Has anyone used a 2.5-10x44 Viper HS Scope yet?
- Thread starter Canadiankeeper
- Start date
I used one for a while.
It's fine for Deer/Bear sized game out to 300+ meters. Clear/sharp and good, reliable adjustments on the turrets.
Coyotes have a much smaller cross section and at 50-150 meters that scope will work out just fine. Maybe if you're lucky, it might even be good out to 200.
Once you get past that, you're going to have to be able to hold your eye perfectly in line with the centers of both the aperture and objective lenses to overcome the parallax built into that scope.
The average Coyote has a 4-6 inch cross section and about 2/3 of it is vital for appx 10 inches of its body length. Miss that area, for all sorts of reasons, some of which are the accuracy of the rifle, accuracy of your handloads, a bit of mirage and parallax control and you hopefully miss completely or wound the animal in a manner it will die the hard way, instead of a nice clean dispatch at the site.
I've hunted and shot hundreds of Coyotes. The best way to do it cleanly, is ensuring your equipment is up to the task.
Most rifles, with select hand loads will shoot well enough to do the job out to 400 meters. If your scope isn't up to the task, it doesn't matter how well your rifle shoots.
I made the same mistake you're about to make appx 4 decades back in time. I went for a decent scope, a Burris, which the Viper is on the same quality level, because it was cheap and would be good for all around work. I wounded the first two Coyotes I shot. I REALLY HATE WOUNDING AND NOT BEING ABLE TO RETRIEVE ANY ANIMAL. Most GOOD hunters do.
I still have that old Burris 3-9x40, but I wouldn't use it on a Coyote hunt again. I made the mistake of trying to shoot both of those Coyotes just over 300 meters out.
If I had used a scope with an adjustable objective, that scenario wouldn't have happened, unless I screwed something else up.
I went to another scope, an old Redfield Target Scope 16X40 AO , that didn't have the same quality of glass but most importantly, it had an adjustable objective and it tracked very reliably, along with straight/fine crosshairs. Cost was definitely less than the Burris and overall quality wasn't as good. Mostly because the scope was at least ten years old when I bought it. That old 6.5x55/Redfield Target Scope 16X40 AO combination took a lot of Coyotes and troublesome Marmots, cleanly, if I did my part.
My biggest issue with that old Redfield was the lack of visibility during the early morning hours. Light transmission wasn't as good in those old/decent quality scopes as it is with even the cheaper scopes we see today.
It's fine for Deer/Bear sized game out to 300+ meters. Clear/sharp and good, reliable adjustments on the turrets.
Coyotes have a much smaller cross section and at 50-150 meters that scope will work out just fine. Maybe if you're lucky, it might even be good out to 200.
Once you get past that, you're going to have to be able to hold your eye perfectly in line with the centers of both the aperture and objective lenses to overcome the parallax built into that scope.
The average Coyote has a 4-6 inch cross section and about 2/3 of it is vital for appx 10 inches of its body length. Miss that area, for all sorts of reasons, some of which are the accuracy of the rifle, accuracy of your handloads, a bit of mirage and parallax control and you hopefully miss completely or wound the animal in a manner it will die the hard way, instead of a nice clean dispatch at the site.
I've hunted and shot hundreds of Coyotes. The best way to do it cleanly, is ensuring your equipment is up to the task.
Most rifles, with select hand loads will shoot well enough to do the job out to 400 meters. If your scope isn't up to the task, it doesn't matter how well your rifle shoots.
I made the same mistake you're about to make appx 4 decades back in time. I went for a decent scope, a Burris, which the Viper is on the same quality level, because it was cheap and would be good for all around work. I wounded the first two Coyotes I shot. I REALLY HATE WOUNDING AND NOT BEING ABLE TO RETRIEVE ANY ANIMAL. Most GOOD hunters do.
I still have that old Burris 3-9x40, but I wouldn't use it on a Coyote hunt again. I made the mistake of trying to shoot both of those Coyotes just over 300 meters out.
If I had used a scope with an adjustable objective, that scenario wouldn't have happened, unless I screwed something else up.
I went to another scope, an old Redfield Target Scope 16X40 AO , that didn't have the same quality of glass but most importantly, it had an adjustable objective and it tracked very reliably, along with straight/fine crosshairs. Cost was definitely less than the Burris and overall quality wasn't as good. Mostly because the scope was at least ten years old when I bought it. That old 6.5x55/Redfield Target Scope 16X40 AO combination took a lot of Coyotes and troublesome Marmots, cleanly, if I did my part.
My biggest issue with that old Redfield was the lack of visibility during the early morning hours. Light transmission wasn't as good in those old/decent quality scopes as it is with even the cheaper scopes we see today.
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Good post!
My one and only longer distance yote was 490 yards with a 6.5 creed and a 6-24 power optic (I do believe it was a vortex also) almost all other yotes have been under 100 yards. I was in Ontario then.
Im out in alberta now, I didnt plan on taking any shots farther then 300 with this rifle. I definitly hear you on the "fine" cross hairs. Why I was avoiding the AR reticles, those dots are huge and not great for small targets at a distance.
What power do you find yourself shooting most animals ? I have always found myself under 10x.
I set the Redfield up at 10x because that's where it everything came together properly, as far as reticle sharpness, light transmission, etc goes.
I used that scope for close to ten years and settled on an IOR Valdada, 2.5x10 with an M8 reticle. This scope is basically parallax free, within a few inches, out to 400 yards, crystal clear and sharp as well as doing everything its supposed to do. I liked it so much I bought another from a CGNer shortly after. Not cheap but worth every cent.
