How Much Magnification Does My Scope Need?

When it comes to decking out your firearm with a scope, it can be a big deal trying to decide what magnification that scope should have. There are many nuanced approaches that we could debate until we are blue in the face, but I want to give you some very tangible, useful advice to find the best magnification for your use.

Choosing the right magnification for your scope should directly reflect the type of hunting or shooting that you do most often with the rifle of choice. To be the most versatile, I highly suggest an adjustable magnification scope that fits the range of shooting distances you might encounter.

Let’s take a look at how to pick out the best magnification for the scope of your choice.

Basics of Scope Magnification

Before we talk about how to choose the right magnification for your scope of choice, we should have a basic understanding of what scope magnification actually is. When looking at the specs of a scope, you may see something like 3x40 of 3-9x40. What exactly do those numbers mean?

Let’s take a look at each of the numbers on either side of the “x” to understand these numbers. The number or numbers on the left side of the “x” indicates the magnification of the target in view of the scope. For example, if you are aiming at a deer with a scope that is 3x40, that means that deer appears three times closer to you than the naked eye views it.

If you are using a 3-9x40 scope, the 3-9 means that the magnification of that scope is adjustable between three and nine times that of the naked eye. So anytime a scope has numbers with a dash between them, indicates that the scope is adjustable.

The number to the right of the “x” indicates the size of the scope lens in millimeters. So a 3x40 scope has a 40mm scope lens.

Your Shooting Goals

The biggest aspect of choosing the right magnification comes down to the use of the firearm the scope will be used on. This is the number one, most important piece of information that you can determine for yourself in choosing the magnification. What is going to be the primary use of your rifle of choice?

Midwest Hunting & Mid-Range Recreation

Hunting in the Midwest does not usually present many shots that are outside of a couple hundred yards and usually take place well inside of that range. The same can be said about most recreational shooting, as most shooting ranges do not really go beyond 300 yards.

Because of this yardage and the chance of drastic change in yardage. An adjustable scope between 2.5 and 10 would be good, but a 3-9 magnification will be the most popular for this type of hunting and shooting.

Too much magnification can cause issues of adjustment when trying to make a good shot. The last thing you want is trying to line up a shot and all you see is fur!

Western Hunting

Higher magnifications are popular on high-powered rifles that are used in big game hunting in the West or for longer range target shooting. A 3-9 could be used, but many hunters opt for 4-16x or even 6-24x magnification as shots might be taken at 200+ yards and could be up to 500 yards or more depending on your ability and comfort.

Once again, adjustable is best because you could encounter an animal at any range. A piece of advice with higher magnification scopes in the field, is to keep the magnification setting lower until an animal is located.

Long Range Target

For competition style target shooting or those wanting to venture into this area, we might be talking targets out to 1,000 yards. For this, we highly suggest scopes with 4.5-27x magnification or anything inside of that range. If you hunt and want to do some long range target shooting, the 4-16x or 6-24x magnification is plenty.

ARs

For the style of shooting and effective range of most ARs, 1-6x, 1-8x, or 2-10x magnifications are the most popular and the most useful for a wide variety of ranges between 50 and 500 yards. Most want versatility in their AR scope to use in a variety of situations and ranges.

Finding the Middle

Working from experience, finding a scope that will work in a wide range of yardage and styles of hunting and shooting is very important to most hunters. Focus on the type of hunting/shooting you do 80-90% of the time.

The sweet spot of magnification seems to be 3-9x but 2-10x would also be good for most shooters. Hopefully this helps guide you in the right direction to find the magnification for you.

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