Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics Brightest Low light scope

Adjustable illuminated reticles work. I have no problems seeing both my target and my reticle on my two low light scopes. If you want tools that work, buy tools that are proven to work in the conditions you need them to. Almost every scope I've owned including an old plex reticle 3-9x33 vx2 can put a shot on a deer long after sunset. If you want and are able to legally go all night you can't take any shortcuts.

Never owned Terry's scope, but I have looked through a lot of Euro's and American scopes.Nothing beats the high end,30mm Euro's like Zeiss, Swaro, S&B,and Kahles after dark, for my eyes.I love aiming through those things.

I also have the schmidt zenith 3-12x50, with a #4 reticle. The only scope that does as good or better than my binocs at low light!

Here's a good one.

Doesn't look like there is alot room for front ring placement on that scope. Guess a rail mount would be the order of the day.

Pat send it here and I will test it for you.....

Not seen anything else run on rigs as serious as they use. Most don't have s&b's in talleys. Not being a jerk I don't own anything as serious as gap rifles and s&b scopes. Maybe one day

I disagree, RD. Here's another way to look at it. Take a zoom scope, let's say 2x-8x, with a 56 mm entrance. At 2x, the exit pupil is 28mm, and since your eye can only dilate to 7mm, most of the light hits around the eye, and only a fraction of the light entering the scope goes into your eye. Now zoom it to 8x, the exit pupil is 7mm and all of the light entering the scope goes into your eye. More light entering the eye means a brighter looking image. BTW, this is not my original thought. Bob Bell made exactly the same argument many years ago in Gun Digest, I believe.

Within the limitations you specified, a Leupold 6x42 with their #4 would be pretty good. I currently use a 3-9 Conquest with a #4 and like it better becuase of long range considerations, but at close range like you specify, the Leupold with HD or #4 would be great.

John

Single turn.
Double turn
PMII.



dave

222- one thing about your posts - the eye loses it's ability to dilate as we age, IIRC 5.5 is the max, or 5 for many folks middle aged and older. Not that a higher EP does not matter, but perhaps is not all utilized.

65BR,
You are absolutely right. However, the relative brightness still increases with power - up to the point where the exit pupil is smaller than the maximum dilation of the eye, whatever that is.

I think we are on the same page but we are perhaps just using different terms. When I say that light transmission is the same, I'm referring to the amount of light that the scope is capable of transmitting meaning, for example, 90%, 92%, 95% etc. The power setting has no bearing on this meaning it has no bearing on the percentage of light transmission that the scope is capable of. For example, if you took say a Swarovski 3-10x42 set on 6x and a Swarovski 6x42 and compared them for light transmission, the straight power 6x42 would probably be slightly brighter simply because it has fewer internal lenses. Both scopes have the same glass, coatings, objective size lenses and exit pupil sizes, however, the lense system is different.

Yes, they take the cake at the end of the day. The FFP reticle comes into it's own as the sun goes down.


At 3X. The bush is 208 yards.

At 6X. The reticle is VERY bold.

At 12X. The reticle is huge. Keep in mind the target is over 200 yards away.


This scope just plain works in low light.

Terry

Great pictures Terry! I never could get them that clear with the camera on my phone, but they illustrate the reticle very well!

Sure works good at 6x Terry

The 6X power setting is an excellent choice in low light. I took a decent deer two weeks ago with this rifle that ranged 377yds. I had it on 12X for that shot. The 3-12X is a very versatile scope.

Terry

Nice, what cartridge is that in? Ruger correct?

Guess you hate to scratch up those pretty blue/wood guns?

I was looking at your pics above and the fov seemed sweet at a mid power setting, but that was about half the distance as your shot.

No doubt, not much you couldn't do w/that scope.

Yes, it's a Ruger 77 MKII. It's chambered in a .264WM. There is a soybean field down in Como, MS I get to hunt. That rifle was purpose built just for that. I have a couple synthetic stocked rifles, I like and use both types.

Terry