Mike,
I have a Leupold VX-III 3.5-10x50 with the illuminated B&C reticle. Personally, I did not find the combination as useful as I thought it would be, but it is highly dependent on what you want to do with it.
A similar B&C question appeared in recent thread and I shared several thoughts that you can see
here.
Without repeating everything from the previous thread, here's a few more thoughts for your decision making:
[*]For me, by the time it is dark enough for reticle illumination, I can't see deer antlers, anyway. However, I did use it on a big black hog late one evening last year.[*]I think the 50mm objective is, on balance, more important for low light situations for my deer hunting. [*]I did find illumination useful in the daylight when shooting at black targets; the red illumination makes the reticle stand out against the black bull. Kinda like a very precise red dot scope with crosshairs.[*]Illumination requires batteries, of course, which can be exhausted when your son leaves it on. [*]Your need for the ballistic reticle may depend on the load you are using. I found the Leupold did not have enough range when I used it on the 308 R-25 (I wanted to use it up to 600 yds at our range). On my .270 M700, it seemed superfluous. The 270 shoots much flatter and 300 yds would be a long shot for me; I just don't need it.[*]Again, depending on the load, you may find that the scope power required by the ballistic calibration is much less than the scope's nameplate. So that 14x max power may not be useable. For example, on mine, the 308 uses a power setting of about 8x. This is somewhat less than ideal for long ranges.[*]As far as durability, I have not experienced any issues, although if any occur, the Leupold has a life time guarantee.[/list]
So you have to figure out what you really want to do with it and whether it is worth the extra money. Everything has tradeoffs.
You can read more about Leupold's B&C
here.
You might also like to review this reticle comparison
article.
Let me know if you have other questions...
