Seems the guys on Youtube who typically have such high mounted scopes are the same guys who have been pursuing farther and farther ranges for paper punching and pest management. In the past 2 years or so those same guys have been converting to using slugs and slug barrels for the most part, while pushing those distances even farther - things like starling head shots at 130 metres, great for showing off on Youtube, and of course nice in terms of not spooking the pest by getting very close.
I hear you about scope-over-bore for shorter ranges. Since going to a much larger, heavier scope on my main PCP conversion rifle (a highly customized, very little original gun left of it, with an MTC Viper Pro 5-30x scope) I had to go to tall enough mounts to clear the front bell. That made ranging squirrels at 10 metres much, much more challenging than when I was using the same gun with a Leupold 2-7x rimfire scope on quite low rise mounts. Of course there was still holdover to think about, especially in cases where a squirrel was munching a butternut 5 or 6 metres from our kitchen... but I had a pocket range card for that and just estimated centimetres at the target and pulled the trigger, no big deal. With the MTC, I have to first make sure I've got the parallax right, then dial in the range tape on the top turret which was grossly calculated using their online calculator then a couple of much closer ranges written on to deal with the back yard. By the time I've got it ready to shoot, half the time the squirrel has moved on and I need to reset the scope for some other range, if the creep is still in the yard that is.
But those range tapes are another reason the guys with the high mounted scopes are able to get away with it. The high end scopes offering such a feature, especially when you can toggle off clicks as with my MTC model (silent elevation adjustment), mean you don't even need a range card. Once everything is perfectly zeroed and calibrated it's just down to dialing in the distance and taking the shot using the crosshairs, no holdover. Luxury. Provided one has the time to do the adjustments.
I've been using that scope for something like a year, and frankly I'm a bit tired of the hassle. But I'll keep it. It's fun to stretch out to 50 or 100 and take some shots on paper, zoomed right in so if the light is right I can actually see holes appearing as I go. With a 7x that's just guesswork and holdover, at least at the 750fps I'm tuned for. Don't want nor need any more power than I'm using now, though I certainly see the attraction of the 'sweet spot' between about 900fps and 950fps like the big boys use at greater ranges. Guess I just like a mellower power level sufficient for my uses and offering a lot more shots per fill.
The FX Impact had me under its spell in theory for several years, but the high-rise scope rail always bothered me. I'd rather lean in to look through the scope than have it jumped up so high. The Leshiy appeals to me more now. It still has a somewhat elevated scope position, but I'd want a small scope like the purpose-built 6x Edgun recommends for it, mounted as low as practical. Used out to maybe 50 metres that airgun just seems the most sensible. And not even the fabulous new 8-shot semi-auto version, as cool as it is! No, I'd like one of the last of the original model, single shot... but sadly can't shoot that in Canada outside a proper range thanks to silly re-classification stuff.
