Hi Pat...nice to see you checking in here.

   My favorite scope for predator hunting here on the Northern Plains is the 6.5-20X50MM Leupold with a fine Duplex reticle. It's a big scope, but the 50MM objective really helps on those grey hazy days when you can't tell where the snow ends and the sky begins. I have a drop and deflection chart taped to the elevation turret cover as a reference.

    I love the big variables. I've shot fox with my pal Randy Kepler's Swift on which he has a Burris 8-32 with a fine Duplex..nice scope but I find the the Burris stuff ugly and too long to look right on most guns. Ditto for the B&L 6-24 and 8-32's....great optics, but they just don't look right on some guns. Maybe a B&L 8-32 on a Swift with a 27" barrel, though.....hmmmmmm?????

    I do have to say that my favorite .17 Rem. was one that Stan did for me that had a Sporter barrel and had a Leupold 12X on it...light, simple and accurate for fox to 200 yards or a bit more. This combo accounted for my most memorable 'double' on fox....a nice pair of beautiful reds curled up on a den in a hay field.   -Al