Originally Posted By: coleridgeOriginally Posted By: Varminterror It's way easier to shoot a dog at 20yrds with a 6x than it is to shoot a dog at 600yrds with a 10x.
You sure about that? I've never hunted in Kasas, but I have called coyotes on both sides of it. Most dogs in those areas don't stand still for long when they get within close range of the shooter or caller. I don't know what scope you are using, but (for example) a Vortex Viper 6-24x50 has a FOV of 17.8 feet at 100 yards. Through "similar triangles" that equates to a 3.56 foot FOV at 20 yards. If a coyote is streached out running, you couldn't even get the whole dog in the scope (from nose to tail). That's going to be pretty hard to keep a moving dog in the scope! (Not to mention the FOV is only 1'@ 20 yards if a dog apears & you happen to have the scope turned all the way up to 24x) But maybee that's what the .32 is for?
Also, coyotes are plenty big enough that you can make a solid sight picture at 600 yards on 10X. However, very few hunters can hit cotyote sized targets at 600 yards with ANY power scope. It's MUCH easier to kill the close coyotes than the far ones; as long as you don't have too much scope!!!
I have plenty of high powered scopes as well, but they don't go calling much if any.
Those little single sixes are pretty dang fun, so I looked for any excuse I could find to shoot them! Takes a little while to figure out a load that shoots to POA for the fixed sights AND has enough spunk and a good bullet construction to do the job downrange, but that's all part of the fun right?
As far as "too much scope" goes...
Practice at pretty much anything and you'll find you get good at it. I've been calling coyotes for over 20yrs, my first scope was a 4-16x, and I've rarely used anything lower than 6x for the last 5yrs (do have one 4.5-14x and one 4-32x that have taken a few dogs recently).
As a professional engineer, numbers on a page are a huge part of my life, but then again, I've never seen an equation that simulates how well practiced I am at target acquisition...
For short range shooting with a high mag scope, I focus with my left eye. I use my left eye for target acquisition for any and all shots. I pick the target up in my left eye, raise the rifle, put the crosshairs from my right eye's image onto the view of the target from my left eye, and then swap to my right eye. If dogs are too close, I just don't swap to my scope eye. The human brain is an amazing machine, and with a little practice, you can learn to use the fact that your brain super-imposes the images from both eyes together to your advantage. Shooting left eyed (outside of target), I can put up about 2MOA groups out to 50yrds, and 1" will kill a coyote any day of the week. (Thanks to my grandfather for teaching me that trick as a kid).
Practicing on movers sure doesn't hurt either. (Thanks again to my grandfather for teaching me how to weld, and for giving me my degree in hillbilly engineering to go with my OTHER one!)
But since I too am an avid "preacher" of the similar triangles mantra, here's my contention supporting that "hitting a dog with a 6x at 20yrds is easier than a 10x at 600yrds"...
First off, I'm not shooting at a coyote, I'm shooting at a coyote's heart, or head. A 4" heart out of a 3.56ft FOV is almost 10% of my FOV. The visible field of a human is about 100degrees, with the foveal field only covering about 10-15degrees, or about 5.23-7.85ft at 20yrds. A 5ft dog makes up MOST of the foveal field, if not all of it. Raising the rifle with my foveal field focused on the dog will help ensure (with a little practice) that my crosshairs fall within my foveal field, aka crosshairs somewhere on the dog. Taking your eyes off of your target as your raise the target (to look at the scope, or other part of the rifle) will ensure you do NOT raise the sights onto the dog. Again, I don't need to switch eyes if I don't want to just to place the shot.
I suppose I'd have a problem if the dog was so close that his 4" heart or 2" brainbox were larger than my foveal view (4" foveal view of 10degrees is just under 2ft from my eye. I'm pretty confident if my muzzle is touching a coyote, I can kill it).
Now, at the other end of the spectrum, a 3.5-10x50mm scope should have a 11-12ft FOV at 100yrds, so about 66-72ft at 600. Now say I'm trying to hit my coyote in his 4" heart: 4" at 600yrds is 1/2%, meaning if I perfectly center my crosshairs over the heart, I can only bobble 1/4% of my total FOV otherwise I miss entirely. Add to that the thickness of the crosshairs (1/4MOA), you're talking about 1.5" covered up by the crosshairs. Say I'm well practiced and can hold within half a crosshair left or right, that's 3/4", so now my 2" left or right margin for error is only about 1.25", or 0.16% of my total FOV. How's your peripheral visual accuity? Can you detect a movement of 0.16%?
In my experience, raising my rifle to within 5degrees is much easier than holding my rifle steady to within 0.16%.
Yes, I did qualify Expert with an M-16, including 600yrd shooting with A2 sights, but frankly, it just aint for me. I've never wished I had less scope.
Beyond all of that, if a dog IS "streached (stretched?) out running" at 20yrds, the bad news is that it likely means I screwed up and gave myself away, but the good news is that if he's running at 20yrds and for whatever reason I can't get a shot on him, he'll quite quickly be farther away.
