Out of the box or custom?

[Bill Allen]

Thanks, for responding SRAB. I find all of your posts informative so please jump in and give me your opinion as often as you will.

A scope story.

I started deer hunting at the insistence of my brother, about four years ago. I had always wanted to hunt but other things in life kept me too busy so I just never got around to hunting. Anyway, my brother took me to the range for a quick rifle sight in and then sometime later when deer season started he kidnapped me out of my bed in the middle of the night, took me out to some remote area reminiscent of " Deliverance', hoisted me into a treestand, then disappeared.... ( damn, it was dark!)

Of course, I had forgotten all I had learned at the range the month before, so I sat in my tree, lost and steadily dropping my gear to the ground as the morning wore on. (First a glove then another glove, then my water bottle, etc... you get the picture.) After a couple of mornings of "hunting" I was sitting in my tree when I heard some commotion behind me. I quickly turned and there was a buck!!! The LAST... thing, I expected to see. Well, I brought my gun up to my shoulder and couldn't find the deer through my scope! I took the rifle down and looked and he was still there eyeing my decoy but I still couldn't find him when I looked through my scope again. Eventually, I did locate a big brown patch of hide in my scope so I shot......BOOM!!! the smoke blowing back over me....

Well, the problem was that my scope had been turned up to 18 power at some point while I was idling my time away in the tree..... Of course, in the heat of the moment I couldn't figure out what the problem was...

He turned out to be a fine 4 point. And the monster buck that was with him continued to concentrate on the decoy unmoved by all of the commotion. Why didn't I shoot him? Well, I heard a clank after I shot the four point. When I went to reload I looked down to discover that the CLANK, which of course, was my ramrod laying at the bottom of my tree. After that discovery, I watched as the big buck eventually grew tired of the decoy and slowly walked away never to be seen by me again.....

[srab]

Bill>>

Amusing story. I guess I'm just a little surprised that someone
would put a variable 18x scope on a black powder rifle! But,
your story does underscore the merits of a fixed-power scope.
You don't have to constantly make a mental note of where
it's set, magnification-wise, in the event of the need for a
quick shot. It also tends to cut down on the time it takes to
get that first shot off since you are never tempted to crank
up to the highest magnification before attempting it. And,
inside of 200 yards, and probably much farther, if you can't
hit a deer-sized target with a fixed 4-power scope, I
seriously doubt that you'd do any better with higher magnification.

Well, that's my $.02, anyway.