SCOPES FOR COYOTE HUNTING

[DCF]

Just bought a new .243 for hunting and need to find a scope. Was looking at a 5.5x16.5. Is this too powerful??? I think I want something bigger than a 3x9 though. I'm new to this so any help is appreciated. Thanks.

[Valv]

I have same power scope on my .243 and .223, but I've got a 50mm lens, to get better light at dark and at night

[End of the Line]

Just because the diameter of the tube is bigger doesn't necessarily mean more light. Light transparency through the scope does. When coyote hunting generally the best hunting is at dawn and dusk so the light transperancy is very important. I see you live in SW MN so you might want a little higher power for long range shooting, but 4 x 12 or so should be enough. If you hunt like I do, I rarely turn mine up past 5x or 6x where I hunt, I want them to walk right up to the decoy. Your higher end transperacny scopes are the Nikon Monarch series, Burris Fullfield II, Zeiss, and the 2 higher end Leupold VX III and IV.

I have 2 guns that I primarily hunt coyotes with one has a 3x9-40 Burris Fullfield II, the other is a 4x12-40 Nikon Monarch.

[picksbigwagon]

I use the Burris fullfield II on my .223. I don't normally hunt in areas that have much more than 300 yards of flat land, I would say you would want a higher power scope in SW MN.

[Antler_Creek_Taxidermy]

I have a 3.5-10X50 burris LRS (lighted reticle scope) with the bullistic blex reticle on my 22-250, AWESOME SCOPE! I have no problem picking up the yotes at night and the lighted reticle works great in the early morning and late evening, although the lighted reticle is a little too bright at night, you can turn it off and see the regular black reticle. I have no problem shooting yotes at 300-400 yards and with the balistic plex reticle, compansating for bullet drop is easy but practice is still needed to to make for accurate shots. I am pretty sure that the ballistic plex reticle is also calibrated for the 243 with a specific grain weight. I did alot of looking for the right scope for my 22-250 and I narrowed it down between the nickon monarch and the burris fullfield II. The monarch had much clearer lenses but I finnally went with the burris for the reasons above. The only place I could find this burris scope (besides the internet) was at sportsmans wharehouse in St.Cloud, not even cabelas carried this model of the burris scope. I would definatly Put it on your list.

[mechanictim]

I hunt a lot in Southwest Minnesota and usually use scopes of 3X9 or 4X12. One of the draw backs of high magnification is loss of field of view. Coyotes like to keep moving and rarely stop for more than a few moments. Trying to find a yote at 200+ yards with a scope set over 7X or so can be a challenge even over open fields. You should keep the magnification turned down and leave it there. If the yote spots your movement to crank up the power on your scope you won't get a shot at that dog.

Use the higher magnification at the range to sight in and check groups and then see how well you can shoot a coyote target at 200 yards with the power turned down. At 3X to 5X you should have no problem hitting a coyote in the vitals out to 250 yards or so.

[BendnSend]

I couldnt imagaine shooting something at 50 yards with 3 or 5x! If you got it crank it up.