dreadpirate
Ultimate Member
Will be shooting 20 gauge sabot rounds out of a cantilever barrel 870. Deer is the intended target. Recommend a scope.
The Nikon slughunter has 5" eye relief. This Bushnell has 6" eye relief. Could be a good thing for a shotgun with a decent kick.
https://www.opticsplanet.com/bush-rs-bnr-711436.html
Depends quite a bit on LOP. On my mossy, 6" of eye relief would be almost too much.
Nikon Slughunter 3-9. The Nikon 2-7 referenced has lousy eye relief. Like eye socket cracking bad eye relief. The 3-9 Slughunter BDC is $50 more, and well worth it. Never got scope bit on any firearm, ever. Shotguns, to muzzleloaders, to 338 Win Mag. That damn Nikon 2-7 (on H&R Ultra Slug Hunter 12ga) has busted me open twice at the range and once in the field, and smacked my eye pro at the range several others but I escaped the damage somehow. Back to the 870 for me, after I put on the 3-9 Slughunter. Gonna smash the crap out of the 2-7, sadly, it’s nice glass and the reticle is good. Just bad engineering with crap for eye relief. BTW, no matter what Nikon’s specs say for eye relief, it’s wrong. It suxWill be shooting 20 gauge sabot rounds out of a cantilever barrel 870. Deer is the intended target. Recommend a scope.
I haven't said my usual for at least several months :
At shotgun slug distances ( and rifle hunting in even fairly open woods ) , generous eye relief, and a wide field of view are far more important than magnification per se . Ease of rapid target aquisition , and margin of error of hastily shouldered boomstick .
You don't need to count every hair on Bambi's shoulder , just be able place crosshairs just behind front leg , 1/3 way up chest ( or your prefered aiming point, not starting that debate in this thread ).
I actually hedged my answer in my above post . In actuality a 2.5- 2.75X would be my ideal for that role .
Yeah, yeah , variables could be turned down ( but my experience optical clarity suffers for 0.5- 1.0 of X at either extreme of magnification range . If I'm going to nearly always have a variable at one (functional) extreme , I'd rather have a fixed power that is ( some combination of ) lighter, more compact, stronger , more rugged) .
Nikon Slughunter 3-9. The Nikon 2-7 referenced has lousy eye relief. Like eye socket cracking bad eye relief. The 3-9 Slughunter BDC is $50 more, and well worth it. Never got scope bit on any firearm, ever. Shotguns, to muzzleloaders, to 338 Win Mag. That damn Nikon 2-7 (on H&R Ultra Slug Hunter 12ga) has busted me open twice at the range and once in the field, and smacked my eye pro at the range several others but I escaped the damage somehow. Back to the 870 for me, after I put on the 3-9 Slughunter. Gonna smash the crap out of the 2-7, sadly, it’s nice glass and the reticle is good. Just bad engineering with crap for eye relief. BTW, no matter what Nikon’s specs say for eye relief, it’s wrong. It sux