Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics what are some good scopes for night hunting

and do illuminated reticles help.thinking of coyote calling at night

Ed

Illuminated reticles help, but a good heavy german #4 non-illuminated works well also.

The big names like Zeiss, Schmidt & Bender, Swarovski are the standard in a 2.5-10x56mm or 3-12x56mm size. Meopta makes a very good 3-12x56 that hangs right in there.

Good glass, big objective, heavy or lit reticle is the formula. Needless to say the ones that work well are expensive.

In side by side comparison my Leupold VX-6 4-24X52 matches my Swarovski z5 5-25X52. I had two z5 that would not come close to matching the VX-6. The VX-6 is hundreds cheaper.

I've tried lighted reticles and the biggest majority of them are to bright even on the lowest setting. It drowns out your light and its hard to see anything..The best lighted reticles I've ever used was the Burris Electro dot and it had a small illuminated dot in the center of the crosshairs.. Burris doesn't make that one anymore..Leupold VXR would be probably your best choice if you are wanting illuminated. As others have said, 50mm and up is the best for night hunting. I'm running just a regular VX2 3-9X50 right now on my CZ 22 Hornet with a good light mounted on top and its great...A couple weeks ago I called in a coyote and he took off running and stopped behind a large round bale and started peeking around it..The only shot I had was from his neck to his head and I settled the crosshairs on his neck and dropped him.. 133 steps and I had no problems seeing him or picking my shot out on his neck...You don't have to go illuminated... Just get you a decent scope with an excellent light and you will be fine.

Night hunting is a short range proposition, you don't night hunt with a 24-25X scope. You're like the guy that buys a corvette and complains because it won't pull his 5th wheel trailer.

If you want to night hunt with a VX-6 then try the 3-18x50 and keep it at 10X max, it still isn't going to match any of the above mentioned 56mm objectives at 10X though.

I wasn't going to say anything but Crow Hunter is right...Its close hunting. My scopes never go past 5x when I night hunt.

4x12-50 VXR - I have the post style reticle.

The lowest setting is great on a dark night shooting a black hog.

Trijicon Accupoint

It may depend on your state's regulations. Some states don't allow any battery-powered sights on game animals, and furbearers are c0onsidered game.

My experience has been that the light is more important than the scope. Get some good light on the target and most decent scopes will do fine. An expensive scope will have a hard time making up for a poor light.

I hunt at night a lot. Current setup is a Leupold VX-R 3-9x40 and a Red LED torch. Works well.

My Leupold VXR 3-9x50 with the #4 reticle is the best I've found. At the lowest setting, the dot is not too bright. I've tried other less expensive scopes that had too bright of a dot, even at the lowest setting. I've killed a pile of black hogs at night with that scope. I have not tried the 56mm Zeiss or Swarovski scopes. Out of my price range.

The classic euro set up is a fixed 8x56.
They can be had with either 1 inch or 30mm tubes.
In the S&B lineup illuminated are helpful and will allow you to see your reticle on the darkest of nights.Without spoiling your night vision.
That being said, they cost more.
A plain no 4 works very well.

dave

I bought a VX-R 2-7x33 with #4 reticle. I've found that the illumination does me no good when hunting at night, I keep it turned off. The spotlight allows me to see and the #4 reticle is thick enough. Where the illumination does help me is in the time between dark and light.

I prefer my non-illuminated Meopro's with German #4 to the VX-R for hunting at night.

IMO if you are hunting coyotes like we do with a good spot light (we typically use red filtered) you don't need or even want illuminated. I tried using my VX-R and ended up turning it off. When you are used to seeing eyes glowing back at you the red dot is just a confusing distraction.

On the other hand if you are hog hunting by moon light or with very dim feeder lights that is where I think the VX-R type scopes really shine. It can be very difficult to see crosshairs under these conditions in my experience.

So anyone have any opinion MeoPro 3-9x50 versus R1 3-12x56 both in #4. Is the R1 worth the extra money?

I have had the 3-9x42 and own a 3.5-10x44 both with #4 reticles as well as the R1 3-12x56 4k reticle. There is simply no comparison . Everyone that looks thru the R1 is amazed at how clear and well it works. Worth every penny .

I've found the same thing, shooting various game under a spotlight. If you've got a good light it isn't hard to pick up the crosshairs, and the reticle illumination is, if anything, a distraction. I've used a range of scopes for spotlighting but I haven't found the big-objective night scopes necessary either. A standard hunting scope, like a 6x42 or a variable set to about 6x seems to do a good job.

Shooting under moonlight would be a different thing, but there's little reason to do that here.