reticles - which ones are useful and which ones are crap?

BP7

BP7

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so, as part of my "search" for a decent budget scope, i'm coming across a variety of reticles, some seemingly useful, others plain, and others seemingly tacky. which types are most useful in real daily shooting?

mildots? or hash-marks in the same arrangement?
plain lines?
plain lines with a dot in the middle?
bushnell's circle-x which has a set of thin lines inside of a donut?

so, if a certain scope has 2-3 reticle choices, which one do you normally go for?
 
BP7 said:
so, as part of my "search" for a decent budget scope, i'm coming across a variety of reticles, some seemingly useful, others plain, and others seemingly tacky. which types are most useful in real daily shooting?

mildots? or hash-marks in the same arrangement?
plain lines?
plain lines with a dot in the middle?
bushnell's circle-x which has a set of thin lines inside of a donut?

so, if a certain scope has 2-3 reticle choices, which one do you normally go for?
Click to expand...

I only buy mildot
 
Reticles over years evolved and they have reason.
I am getting back into rifle shooting and do a lot of reading.There is grow popularity with 'tactical/long range/equipment gathering'. I have spoken with bunch of guys and they spend time and money to prep their rifles got super duper scopes like NF with great reticels to shoot 100yr. I know, I know, it is not my business, however I think that if someone wants to shoot benchrest type should talk to benchrest crowd about equipment and observe what is best and same rule apply with precision shooting, FClass and so on.
 
Kelly Timoffee said:
What is the intended purpose of the scope???

There are as many reticles these days as there are gophers in Saskatchewan, well almost.
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punching holes in paper on which either circles or silhouettes of "living" items are marked. seriously, though, just thinking in general. are some reticles just tacky and done "because we can cram this much crap in there!"

i've got one that's got a few hash marks (lines instead of mildots) which i find useful, but has a silly range-finder set of lines below that does nothing but clutter things. pretty sure it won't be long before someone decides what we REALLY want is an Excel spreadsheet as a reticle :p
 
Some are very useful tools like mil-dots and some compensating reticles , although the compensating type are sometimes restricted to one load at a given elevation.

I think for your purpose a nice fine cross hair, with or without graduations/measurements would work nice for you, also target style turrets would be a nice addition once you get your bullet drop figured out and you points of impact calculated.

Many seem to be heading towards Sightron(Jerry at Mystic, one of our sponsors). They are a very competitively priced option with loads of features and good quality.

Myself I like Zeiss, they are wonderful but don't have a great lineup for bench or target shooting, they are more geared towards field applications but you can go to their site to see the many reticle options they have.

There are less expensive and more expensive options, remember with optics you get what you pay for.
 
ya, i'm leaning VERY strongly towards Sightron stuff, esp the fixed power SII 36x.... but still sometimes the reticle choices within a model / line are a bit unclear. at least Bushnell's DOA reticle has a definite and clear purpose, so long as the deer is growing to spec :p
 
IMO that dang DOA is a wonderful marketing idea and not worth a crap in the field.

Send Jerry a PM, he will be able to set you up and you won't be second guessing your purchase. ;)

It can all be a little overwhelming with all the choices.
 
BP7 said:
ya, i'm leaning VERY strongly towards Sightron stuff, esp the fixed power SII 36x.... but still sometimes the reticle choices within a model / line are a bit unclear. at least Bushnell's DOA reticle has a definite and clear purpose, so long as the deer is growing to spec :p
Click to expand...


First off, dont go with the 36x ... ill explain.

Reticules are all about what the shooter wants to do. A good target rifle that will only see bench and range use will benefit from a scope with fine cross hairs and some good target turrets with lots of elevation. People love adjusting there range drop with turrets. It takes a few spins but you always just line up the cross hairs. makes mil dots useless, unless you need them to adjust your point of aim if you missed the first shot.

If you want to use mil dots a fixed 10x scope is the way to go. .5 hesh marks are key as well. some scopes will even have 1/10th marks between the 4.5 and 5th mil marks. Handy, but in reality they clutter up were it matters. The thing about 10x is it gives you enough field of view to take advantage. @ 10x zoom with army mil dots a 10" target is still a little larger than one dot. One dot is .2 mil, that dot will only cover 7.2" @ 1000y. A USMC dot witch is 1/4 mil will pretty much cover your 10" target.
The Sightron SII 36x42 only has a field of view of 3feet @ 100y. If your hunting deer.... in ontario.. its gona be very hard to have an accurate shot, even more so if its moving.


The horus reticules are actually pretty good. espically in a ffp scope.
IOR has the mp-8. Great reticule, offers 15mil of elevation. - thats 540" @ 1000y.
The standard Army mil dots with .5mil hesh lines are the standard and my most recommend. Sightron reticules have pointed #5 mil marks instead of the regular solid bar. very nice to have.

Summed up, If you want to use your mil dots they are a great feature. If your shooting from known distance and only know the math for MOA and spin ur turrets, a fine cross hair reticule will do well.

Also, the dot in the center of the reticule,,,,, I think they look cool, but are counter productive imo.


