don't think I've ever heard the term used before this post. It just struck me the way "high caliber" is used on antigun TV shows.

I've long since retired from silhouette shooting but in those days we referred to small bore and big bore with small bore being rimfire .22s and big bore hunter being centerfire altho the NRA did allow rimfires to be used in Hunter Pistol matches at the time. The correct terminology according to NRA at that time was Hunter Pistol and Small Bore Hunter Pistol. Most called Hunter Pistol Big bore around here tho even tho most actually used rather small bore guns for it.

The .32-30 and .32 H&R Mag were very popular in the TCs and not a few used the .22WMR and a few even used the .22LR for it. Ya rang a few rams with the rimfires tho.

[Nobade]

I had been using a Weaver 24X scope for high power (or fullbore if you prefer) but the last few matches I have trying a 10X. I haven't decided which I like better, the 24X lets me pick a small spot on the animal to hold on and see bullet hits, paint flakes, etc. But the 10X allows me to spot my own hits. My scores aren't really different with either, so I'm going to stick with the 10X for a while. I have also done the same thing with rimfire, used to use a 36X but have switched to a 14X and my scores have improved since I can spot for myself and adjust immediately for wind drift or bad trigger control.

[maver]

greybeard I am by no means anti gun :-( I am Irish and we use the term fullbore all the time here wish we could get to shoot the bloody things more than we talk about them :-) ...we do not have a fullbore / bigbore silhouette range in Ireland :--(.  I have a premier reticles leupold with the power boost 20x - 40x on it.  This tops of my steyr 6.5x55 mk II.  I shoot smallbore with a weaver 36x fixed and I do pretty ok with that I shoot in the 30's most of the time.  so thinking as logic might have put it I decided to shoot bigbore with it in Finland at 40x power setting and boy did I stink.  Is shooting a 19 and 15 for the first time shooting bigbore a bad score or am I just hard on myself.

so lads are we gonna call it fullbore or bigbore silhouette shooting.

maver

[torpedoman]

I had a jerk at a range tell me it was a "high power" range to practice for military matches. I was only shooting a 25-06, got a bit hot as i was a member of the range at the time, Told him to go down to the 200 yd line and catch one of my rounds and see if it was high enought power for him.

[1armoured]

I shoot a Premier boosted 18-40x on my rimfire 1712FWT at about;
24x for chickens and turkeys
and,
30x for pigs and rams.

It's what I feel comfortable with.

If There is too much wind knocking me about then I go down to 18x


On BigBore/Centrefire, and Tasco 6-24x, I find I'm comfortable with around 20x/24x , using my Sako 75 stainless synthetic sporter in .308.  It's a bit heavier, and a different fit.

I use pretty much v.high mounts on both.

I think the weight/feel of the rifle can make a difference to your perceived movement, and thus your target acquisition and decision making process.

I started shooting bb silhouette with 8/40's.
(It get's harder as you get older,......don't let anyone tell you any different !)

I seem to use the terms 'rimfire' and 'centrefire' more these days to distinguish between the two.
Fullbore smacks more of Bisley 1,000yd shooting, and BigBore makes me think 'dangerous game' !

(I'm just glad we don't shoot at Buffalo like the blackpowder guys.)

slainte,
Sean, in Godzone

[Drue]

I have been shooting silhouette for some time. Oh my .308, I started with a Lyman 10X AA scope and then a Leupold 6.5-20. Starting out at 12X I worked up to 20X and stayed there.  On my smallbore hunter rifle I have a Weaver T24. It has a 1/2 min dot reticle and 1/4 min adjustments. On my recently acquired heavy rifle I have a Leupold FXIII in 25X with the 1/2 min dot. I had tried to find another Weaver but the only ones currently available have 1/8 min dots and 1/8 min clicks. The 1/8 min dot is too small for me although some others like them.  The 1/8 min clicks are not really necessary for silhouette and they increase the likelihood of having to go more than one full revolution between the chickens and the rams which can lead to confusion. I have tried out friend's 36X scopes but they were too much for me. Perhaps it would be different if I could go from 24/25X to 36X in stages.

Since the Weaver T24 is not available in the desirable (to me) variation, if I needed a new silhouette scope, it would be a Leupold, either a VXIII in 6.5-20 or an FXIII at 25X.

Drue