i quit

[fatercat]

i have tried ruger super redhawk with scope and a smith & wesson with scope and can't hit a damn thing over 25 yards. i can take my old army 45 and kill deer at 40 yds at will. guess just to old  for this new handgun times.

[yorketransport]

That's funny. My older brother said the same thing to me about both rifles and pistols with scopes. I put a deadly accurate scoped rifle in his hands and he couldn't hit my 12" gong at 100 yds with it. He grabbed his iron sighted 30-06 and nailed it 3 out of 5. Same thing with a scoped handgun at 50yds. He then told me that he's too old to learn to use a scope, so he'll stick with the irons. The funny part is that he's only 29.

[Ken ONeill]

Get a rest to start with, and try harder. Get rid of a negative outlook, which is easy to have with anything new. The results can be worth it.

[Doe]

You know what though, I'm more confidant  with iron sight then with a scope when shooting game.  When punching paper no problem at all...go figure so all my handguns have no scope and all my hunting rifle are iron sight, the only guns that i have scopes on are the ones that don't have an iron sight and most of the time those are for punching paper only.

[GRIMJIM]

I like open sights on my handgun for hunting also. I seem to be able to get on target quicker than with a scope and I use a shoting stick for longer shots.

[Mikey]

fatercat - I can't use scopes on handguns.  I can't get the focus right and I spend more time trying to locate the target than I would with open sights.  The 'wobble' I get trying to put the crosshair on the target creates a real disadvantage for me.  Handguns are strictly open sighted for me.  It is what you are the most comfortable with, and an Old Army at 40 yds is pretty darn good, so I doubt I would change anything.

Some of my rifles carry scopes, others do not.  Mikey.

[Catfish]

I shoot both ways with handguns and rifles. It really depends more on how I fell than any thing else whether I use iron or a scope. My longest shot on a deer with a handgun was abt 135 yrds with iron sights. I`ve taken several deer with scopes handguns also, but seem like the shot have never been much over 100 yrds. My favorite gun for rabbit hunting used to be an old Mossburg single shot .22 rim fire with iron sights. The last coyote I shot was a running shot at 314 yrds, lazered, with a scoped rifle. I do know several people that just never could shoot with scopes as well as they could with iron. I guess it all what you like and fell comfortable with.

[GRIMJIM]

135 yards is pushing it for me. I'll keep it under a hundred but that's just me. My farthest so far is 65 yards off hand, had no time to get my shooting stick ready.

[Dee]

Well I CAN hit with scopes, have made some shots in excess of 600 yards on predators, and used them for years in a 20 year L.E. career. As I got older, however, I gravitated BACK to aperture sights on rifles, and after being out of L.E. for about 14 years now have almost totally abandoned scoped rifles entirely going back to my roots of Winchester lever actions with aperture sights. I enjoy the shooting more, and the hunting seems more of an accomplishment. Our predecessors took big game ALL OVER the United States without scopes, and that includes OUT WEST, so if one believes they are necessary there, he or she is ignoring history. One has to hunt harder, and stalk closer, but that's hunting. JMO
Handguns with scopes? Nope! Don't care for'em. Too much wiggle when I tried to use'em.

[MePlat]

I just don't understand why some people can't shoot a handgun offhand with a scope.  It really doesn't make a whole lot of sense really.
Sometimes I wonder if these same people can shoot well with Iron Sights to begin with.

[woodchukhntr]

I think that the problem is the wobble that is apparent with the scope.  With iron sights you just don't notice it and are more confident (that is if you can actually see the iron sights).  A part of the problem is also the magnification of the scope.  Most people that I see use overpowered scopes.  If you tried a 1x scope, the wobble wouldn't be as noticeable.  It will still be there since you are looking at an image on one plane rather than 3 different planes with irons.  Your brain can't process the 3-plane wobble as well as 1 plane.

Most people really don't need the 3x9 scope that has become standard.  you see them even on shotguns that are never used at 100 yd.  I believe that a 1.5 x 4.5 scope is more than adequate on rifles and shotguns, and 1 power on handguns unless they are Contenders, etc. that are used at long ranges from a rest normally.  What do you want to do, get a good aiming point or count the hairs on the deer.  If you use your scope as a spotting scope, I don't want to hunt in the same county as you.

A while back, Finn Aagard wrote an article on scope magnification that showed no practical difference in hunting accuracy with low-power scopes.  In my experience he is right.

[jhalcott]

  Woodchucker pretty much said what I feel. I have been unable to shoot much the last couple years due to health issues. When I get to the range ,I can hardly hold up the same rifle or handgun I used to shoot off hand with at 200+ yards. Now the scope shows so much wobble I cant seem to get it on target. I find my self constantly OVER compensating for the wobbles. When I can get into the proper position and the scope comes up on the target correctly I can do JUST O K! i can NOT hold on the target for many seconds like I did in years past. So I have started to develope a shot gunners aim & shoot regimen. I get into position with the rifle barrel rested on the bench. Look at the target and bring the gun to shoulder. As soon as the target is in the cross hairs, I squeeze the trigger. I was taught this as a boy by grand dad, but had it trained out by the military. Now I am working to get it back. It is not a 10X target method, but is MORE than good enough for normal hunting.

[Sweetwater]

Due to a color correctness problem, I've had a scoped hunting rifle for 42years. Unwittingly, though without incident, we found I couldn't tell the difference between a man in a red coat and a black bear across a blueberry field in Maine. I was 16. Have had a scope ever since on my hunting rifle. I've shot IHMSA with Ruger Blackhawks and shot antelope further than I care to report - 20years ago. Now, I have a hard time keeping the sights on my leverguns and revolvers all in adequate focus - so have changed my tactics. I always carry low-powered binoculars, so I can tell the good guys from the bad guys, I keep the open-sights where I'm certain of where I am, I use the scoped rifle for most of my big game now, and I NEVER poo-poo what or why someone feels they can't do something. We all have our weaknesses, and we all need encouragement, whether we think we do or not.
Those who have mastered a technique have a huge advantage over those trying to - a very vast different point of reference.

Regards,
Sweetwater

[Barbegris]

For optics, I like red dot's the best