craiggers

I am going to buy a new Nikon Monarch scope in a 2.5-10x42 for on top of my 25-06 for deer hunting, and I am looking for opinions on Nikon's BDC Reticle. I think it is about a $10 dollars difference, so price is not a concern, just want to know if I should stick with the Nikoplex reticle or opt for the BDC.

TexasBowHunter

I bought one last year on my 25/06 as well, I went with the 5X20 Monarch which is a great scope but I have to say that I wish I had went with the fine duplex as I am wanting to shoot to 500yds with it. It works well out to 300yds for a hunting situation but the lines are too thick for a target set up. It is a good clear scope but like I said for along range set upI wish I had went with a fine reticle as not to cover so much of the target, if you just plan on hunting whitetailed deer sized animals you will be fine to 300yds, if youare shooting small game or target you might want to consider a different reticle IMO.....Either way it is a good scope!!!!!!!!! I will probably move this one to my 270 and get a fine reticle one for the 25/06.....

savage3006

I am not a big fan of the bdc reticle. You just need to practice with it and get use to it. This is a good scope.

halcon

I have it on a couple rifles and have to say I have mixed feelings about them . You have to spend a lot of time on the range to figure out where it shoots for each mark and if you want to change ammo your back to square one again .

savage3006

This is true for any reticule. You need to understand the ballistic characteristics of your cartridge. It is usually not a big problem to solve if you hunt at less than 300 yards and aim for a 5 inch kill zone.

Joesureshot

I have hunted all over the world due to my military job and have all the badges and trophy's to show how good of a shot I am . Recently I built up a rifle scope combo for a friend that has only hunted deer with a shotgun for a Michigan white tail hunt . He was on a budget and could only afford to get mid grade Nikon scope with BDC after lapping the rings and laser bore sighting the scope we headed to a range in the great state of New Hampshire As the both of us live in the communist state of Massachusetts were shooting beyond 300Yrds is near impossible legally. To make a long story short. I could not believe what I was capable of hitting with this 900.dollor rifle set up . Tikka T3 300wsm Nikon 4x16 BDC scope ,Hornady ammo apple iPhone with spot on app and Gunwerks G7 rangefinder. like others have said practice with BDC is A must but the system flat out works. before we left my friend was hinting an 8 inch gong at 650yrds every shot with little to no cross wind. He took his first Michigan white tail this November 9 points 194 lbs. dressed at 712 yard's which at the time was the bottom post on the BDC reticle. I have to give Nikon a well done as I also took a doe at 1125 yards with his rifle that same day.

born2climb

I have them on several rifles....270, .280, .243, .223. I trust them. I took two deer last year, one at 350-360, the other at 375. Both were taken using a Nikon Buckmaster with BDC and it hit right where I aimed on both (Browning A-Bolt .270). Some years back when I first put one on the .280, I checked it at 400 yards. I have steel plates hanging 400 yards from my front door, ranging from 3" to 13". The 400-yard circle practically bracketed my 10" plate. I centered it on the 13" plate, fired and hit within 3" of center of the plate.

To check it without firing, you can, (if you know at least approximate holdovers), you can aim at targets at known distances, and adjust zoom to see if corresponding circle corresponds with target. The BDC does not work on ALL zoom settings....the relative size/correspondence of the scale changes with zoom. It won't be exact with all calibers al the time, but for most hunting situations, it is perfect, at least for me. It's simpler than judging holdover without any reference points, which is basically all BDC is....holdover reference points.

My longest shot was an 8-point at 385 yards. I took him with a Browning A-Bolt .270 with a Burris Fullfield 2.5-10x50. I held the top point of the lower heavy post where I wanted to hit, and got him. I knew this would work because the buck was standing right in front of my 400-yard plates, where it had been tested.

billyboy

Duplex reticule for me ,that is all I have ever used in 35 years of hunting .

flyinlowe

I could be wrong (more times than not) on this but I was told the following....... To make it easy lets say you have a BDC sighted in at 100 yards, then next drop is 150 and the next one is 200 on 4 power. If you zoom in the scope to 8 power the scope will not be accurate in 50 yard increments like is was before. If that makes sense. Again I could have been told wrong but with multplei reticles and multiple powers you would have to keep a huge spreadsheet to know what is what at different yardages and different ranges. Is what I was told correct or not?

born2climb

When using it as a compensator, I turn it to full power. The reticle works as intended for most standard calibers. On 4 power, the reticle will be WAY off, as the reticle-to-target ratio is way smaller than at full power.