I define medium range (short long range) hunting as 600 yards. With a fairly accurate rifle, reliable scope, and routine practice 500 yards in an eight inch kill zone is routine. Six hundred yards starts getting dicey. Past 600 yards takes a lot of experience and practice. Even so, first round misses are not unusual . Wind, wind, wind.

It is safe to say that far more hunters are capable of successful 600 yard shots than 1000 yard shots.

Why can�t we have a HUNTING reticle more suited for 0 - 600 yards that does not concede fast, up close, cluttered, high stress, shots, due to fine subtensions? I have yet to find a �slide� reticle that is adequate for such.

I�ll pick on NF. The 2.5-10x42 MIL R is a REALLY nice scope. The wide opening is 10 MIL/34 MOA and the thin portion is .035 MIL/.12 MOA thick.

Illumination works crazy good in low light with a setting low enough that there is absolutely no washout effect. If you can optically see the target, or even an outline of the target, the reticle will get the job done. The best low light scope I ever had is the S&B 6x42 #4. The illumination on the NF MIL R is even more effective than the S&B in low light (dark). I was blown away by this discovery.

Obviously the MIL R works for dial and slide.

The one huge concession of the MIL R is quick shots in shaded, cluttered background, i.e. the deer and elk woods. The thin portion is way too thin and the wide opening is way too wide. It gets lost, you can�t see it. Case in point. I�ve killed two animals in NM. I am from AL. Point being, one scope had to be chosen for the trip. One animal was a shot within a few yards of 600. The MIL R would have shined. The other was killed at 100 yards, give or take. I was traveling on horseback to an area to glass where shots could have been further out than I feel comfortable shooting. While riding to this location, in the shaded timber, by chance, a target presented itself. I had to jump off the horse, pull the rifle from the scabbard, and get off a shot at spooked, fleeing game (in the timber). It went down FAST. I have serious concerns that I would not have closed the deal with the MIL R. The Leup standard duplex was money.

Below are photos I took this morning on a sunny, unclouded day, mid morning, in the shade of timber.

Tree in the crosshair is at 85 yards. Both scopes are set on 6x. Camera on tripod was not moved the entire time nor were any settings changed. Scopes were placed on the same fence post.

S&B 6x42 #4
Wide opening: 7 MIL / 25� @ 100 yards
Wide portion: 1.75 MIL / 6.3� @ 100 yards
Thin portion: .18 MIL / 0.6� @ 100 yards.

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NF MIL R (at 10x)
Wide opening: 10 MIL / 36� @ 100 yards
Wide portion: 0.5 MIL / 1.8� @ 100 yards
Thin portion: 0.035 MIL / 0.125� @ 100 yards

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Same pic as above but with illumination at brightest level. As you can see, its of little help in full daylight.

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