Schauckis
(.300 member)
29/01/12 12:39 AM
Re: Scope needed for African Plains Game ??

Yep gppd thinking (and a good question).
Xausa thought very much along the lines I, too, think. However, having been in the situation, here's what I have to say.

I have practically no experience at all with scope sights.
On my first trip, I asked the outfitter what kind of gun(s) were on offer as I intended not to bring my own. They had two .30-06s and one .375, all scoped.
Not liking recoil I immediatelly opted for the .30-06.
Knowing this, I borrowed two scoped .30-06s to practice. Worthwile noting is that I also am not used to bolt actions.
I was going out in the fall and I got the guns about mid-summer so I practiced like there was no tomorrow. I dry-fired, practiced quick target acquisition, and I went on the range to get used to the gun type and scope. I fired altogether some 500 rounds in about two months' time.
When in Zimbabwe, all this paid back in spades!
I did have some problems, however:
1) Finding the animal in the scope. Especially when not standing up (on the sticks) I found it very hard to spot the animal with the scope although I could see it with my naked eye - i.e. had I had an open-sighted gun there would have been no problem.
2) Parallax error - if your head angle is not quite right, you will not look straight through the scope. This is usually palpable as you see the walls of the scope: the sight picture is not round. However, this happened to me once, causing a miss on a zebra @ about 100 meters. An easy shot in other words.

On the upside, the scope does help you find the correct aiming point, and also in shrub it makes it child's play to find a clear path for the bullet. Not so with open sights.
This I learned in Namibia when shooting an oryx that was standing under a tree. The branches were low mostly covering the animal. With the help of the scope I was able to put the bullet beneath the branches in the heart.

The shooting distances varied between approx. 25 meters and a lazered 176 meters. All one-shot kills (except for the miss on the zebra.... )

Broadly speaking, I do recommend the use of the scope.
If you are not used to a scope, start practising right now!
Also I'd advice against a scope with too big a magnification. There are people who will strongly disagree, but I have never cranked any scope up to more than 4x and even that has actually never been needed. I appreciate the wide field of view provided by the low magnification.
This caused some amusement in Zim, as I had the scope on the lowest power setting at all times. Both PHs (we were two hunters) recommended a higher power setting. After a couple of days my PH noted that if I kept shooting like I had thus far, I could keep the rifle up-side-down for all that he cared.
So get used to it and find your own comfort zone!

- Lars/Finland



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