If your wondering, I have a Sightron SIII 10x42 MMD also equiped with a horus ASLI that I use for shooting from 100y - 900y. I half to dial my turrets up when shooting past 900 but not much. 5.2 minutes @ 950y and 11.1 @ 1000y. This is on my 5R .308.

good luck with your choice.

Btw - big important part. unless your have a first focal plane scope your mil dots are based off exact level of zoom. the standard is 3.6" @ 100y on 10x zoom. some scopes like bushnell for example use 12x zoom. Fixed zoom scopes will all be 3.6" @ 100. The rest you half to do the math. ie, if your mil dots are set for 10x on a varry zoom scope, @ 5x you multiply the distance between mils x2, at 20x you divide by half.
 
What cartridge and distance? Is range finding by way of the scope a requirement? Will you be using hold overs or elevation adjustments?

BP7 said:
punching holes in paper on which either circles or silhouettes of "living" items are marked. seriously, though, just thinking in general. are some reticles just tacky and done "because we can cram this much crap in there!"

i've got one that's got a few hash marks (lines instead of mildots) which i find useful, but has a silly range-finder set of lines below that does nothing but clutter things. pretty sure it won't be long before someone decides what we REALLY want is an Excel spreadsheet as a reticle :p
Click to expand...
 
Grizzlypeg said:
What cartridge and distance? Is range finding by way of the scope a requirement? Will you be using hold overs or elevation adjustments?
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actually i've got two 22LR rifles that need new scopes.

* one is for short-range (10-100 yards), off-hand, using hold-overs
* other is for medium-long range (25-150 yards), bipod, using hold-overs or elevation knobs (undecided) <-- this is my other thread

range-finding not needed, but i won't turn it down. i'd like to develop experience to visually be able to estimate range using unaided eye
 
Considering it's 22LR, there is a considerable holdover required for 150 yards. Mil dot's don't line up with enough distances, as they are too far apart in my opinion. You have to interpolate between dots in many cases. Zero to 100 you can get away with estimating and not even having mildots or hash marks, but it all depends on the degree of accuracy you need. You can certainly hit gophers from 25-100 yards with a standard reticle and no elevation knobs. Just a little holdover from you 50 yard zero and you are good. But 150 yards and its getting more extreme.

If fast shooting isn't required, I'd go with target turrets and build up a chart of elevation adjustments.

BP7 said:
actually i've got two 22LR rifles that need new scopes.

* one is for short-range (10-100 yards), off-hand, using hold-overs
* other is for medium-long range (25-150 yards), bipod, using hold-overs or elevation knobs (undecided) <-- this is my other thread

range-finding not needed, but i won't turn it down. i'd like to develop experience to visually be able to estimate range using unaided eye
Click to expand...
 
* one is for short-range (10-100 yards), off-hand, using hold-overs === FAST SHOOTING (similar to what i'd do if i had an AR-15, but i'm using a Rem 597 semi cuz it's cheaper and just as fun), probably zero'd at 50yd or so

* other is for medium-long range (25-150 yards), bipod, using hold-overs or elevation knobs (undecided) === CAN TAKE MY TIME, but not excessive, probably zero'd at 100yd, sniping crackers and mice and little things like that, coke cans would be giant targets
 
The only reticle I've had a problem with was (going by the pic) german reticle where the tip of the point was slightly raised above the horizontal beam.

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I could nail every time at the range but when I was pulling off a quick shot while hunting I'd always shoot high because, I think, your eye will always naturally look for the center of the cross hair.

I do, anyway.

I'd suggest a crosshair or duplex crosshair if you're a hunter and will need something that your eye and brain will process quickly without having to think about it.
 
If you want something quality for the target turret gun, starting point would be a used Bushnell 3200 tactical 10x scope. You can probably get one for around $200

It's possible you might get satisfactory performance from a cheaper scope with target turrets, such as a tasco, bsa or cabellas pine ridge, or even Leupold knock off, but no one can give you guarantees with these lower quality scopes.

I have a bushnell 3200 series 5-15x40 tactical on one rimfire. I really like the quality, but it was around $400

On another rimfire I have a leupold military knock off, that cost me around $110, and it works great, but I'm not counting on it in a pinch. For that money, the lenses or reticle could fall out at any moment. But, at the moment, and for quite a bit of use at the range, its working perfectly.
 
i've used most if not all of the reticlues and one that not listed- it's an INVERTED post- and no, it's not a post mounted upside down- i found the most useless one was the fine crosshair- you'd "lose" the crosshairs in low light-i think that one's either back to bushenll or at the back of my closet somewhere- for most situations, i like the mult-x possibly with the center dot-
 
t-star said:
i've used most if not all of the reticlues and one that not listed- it's an INVERTED post- and no, it's not a post mounted upside down- i found the most useless one was the fine crosshair- you'd "lose" the crosshairs in low light-i think that one's either back to bushenll or at the back of my closet somewhere- for most situations, i like the mult-x possibly with the center dot-
Click to expand...

hmm, good point on the fine crosshair and darker situations. for the "fast shooting" one, i may need to give preference to something that has a dot or donut in the middle.
 
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