Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics Vortex Reticle For Hunting In Low Light

With all the positive feedback on this glass, I've contemplated picking one up for a new rifle build. On our place, last light bucks show up 353 yds from our shooting house. Which of the non illuminated reticles in the viper and razor lines will be visible? Thanks.

No Vortex experience on the board this weekend?

I've been shooting a lot in low light with my Razor HD LH with G4 reticle, I've had no trouble making out the dot but I am shooting painted steel haven't tried it on game yet.

I am interested as well. Thinking a VX-6 2-12 or that HD LH 3-15

I liked the MOA reticle in my 2X10. Fine enough for LR shooting and heavy enough for woods stuff. The lighted reticle worked very well also.

All good.......until it fogged to hell on a hunt and I couldn't see anything.

Lefty C

By coincidence, I've been playing with how visible various reticles are in low light, including three Vortex non-illuminated reticles. Obviously it depends on the target, and since it's black bear season here I tried them by aiming at one of my black bear hides in dim light (and yes, it was a black black-bear hide). None of the Vortex reticles worked very well, both because the center of the reticles was so thin, but because the thick portions were all a LONG way from the center--which seems to be a trend over the past few years. The thicker parts of reticles (like Leupold's Duplex) were added to make aiming easier in dim light, since plain, thin crosshairs sucked. But nowadays several manufacturers offer reticles with the thick portion so far from the thin center that we might as well be using crosshairs.

Of course, the thinner reticles probably would have worked just fine on deer in dim light, since deer aren't black. But that wasn't what I was testing, so I may need to repeat the testing with hides from other animals.

Also found that the often-denigrated wire reticles tended to be more visible than etched reticles, perhaps because they tend to be thicker. But also need to do some more testing before coming to any conclusion about that.

Size/type of the reticle really matters. I see better in an older Zeis and Z5 with duplex reticles than I do with a Z6 with a BRH reticle. In other words the brightest of scopes is only part of the equation.

I really get this. I believe the VX6 reticle despite all of Leupolds flaws is probably smarter for me where I hunt.

The Vortex G4 reticle was designed with low light in mind the heavy dark crosshairs make it easy to bracket your target in low light, Ive tried this when it was almost to dark to see the dot and it works well.

What are the subtentions of the G4, i.e. how thick is the thin part of the reticle? The tactical reticles are all the rage now, and I have one that is 0.25MOA thick. The thick plain duplex or a good #4 works well on deer, even the reticle in the old VX3 worked fine, but we all love to hate Leupold. The vortex 3-15 with g4 sounds cool, just wonder if you had compared the G4 to the VX-6 reticle side by side which of the two would be more practical for woods hunting. I have killed a couple of deer using rifle scopes under various conditions but don't use my NF 2-10 or the SWFA 1-4's for this sport.

Jimmy,I've looked at a VX6 duplex a few times and I own a Razor HD LH 1.5-8X32 with the G4. I haven't had them side by side in the woods. My opinion is that the Leupold duplex may enable you to see the center a minuet longer, but for hunting it won't matter. The dot of the G4 may disappear on you in the last minuet of legal light and I do mean the last 60 seconds where the Leupold duplex might still be visible,especially with illumination but I could still make the shot with the G4 by bracketing with the thicker outer portions which are thicker than the Leupold duplex. Personally I prefer the cleaner look of the G4,especially for driven or fast moving game,which is what I bought the 1.5-8 for. I told the designer of the Razor G4 reticle that if Vortex would use Tritium in the center dot of the G4,I would sell all my other scopes and replace them with Razor Hd LH scopes with the G4. That G4 dot perfectly covers a 3/4" target dot at 100 yards on mine.

Thanks for the info, the VX-6 1-6 duplex with fire dot is pretty thick, but what is cool is that even with a 25 mm objective the damn thing works as good as my much more expensive Zeiss Victory 1.5-6 x 42 just in my humble observation set at 3 x. Again I am not an expert but I do enjoy hunting deer and pigs and hav shot a few under trying conditions.