If I had to shoot 50 yards in short order would a 10x make it hard to find my target quickly?

That's what pistols are for.

I am really limited in my knowledge level of distance shooting so my choice was by no means some expert opinion. I would like to take a distance shooting class someday to really help put the math into practice.

What do you think makes my setup a limiting factor? Is it mostly the lack of higher magnification? My eyesight is pretty sharp still but I could imagine when it gets worse then higher magnification would certainly be a significant advantage. Though if I were taking 800-1000 yard shots in Afghanistan I am sure I would want the higher magnification.

Sometimes I wonder if I should have gone with the fixed 10x scope but I wonder what the limitations are of closer range shots. If I had to shoot 50 yards in short order would a 10x make it hard to find my target quickly?

I could have spent $2000 on a 3x-18x Leupold with FFP and had a great scope but ouch!

My experience with long(er) range or precision rifle isn’t much either. That was the context of this thread though. Not really precision at 100 yards.

Limiting? Depending on intended use, as well as effect range or cartridge. For me, I was thinking of ranges in the 600 to 1000. Maybe a bit more. At those ranges, your scope likely doesn’t have the elevation adjustment range or reticle for hold over sufficient for the higher end of that spectrum.

Then there’s target ID. Yeah, iron sights to 600 (and beyond) is doable given a big target board at say Puuloa. Put a 16” diameter steel plate on a hill side, a bit tougher without more mag. At least for me. Even when they had the 440-450 gong at KHSC, that was tough to make out without mag, especially when it was in the shade. And that was when my eyesight was much better.

I’m no hunter foe field of view isn’t that important to me. Yeah, I find that dialing down the mag helps finding the target. But even at 16x, making out targets in the 800-1000 range wasn’t that easy.

If it wasn’t for COVID, I would’ve been in a LR class in GA this past fall. Dunno when I’ll be looking to do that again since I’m starting a huge project and travel for stuff like that will be tight.

That's what pistols are for.

Uh huh. Good luck with that. 

Anyways, precision rifle - optics...

My experience with long(er) range or precision rifle isn’t much either. That was the context of this thread though. Not really precision at 100 yards.

Limiting? Depending on intended use, as well as effect range or cartridge. For me, I was thinking of ranges in the 600 to 1000. Maybe a bit more. At those ranges, your scope likely doesn’t have the elevation adjustment range or reticle for hold over sufficient for the higher end of that spectrum.

Then there’s target ID. Yeah, iron sights to 600 (and beyond) is doable given a big target board at say Puuloa. Put a 16” diameter steel plate on a hill side, a bit tougher without more mag. At least for me. Even when they had the 440-450 gong at KHSC, that was tough to make out without mag, especially when it was in the shade. And that was when my eyesight was much better.

I’m no hunter foe field of view isn’t that important to me. Yeah, I find that dialing down the mag helps finding the target. But even at 16x, making out targets in the 800-1000 range wasn’t that easy.

If it wasn’t for COVID, I would’ve been in a LR class in GA this past fall. Dunno when I’ll be looking to do that again since I’m starting a huge project and travel for stuff like that will be tight.

I don't have one of those riser rails on my gun so you might be right that it may not have enough elevation adjustment for 1000 yard ranges. The scope has a total of 140 moa elevation adjustment so roughly 70 up, 70 down? Have to do some math to figure out when the .308 would fall below the max adjustment.

This guy has an extensive series on distance shooting and I watched a bunch of them a while ago. This video just happened to pop up in my feed again and is relevant.

I don't have one of those riser rails on my gun so you might be right that it may not have enough elevation adjustment for 1000 yard ranges. The scope has a total of 140 moa elevation adjustment so roughly 70 up, 70 down? Have to do some math to figure out when the .308 would fall below the max adjustment.

This guy has an extensive series on distance shooting and I watched a bunch of them a while ago. This video just happened to pop up in my feed again and is relevant.

At 1000 yards, FGMM’s drop is about 400”. Your should have enough elev to dial that amount.

That video is quite outdated. Particularly the list of optics used. Good discussion, but his preference is clear. There are quite a number of others who prefer otherwise for longer range shooting. That said, again, if what you got works for you, rock on.

New scope came in yesterday.  Did some side-by-side comparison with my Vortex Viper PST (which is a pretty good scope), and there’s a noticeable difference in clarity and light “filtering”.  The reticle isn’t a busy as I thought it might be. That’s one of the things I was concerned about.

I was looking through just the scopes, which made it tougher to keep the scopes stable. The eye relief on the NF a the high end seemed “finicky”, but somewhat expected. I’m glad I went with the higher mag. Even though I prob wouldn’t need the mag when shooting, the added mag range seems to help with making the 80% mag more forgiving. The higher mag can be helpful when spotting for my buddies.

No buyers remorse. At least not yet. Maybe when my CC cycle closes...

I’m very much looking forward to getting this on my “refreshed” 700 and get out to the range.