Zoom scopes....are we being sold a kipper?

[Muskett]

If we had never looked through a high powered scope we would think a x4 brilliant.
Hunting ethics have changed. Once a solid hit was enough and so long as the game was grounded it could be "finished off". Now its expected to be stone dead on impact. Once most people shot over dogs, even the farm mutt, now its without.

I had a 2.75 x40 fixed Tasco, it was very like shooting with open sights. Very much a farm barn range thing. I prefer x4 to do the full farm yard.
I used to shoot a Zeiss 6x40 on my rabbit harvester but with a bounty on head shots I prefer a little more now x8/x10.
For deer then x6 is ample unless on the hill, but too much like x14/x16/x24 then the FOV is too small and its finding the beast in the scope that is an issue.
Only long range Varminting of small game at extended long range requires heaps of magnification and that with a stable shooting platform. (The bulky NV systems require a stable platform too.) A Magpie at 400m requires x16 mag and good light.

For Air Rifle its the range finding ability that parallax focus can provide at very high magnification. Full bore then range finding again but this time its using mil dot system reticules; but with mirage there is a limit to how useful mega magnification is. Some use it to see strikes to walk the rounds in. But its pretty advance max range kind of stuff and straight forward specialised shooting. Way too specialised for most everyday shooting.

The only real place for high mag is when on a range and load and accuracy development and testing. Nothing beats upping confidence when you can see that the combo will clover or better at all ranges. Once done then in the field most wind the mag down to more get wider FOV.

The questions to ask are: "what expected range will the combo be used at?"; "can extra magnification and features be utilised or are they in all practical sense just added weight and pretty useless?"
More and more of my variables get left at a certain mag, and I work with that.