How much difference is their in a scope with an exit pupil of 10.53-3.82 and one with an exit pupil of 13.3-4.4? Is the bigger exit pupil going to be better for hunting later?
It will make a difference but how much depends on your eye and the quality of the optics. If the optics are equal then the variable is your eye. I personally would not want an exit pupil less than 4mm.
If you are over 40 your pupil is usually not capable of dilating past 5mm. Giving yourself room for head wiggle, anything over a 7mm exit pupil isn't going to get used...except for selling the scope.
I am 48. So are you saying my pupil isn't capable of really telling the difference in the two unless it has to do with the quality of the scopes?
Another benefit of a larger exit pupil is amore flexible head/eye position behind the scope.
I see. I am getting it figured out now I believe.
As in most things, the bigger the better. It just makes life easier.
A larger exit pupil will make very little difference in the shooter's head position behind the scope. For instance, an 8mm exit pupil only has an advantage of some 2 milimeters going either left or right. That's .04 inches....
A much more significant quality is eye box, the back and forth leeway one has on the stock. See Leupold for some examples of this. Most of their hunting scopes have more than the competition. E
Large exit pupils on rifle scopes do funny things. If one is under low light conditions, a larger than needed exit pupil will make the image look brigther, sometimes much brighter. This gives one the impression he can see much better under these conditions. While that's true to a degree, he'd be much better off, able to see further, with the magnification turned up as far as possible while still being able to see both the reticle and the target.
It, a larger exit pupil, can also help under low light conditions when one looses the reticle in his scope. Turning the magnification down will sometimes allow one to see the reticle enough to make a shot. E
I had this discussion at one time with a friend of mine who is an Ophthalmologist. He pointed out that saying that a person’s pupils will only dilate to 7mm or so is like saying all people are 5'10". There's a lot of individual variation. Some people are 6’4” and some are 5’4”. The same applies to pupil dilation. Some 45yr+ old people might dilate to 7mm and some 20yr olds might only dilate to 5mm. He stated that he had seen a few patients who dilated to 9mm+.
The bottom line is some individuals, irrespective of age, might effectively be able use a larger exit pupil than some and vice versa. The only way to know for you individually is to look through a few scopes in low light and see what works for you.
I had this discussion at one time with a friend of mine who is an Ophthalmologist. He pointed out that saying that a person’s pupils will only dilate to 7mm or so is like saying all people are 5'10". There's a lot of individual variation.
Good point. I cringe whenever I see someone make a blanket statement like "your eye can't use bigger than 5mm exit pupil". Unless someone is looking through your eyeball they have no way of knowing that. Everyone is different, what's true for one person might be completely false for another.