Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics Night time pig scope

I'm sure your Zeiss would be fine for much night time hunting.
What you need to understand are a few simple rules or principles.
First of all, you don't need to see much of the image to shoot, but you do need to see the reticle. That's why the heavier reticles are prefered. However, if you can't see the reticle, try turning the magnification down until it comes back.
Second is that nights vary alot. I've seen nights where I could use 10X on my VariXIII Leupold and see for hundreds of yards. On the other hand, I've seen nights so dark, full cloud cover and no moon, heavy forest, where I couldn't see much over 50 yds. with my 6X42.
So, the rule is use as much magnification as you can. If it's turned up too far, the scope will simply show you nothing. You need to know this if it gets darker. Again, turn down the magnification. BTW, the image will appear less bright, but assuming your scope is properly focused, you should see more details of your target.
That's another one. Make sure the scope is focused for the range you are attempting to shoot. Zeiss scopes feature a very fast ocular, so that should be easy to do.
Another point is that it takes a good 20-40 mins for your night vision to kick in. So, use only red or maybe yellow filtered lights as dim as you can to preserve your night vision. If you choose an illuminated reticle scope, make sure you are very careful about not getting the reticle too bright. That can make the image harder to see.
It is common for hunters to loose some of our night vision capability as we age. If your scope quits, no matter what magnification it is set on, that may be what's going on. All scopes that are capable of a 7mm exit pupil work at night. But not every one has eyes that can use this low light capability.
Last of all, assuming a fully multicoated scope, the bigger the scope, the more magnification it can use and the better they work at night. E