This question got sent to me via Quora:

I hunt whitetail deer. I’ve been doing it for more than 40 years. I’ve got a whole battery of rifles that will take deer. Most of them carry a Bushnell 3–9X40mm scope. Some have 4–12X40mm. These are all fairly plain scopes with a Mult-X reticle.

I use them in a variety of situations— treestands, ground blinds, etc. I settled on the Bushnell Banner, because it was sturdy, it held zero, and it had coatings that allowed me to hunt in low light conditions.

I have pretty bad eyesight. I’m near-sighted. My glasses reduce the image to bring it into focus. As a result, the image that I see in the scope is reduced. For me, a 3–9X40mm cranked to about 6X magnification lets me see a deer at 100–200 yards to pull off a decent shot. Another guy without the kind of correction I need could probably do it with 3–4X.

On my one scoped shotgun, I carry a 1.5–4.5x32mm scope. Most of the time, I’m using it for turkey and taking shots within 40 yards, and I keep the magnification about 3X. I might crank it up a bit more for deer, but I’m also going to be limiting my shots to within 100 yards.

It used to be that folks said a straight 4X scope was perfect for whitetail. At the time, variable scopes cost a lot more than fixed scopes. In recent decades that has reversed. Second, a fixed scope used to be a lot clearer than variables. The scopes I used up until a decade ago turned to mud in low-light conditions, but optics have improved. A popularly priced scope like the Bushnell Banner now gives a clear image in low light.

Okay, so why not the 4–12X or even higher magnification? Everyone is going to have different tastes. However, I will tell you that the more magnification you put on a deer, the murkier it gets. Furthermore, the higher the magnification, the harder it will be to acquire the deer in your sights. Out of treestand, I may crank a 3–9X40 all the way back to 3X so I can get on the deer faster in deep cover. I made the mistake once of cranking a scope too far, and when a deer showed up at 10 yards, all I had to aim on was a patch of hair the size of a basketball.

So why 40mm? Why not 50mm? A large objective brings in a lot more light. However, that big chunk of glass has more weight and you have to set the scope higher with higher mounts. The rifle gets cumbersome and it makes for an imperfect cheek weld on the rifle. For me, 40mm let me settle my cheek on the stock and get a good weld, plus it kept the weight of the rifle manageable.

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