What magnification would you recommend for 300 yards?

For what kind of shooting? High magnification scopes come with a much smaller field of view in most cases. Not a big deal for range shooting, but not so good for hunting. Especially deer sized game. For example. a Bushnell 4200 has a field of view of 7 feet(2.3m) at 100 yards when set at 16X. At 24X, it's 6'(2m) at 100. The FOV gets smaller the farther out you go.
Your natural body movements will be far more evident too. You can see the movement caused by your heart beating through most of 'em. Even with the most solid rest.
8x is plenty.
 
Personally I would go with the most mag possible (providing this is for target shooting only not hunting), sure you'll see the scope bouncing around but you'll also get the smallest error in aiming. Use what you can afford and feel comfortable with though.
On the other end of it I hear guys shoot at 1000 meters with no magnification.;)
 
**Moved to the Proper Forum. This is NOT Competition related**.............


Magnification depends on the style of shooting you do...........for benchrest they use really high power scopes..............

The more magnification you use, the more movement you see from your breathing, heartbeat, etc..............High Magnification makes all little movements you make, and heat mirage quite visible when looking at the target.

For 300 Meters I usually sit at 10X to 12X................I have used 10X out to 600 meters with no problems, and usually sit at 15 or 16X at 600 meters..............I have a 5 - 25X S&B and rarely go to full power on it (but it is nice to have when you are spotting...).

SKBY.
 
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Really depends. 4x is good enough if you just need to put it on a target - look at those great snipers of WWII, that is what they used shooting often further then 300 yards.
 
Rule of thumb is a minimum of 3X per hundred yards for target shooting. That being said, I use a 36X fixed for 300 ISSF shooting

"IF IF IF " this rifle is for target shooting, as in short range benchrest, I use a 45X and that is not on the high side, and I wish I had Fred's 70X sometimes. Just my opinion, you can't hit what you can't see.
 
"IF IF IF " this rifle is for target shooting, as in short range benchrest, I use a 45X and that is not on the high side, and I wish I had Fred's 70X sometimes. Just my opinion, you can't hit what you can't see.

Agreed!:)

I can't use 45X in Kamloops, too much Mirage May - September and for hunting I use 3-9 and I generally keep it dialed right down to 3X

I use a combiantion of 25X and 36X on my one mile gong range.
 
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