What do you like for a hunting optic with an illuminated reticle these days?

I like most scopes in the 3-15 range. My favorite right now is the trijicon credo 2.5-15x42 in mrad but its out of your budget. I also have the razor lht 3-15 and its been good as well but also pretty pricey. Im not a fan of ffp for a hunting scope but the arken epl4 4-16×44 is a great scope for the money. I currently have one on a 22-250 ai and it has been quite reliable.

The new athlon ares 3-15 looks like it could be a great contender right around $1000 as well but I have no experience with them. Good reviews so far though.

I have a few burris ff4 in lower power models with illumination and they are certainly nice glass. I have had leupolds in the vx3hd and vx5 lines and they have all had wandering zeros and I find them pretty overpriced for the quality.

Also I would recommend against a 16" barrel. It would make sense if we could use suppressors but that wont be happening. You lose too much velocity and increase muzzle blast. I find 20" - 22" is right around the sweet spot for performance and handiness. Especially if your thinking about a folding chassis, you will need to stay over 26.5" to stay on the right side of the law.
 
Beeron said:
I can highly recommend the viper hd in any magnification. I have or have had all three.

The bdc reticle is dumb imo. The VMR3 is awesome tho.

I also have a Razor LHT and its lighter but i like the viper hd almost as much.

I have also appreciated the brightness of the VX HD’s from 3-6. I have had a 3 and a 5 but aold them in favor of the razor and viper HD.
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Thanks for sharing! I was definitely leaning towards the VMR over BDC if I'm going to go with the viper.
 
7055steved said:
After last hunting season, I got a Tract 2.5-15x44. It's illuminated, and comes in MOA, MIL, and BDC options and the entire usable reticle is illuminated. They use schott glass and are made in Japan. They are comparable to the Trijicon offerings in quality and durability, but less expensive due to being almost directly from the manufacturer. They sell some 1" tube scopes as well, but are very nice. They'd be upper end of your budget, but if youre thinking vortex viper 3-15x44 then consider these too!
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Interesting lead, I'll see if anyone has them in stock to look at on person. Always love hearing about something unusual!
 
savagelh said:
I like most scopes in the 3-15 range. My favorite right now is the trijicon credo 2.5-15x42 in mrad but its out of your budget. I also have the razor lht 3-15 and its been good as well but also pretty pricey. Im not a fan of ffp for a hunting scope but the arken epl4 4-16×44 is a great scope for the money. I currently have one on a 22-250 ai and it has been quite reliable.

The new athlon ares 3-15 looks like it could be a great contender right around $1000 as well but I have no experience with them. Good reviews so far though.

I have a few burris ff4 in lower power models with illumination and they are certainly nice glass. I have had leupolds in the vx3hd and vx5 lines and they have all had wandering zeros and I find them pretty overpriced for the quality.

Also I would recommend against a 16" barrel. It would make sense if we could use suppressors but that wont be happening. You lose too much velocity and increase muzzle blast. I find 20" - 22" is right around the sweet spot for performance and handiness. Especially if your thinking about a folding chassis, you will need to stay over 26.5" to stay on the right side of the law.
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Thanks for the thoughts! I did consider the 26.5" overall length requirements when folded, and that will certainly inform the barrel length I am going to be going with. I'm not terribly fussed about the marginal velocity loss, because it's really quite marginal, and because I'm pretty much guaranteed to never shoot at anything alive with it much past 200 anyway, but given that the 16.5" tikka seem to have dried up I'll likely end up with a 20" stock barrel instead of paying a gun smith to take off 1.5" "just because".

It's interesting to hear comments about Leipold lines not being overrated. I remember looking at them a few years back, and going "huh? Why do they charge this much for these?!", and picking up a much cheaper Vortex that seemed quite reasonable to my eyes at the time.
 
Terp312 said:
I am considering building myself a new lightweight folding hunting rifle, most likely on the base of a MDT HNT 26 stock, a medium 16" profile barrel (if I can source a tikka t3x roughtech ranch) or a light 18.5-20" barrel, tikka t3x action. I am debating what I should put on it for glass.

I tried regular reticles and illuminated ones, and have a very strong preference for illumination. I don't want the optic to break the bank. Ounces do become pounds, but I don't care much about the optics being super light.This rifle is not expected to shoot much past 200 yards, but I do like magnification on the higher end of things. Strong preference for a 40 or a 44 objective lens.

If I had to just drop everything and get one tomorrow I'd probably pick up a vortex viper HD 3-15x44 either with illuminated BDC reticle or the VMR 3 reticle, but I don't really want to spend that kind of money if I don't have to.

What is out there these days?

Any pointers (including comments on why my leanings are misguided) are welcome.
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Vortex HD crossfire 2, illuminated 2-7x around $300
Terp312 said:
I am considering building myself a new lightweight folding hunting rifle, most likely on the base of a MDT HNT 26 stock, a medium 16" profile barrel (if I can source a tikka t3x roughtech ranch) or a light 18.5-20" barrel, tikka t3x action. I am debating what I should put on it for glass.

I tried regular reticles and illuminated ones, and have a very strong preference for illumination. I don't want the optic to break the bank. Ounces do become pounds, but I don't care much about the optics being super light.This rifle is not expected to shoot much past 200 yards, but I do like magnification on the higher end of things. Strong preference for a 40 or a 44 objective lens.

If I had to just drop everything and get one tomorrow I'd probably pick up a vortex viper HD 3-15x44 either with illuminated BDC reticle or the VMR 3 reticle, but I don't really want to spend that kind of money if I don't have to.

What is out there these days?

Any pointers (including comments on why my leanings are misguided) are welcome.
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vortex crossfire hd 2, 2-7x31 illuminated $299
 
Faast Andy said:
Vortex HD crossfire 2, illuminated 2-7x around $300

vortex crossfire hd 2, 2-7x31 illuminated $299
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2-7 is too little by way of magnification range (see my earlier comment about aim small miss small preference). I currently have a crossfire 6-18x44 with an illuminated reticle, and the though of just keeping that as a hunting scope certainly occured to me haha
 
Terp312 said:
2-7 is too little by way of magnification range (see my earlier comment about aim small miss small preference). I currently have a crossfire 6-18x44 with an illuminated reticle, and the though of just keeping that as a hunting scope certainly occured to me haha
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You say this until a big mule deer walks out at like 15 yards beside you and even 3x is just fur...and you don't get a shot.

I'm doing the opposite

ML dropped from 3-9 to 2-7
Put 2-7 on my new 243 BAR

I still have other rifles with higher magnification...like a new 7mmPRC, my 308...but even my 6.5CM has a trijicon 3-9
 
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cptseawolf said:
You say this until a big mule deer walks out at like 15 yards beside you and even 3x is just fur...and you don't get a shot.

I'm doing the opposite

ML dropped from 3-9 to 2-7
Put 2-7 on my new 243 BAR

I still have other rifles with higher magnification...like a new 7mmPRC, my 308...but even my 6.5CM has a trijicon 3-9
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I concede that is a muley walked out at 15 yards I'd have to treat my 6-18X scope as a red dot, do my best at aim high enough to compensate for the ballistic arc, and shoot with both eyes open lol

But then again, I'd probably miss that shot opportunity because by the time I chambered a round, the muley would be long gone.
 
2.5-8 is a sweet spot for hunting up to 400m even further, they use to say 1x per 100yards…
Anyway of course you go with what pleases you… just fyi I just put my hands on a leupold m8 fixed 4 an hour ago!!
They are really good scopes, super bright, super tough, super light and no bells and whistles that can go wrong in the field.
Less is more…
 
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