favorite reticle
02-21-2014, 05:51 AM
#11
Fork Horn
Join Date: Dec 2013
Location: Northern Tennessee
Posts: 128
Heavy Duplex....
I have 2 deer rifles with scopes, a Ruger M-77 in .243 and a Knight Disc...Both have VX-IIs 3x9x40s...I sent one back and had the heavy duplex put in about 10 years ago...I liked it so much, I had the other done as well...
Why do I like them??? At dusk, it's not the image of the deer that disappears, it's the reticle...When do you kill many deer??? Dawn and dusk, most are within 150 yards so there is no need for a fine reticle...
I have 2 deer rifles with scopes, a Ruger M-77 in .243 and a Knight Disc...Both have VX-IIs 3x9x40s...I sent one back and had the heavy duplex put in about 10 years ago...I liked it so much, I had the other done as well...
Why do I like them??? At dusk, it's not the image of the deer that disappears, it's the reticle...When do you kill many deer??? Dawn and dusk, most are within 150 yards so there is no need for a fine reticle...
+1, I have also sent two scopes back to leupold to have reticle replacement, one got a Heavy Duplex and the other a #4 reticle. Having a bolder reticle has shown me to make a VXI a better low light hunting scope than a more expensive VXII, especially on a dark target.
For those interested, it costs about $65-$70 to have Leupold retrofit an older scope with a new reticle. It also gets serviced when this is done. They will not fit an illuminated reticle to a scope that did not originally have one, however.
02-21-2014, 06:03 AM
#12
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Nov 2009
Location: Virginia
Posts: 1,473
Asking for a whitetail scope reticle does not mean someone who is looking at long range to me. I've killed deer in at least 10 different states and with over 20 different cartridges and my longest shot has been 265 yards, a range well within the MPBR of most modern cartridges (thus nullifying the need for compensating reticles). For me, short range consideration has as much to do with hunting whitetails as does anything. That said, I want a low power of no more than 2.5X and a reticle that's quick to see if a deer suddenly "pops" up.
My couple favorites are born of wants for both boldness and low light performance. My #1 choice is the Firedot reticle from the Leupold VX-R series, and more specifically, the Firedot #4. My second is the typical #4 and another is the Heavy Duplex reticle. I've heard some speak of not being able to shoot with precision with some of these reticles. Not my experience at all. I've shot groups of way under 1" @ 100 yards with reticles like these and they don't hinder me in the least, while giving BOLD reticles for quick target acquisition.
To me, whitetail hunting means short-medium range shooting and deer that may show at VERY short ranges and during very low light. I prefer to purchase accordingly.
My couple favorites are born of wants for both boldness and low light performance. My #1 choice is the Firedot reticle from the Leupold VX-R series, and more specifically, the Firedot #4. My second is the typical #4 and another is the Heavy Duplex reticle. I've heard some speak of not being able to shoot with precision with some of these reticles. Not my experience at all. I've shot groups of way under 1" @ 100 yards with reticles like these and they don't hinder me in the least, while giving BOLD reticles for quick target acquisition.
To me, whitetail hunting means short-medium range shooting and deer that may show at VERY short ranges and during very low light. I prefer to purchase accordingly.
02-21-2014, 10:00 AM
#13
Typical Buck
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: SW Montana
Posts: 550
My "deer" rifle, a .257 Ackley, is topped with a 6x Leupold with a duplex reticle. Most of the scopes on my other rifles also have duplex reticles, except I have a Nikon 4-12x scope on my 7mm Rem Mag with their BDC reticle. I haven't shot it at 600 yds yet, but at that range, an entire deer fits inside the 600 yd circle of the reticle. I'm not sure how accurate that would be.
02-22-2014, 11:38 AM
#16
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Kansas
Posts: 3,903
Depends how far you're shooting, and what cartridge you're shooting with whether you really benefit at all from a compensating reticle. Or how much wind you're shooting in.
At least on the shot....
But you can also benefit by using graduated reticles for rangefinding.
I suppose I'd go against the norm and suggest that rangefinding/graduated reticles like Mil-dot's have more place on a "traditional cartridge" than it does on a faster and flatter shooting rifle cartridge. Prime example, my wife's .45-70 drops 30" over 250yrds with a 100yrd zero. The punkin chunker will easily kill a deer at that range, and both of us are capable of shooting accurately that far, but it's not quite as easy to gauge what 30" looks like on a duplex as it is with a Mil-dot, and not as easy to confirm range.
At least on the shot....
But you can also benefit by using graduated reticles for rangefinding.
I suppose I'd go against the norm and suggest that rangefinding/graduated reticles like Mil-dot's have more place on a "traditional cartridge" than it does on a faster and flatter shooting rifle cartridge. Prime example, my wife's .45-70 drops 30" over 250yrds with a 100yrd zero. The punkin chunker will easily kill a deer at that range, and both of us are capable of shooting accurately that far, but it's not quite as easy to gauge what 30" looks like on a duplex as it is with a Mil-dot, and not as easy to confirm range.
02-22-2014, 05:39 PM
#19
Giant Nontypical
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location:
Posts: 5,130
A basic BDC reticle with very few defined lines below the crosshairs - no circles for me !
Zero for 100 yards...............+/- 1" one line down for 200, +/- 1" two lines down for 300 yards, +/- 1" three lines down for 400 yards; etc.
Zero for 100 yards...............+/- 1" one line down for 200, +/- 1" two lines down for 300 yards, +/- 1" three lines down for 400 yards; etc.
