Scope Reticles for Night Hunting

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chuckhunter

New member
I was thinking that the Heavy Duplex reticle would be best for night hunting. The Fine Duplex is darn near impossible to see and the Duplex is just adequate. Let me know which one you have found to work best. Thanks in advance.
 
It depends on how good your light is but if you want to turn down your light beam or hold them in a halo I found a illuminated reticle is really nice. I bought a 3-10x44 BSA catseye to put on my .22 mag this year and like it. I know this will open up a slew of scope lovers favorite picks so be ready.

Rocky
 
i been using meopta scope 3x12 with a dot that is also illuminates. i just bought a leopold 4.5x14 with illuminated cross hair. make sure cross hairs are not to fine unless have illuminated crosshair or dot.
 
I have a Leupold VX II 3 X 9 with a heavy duplex and 50mm bell on my 22-250. Much easier to see than fine crosshairs.
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On my 22mag I have a Mueller 3 X 9 with a german #4 recticle and an illuminated red dot. Illuminated dots are excellent as well. I prefer them over the entire crosshairs being illuminated.
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On my scattergun I have an Aimpoint 9000SC red dot scope. I highly recommend them for scatterguns as well.
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I run a Nightforce NP-2DD it is incredible at night and in the day.... Illuminated reticles are great tools to have.

The bars on this reticle bring your eye to center in a hurry. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-003.gif



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Good question Chuckhunter! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-003.gif I wish I would have seen it sooner.

I agree that a fine crosshair is useless at night and alot of times during the day for that matter.

An illuminated reticle is very nice for night hunting (if your batteries are working). The down side of most illuminated reticles are that during the day they look much the same as a fine crosshair. I am a fan of that at all.

All of my guns are combo guns I use at night and in day. For day hunting I prefer a regular duplex and I find myself leaving the Illuminated ones at home for night more often than not.

I have never hunted with a heavy duplex scope. I have looked through plenty and they look a little too heavy for my liking.

The regular duplex works well for me in most situations. I guess it fits my comfort zone better than anything else. Your comfort zone may vary from mine, but you will find out pretty quick what suits your liking. I would window shop and look through a bunch of scopes before I dropped a large chunk of change.

As a side not I will also add that a adjustable side focus on a scope has very little use in the terrain that I hunt. For big game they are great, but for the fast action of predator hunting there is rarely time to fiddle with focus. None of my predator rifles sport side focus after a few fuzzy misshaps.

Take care,

Todd
 
Todd speaks the truth. I spent big money for a Leupold VX-III illuminated 4.5x14x50. Some folks love em, after a few weeks, I went back to my heavy duplex VX-III. It just suits me better. Use what you feel good about.

I was just not comfortable with it
 
If you were going to attempt to hunt with a handgun at night, would an illuminated reticle help? or is it pointless to try a scope on a handgun at night? I'm talking about a Savage Striker 22Mag. 50Yards or so for fox. I'm looking at the 2-7 Burris Electro dot. Would this work or be only good for daytime?

Not meaning to hijack the thread, just curious if the same principles apply with handgun scopes.
 
I wish I could help, but I know very very little about handgun scopes. I dont have enough solid info to even point you in the right direction. I would make sure they gather enough light to see. The long eye releif throws a whole new twist in the mix.

Thats all I got,

Todd
 
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