Unless you’re doing a Euro-style driven hunt or dealing with dangerous game, 1x is virtually useless on a hunting scope - especially when you balance out everything it costs you. 2x is far more useful, without giving up much in field-of-view loss, even in deep woods. When you stack additional lenses to get a higher mag range (3x, 4x, 5x, etc) it also generally makes it heavier and costs you image quality. All things being equal, if you had a 1-6 vs a 1-10, and put both on 4x, the 1-6 will have a better quality of image.
Take that same 1-6, but start the engineering with it’s lowest setting instead at 2 power, that 1-6 turns into a 2-12 power scope. So, almost no loss at the low end, but a big gain in mag range at the high end. Put a bigger front (objective) lens on it, and you’ll also get better low-light image at a more useful and somewhat higher magnification ranges as well.
To give an example, I have a Swaro Z8i 1-8 on one of my ARs, and a Leupold VX6-HD 3-18 on another deer rifle - a scope that cost half that of the Swaro. The Swaro has the 24mm objective, the Leupold a 44mm. At any matching power setting, the Leupold is notably crisper, clearer, and brighter in low light, including moonlight. And that Swaro has far better image quality than any other LPVO I’ve spent time with. A big part of the Swarovski’s cost is that they have to do a lot more engineering to get a 1-8 to come close in image quality of scopes with lower mag ranges, and bigger objectives.
