Reticles...WHY???
 

First post here in a while...

I've been thinking about converting all my rifles over to the same model of scope, different power ranges but the same scope with the same features and reticle. Just for ease of going from rifle to rifle. During my search it is wild to me how many crazy reticles are available, most make no sense to me and are so cluttered I would never want to use one on a hunting rifle. For me, since I dial elevation instead of using holdovers, a reticle like the Windplex or Huskemaw reticle is perfect for a hunting rifle. FFP also makes no sense for my style of hunting.

Who is using an overly cluttered reticle successfully in a hunting environment?

I think I have settled on the Burris Signature HD with the ballistic E3 reticle, it's about the least fancy reticle I can find in a scope that is available in a wide range of magnification. I thought about just getting Huskemaws since they are pretty much perfect all around for hunting, with their new drama and bankruptcy I think I'll stay away for now.

I was looking for a plain Jane straight 4x for a .45-70

Good luck finding one on the shelf. Everything is marketed to bdc type reticles.

Kinda annoying.

- jake

If you're never holding wind, and truly never holding elevation in any hunting scenario, then those tools are not built for you.

Some of us do.

Dial elevation and hold for wind, that's why the windplex/huskemaw makes the most sense to me.

You don't dial at all? You strictly rely on a reticle for accurate elevation adjustments?

That wasn't my point. My point was good luck finding something, in stock, that does fill the need that I stated. Everything is marketed to the bdc crowd.

Nobody needs a bdc reticle on a .350 legend. They just don't. But the local shop will have multiple scopes specifically marketed to that or other straight wall options.

Not a straight 4x in sight. And if you ask for one you get the lecture on why you need the bdc.

A couple weeks ago i took a drive and went to four different shops, eventually deciding to go to bass pro.

in the end i had to go online.

Just annoying, that's all I'm saying.

- jake

350 Legend pushes heavy bullets with low BC's at relatively low speeds. A lot of drop within relatively short distances. For most hunting circumstances, I'd rather have a graduated reticle on a cartridge like 350 Legend (even graduations, and an FFP reticle, not an SFP BDC) than I would on a flat shooting bottleneck cartridge like 243win or 6.5 Creed.

I shot a buck several years ago with a 45-70 at 253yrds with a 3-9x40 with a simple duplex. It was a skill I had practiced and knowledge I had about the reticle to achieve what I needed to achieve to compensate for the drop in the reticle, which offered nearly zero assistance to the task - but I'd sure appreciate having MORE information in that reticle.

Sometimes I dial wind, most of the time I hold wind. Most of the time I dial elevation, at least when the trajectory compensation calls for it, but I also spent a LOT of my life shooting simpler mil-dot reticles and holding with the reticle, starting as a kid in the 1990s. I've hunted with simple duplex and German #4 reticles, and have hated doing so. I greatly prefer to have my sighting device to be more useful than a simple +.

That's great NM, now to my point....

Why can't I find a simple reticle at multiple shops, including a few big ones?

That's my point. My point is not that a shooter cannot make use of bdc type options. My point is that everything is marketed to that, to the point that it's difficult- in Ohio at least- to find a basic reticle or a straight 4 or 6 power scope in stock on the shelf.

Most of the people buying a .350 in Ohio will never practice with it past 100 yards. Most will never even understand how the reticle behaves at different powers. Or the ffp/sfp stuff.

They see the bdc reticle and decide they're good to go at 250. They can't even properly guestimate what 250 looks like and they aren't spending the money on a range finder to find out.

Most. Not you. Not everyone. But, most.

Anyway, it's hard to find a straight 4 power simple option in the stores here. And it shouldn't be.


- jake



Oh, also, i have several bdc type scopes and i know how to use them on the rifles they're on, but that took some work. It's not just plug and play like most people think. I'm not hating. I'm just saying it shouldn't be hard to find a simple reticle and the counter workers automatically say "you don't want that, check this thing out...."

People stopped buying fixed power scopes and duplex reticles.

It's really that simple. If a consumer market will buy a product, manufacturers will make the product and take their money. When consumers aren't buying products, manufacturers stop making them.

Hunting is not the driving application for the overwhelming majority of firearms purchases in the last two to three generations. Hunting as an application has been proportionately shrinking for these generations, while firearms and accessory sales have increased. Simple hunting tools are not the common desire any longer. Most of these younger generations have also realized advantages of enhanced marksmanship tools for hunting as well. The berth between "I can make the shot with this tool" and "this tool helps me make this shot" is massive, and when pricing and quality has reached parity, consumers choose the advantaged product option, and eventually, nobody builds cars with crank windows any longer... Fixed 4x scopes USED to be considered more durable than 3-9x scopes, but after a few generations, we realize they really weren't any more durable, and 3-9x is more versatile, so consumers bought more 3-9x's than 4x's, and manufacturers slowed their manufacturing of 4x's.

We saw from the post-War era through the 1980's a tide shift in marketing; post-War, manufacturers, or rather their marketers, told consumers what they should want. And when everything on the market was new, that worked. But after a few generations of cultural experience with these products, consumers realized they have the power to tell manufacturers what they want, and after another generation, the manufacturers have realized their best option to survive in a fickle, capitalist economy is to listen to demand, and make what is desired. Multiple generations of consumers walked into those shops and told the counter workers that they didn't want a fixed magnification scope with a simple reticle, they wanted something with enhanced features - the shop listened, the manufacturers listened, and now that's what they offer. For a couple of decades, I had dozens if not hundreds of folks come to my door, asking me to build M4gery carbines - but knowing what I did, I warned them, it's extremely rare that civilian consumers really want a 16" AR Carbine with clamshell handguards, and certainly don't want to pay a boutique premium to have one built. More often than not, the folks which DID buy one ended up back at my door, asking for retrofits to make it more useful for what they actually do, OR asking for help reselling it, because they just didn't need the M4gery that someone told them they needed.

So it's really that simple - folks stopped buying fixed 4x scopes with simple duplex or G#4 reticles, and instead buy scopes with enhanced features, for the same quality and durability, at competitive pricing (volume advantaged pricing). A 3-9x with a graduated reticle can be used like a fixed 4x with a simple duplex, but the reverse isn't true. Can't blame companies for not making and selling stuff which nobody is buying.

Of course i can. I've spent an entire thread doing just that.

I blame the clueless counter workers also. Although that's not fair to them. But I can blame them!

- jake

You bring up another topic I'm passionate about.

Manual window cranks and door locks!

I'm stuck in an 08 truck with a badly rusted frame because of that!





It just won't die. The manual windows and locks work great though.

- jake