A
Remington 760 pump carbine in .308 with a low power (1.5x) variable scope is my choice.
I do
A LOT of dogging at my hunt camp and have been doing so for the last 12 years. For the first decade I carried an iron sighted slug gun or a Win 94 .30-30 when I was dogging, and a scoped bolt action rifle when on a watch (stand). I did so because conventional wisdom said this was what to to.
Then one day about 3 years ago I started re-thinking this. Looking back, I realized that there were deer which I had missed or passed up, due to the limitations of my "dogging guns" and their iron sights. These were deer that would likely have been hanging on the meat pole had I been using my scoped rifle. At the same time I concluded that I never had a missed an opportunity at a deer that could be blamed on my scope. For me it was clear; my low-power variable scope increased my odds of success all around.
Don’t get me wrong. Some hunters are dead-eyes out to 150 yards with their irons, but I’m not one of them. I simply know that I shoot better with a scope, regardless of whether the deer were running or standing, up close in thick cover or way yonder across a beaver pond. I also appreciate the higher bullet speed and flatter trajectory of the .308, as compared to a 12 ga. slug or a .30-30. A fast action for follow-up shots was also very important. Lastly, I decided that I would use the same rifle, whether dogging or on a stand. Its never happened to me, but I've seen friends fumbling for a non-existent bolt handle on a lever action gun while faced with a rapidly departing deer.
For me, the old adage that scopes are too slow on fast moving deer up close in the thick stuff, just does not hold true. Just ask these 2 fellas that took off in the blink of an eye this past November.
and peep or low power var, or fixed
