Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics Night force SHV 3-10 thoughts?

I've no doubt the Forceplex would be better in the timber.

I simply hate dialing unless I'm banging steel. I'd much rather have lines or dots to work with while hunting. I spent more time this deer season in the fields than I did in the woods. This was an about face from years past. Usually I'm in the timber. We had a ton of east winds during our gun season and an east wind kills me in our small chunks of timber.

I started the first few days of season with a VX5 3-10, duplex reticle with the firedot. I was in the alfalfa on the third day of season and I had a good buck come out at 300 yards. Checked the range and knew I didnt need to dial for that. Then the chase started. He took her to 425 and stopped. I ranged and dialed. They both bolted and stopped again around 500. I ranged and dialed again, then they bolted. They came all the way back to where they started. Dialed back to zero and they went back in the woods.

Had I not been dialing and using dots, I could have easily gotten off a shot each time they stopped even after ranging. It was perfectly calm, so wind wasn't an issue. A few seconds (2-3 each time) lost was the difference. The next day I had a rifle with a different scope with me!

And I also have no doubt locale, terrain and hunting styles come into play.

I'll also add this -- if the SHV 3-10 with the MOAR had center only illumination like the SHV 4.5-14x50 it would be about the perfect hunting scope....as long as the illumination wasn't too bright. The NXS that illuminates the entire reticle is almost perfect for my liking, but I prefer capped turrets like the SHV on a hunting rig.

Everybody is different and has different wants! It's not that I don't like exposed turrets. I just don't really need them on my hunting rifles that are primarily used for chasing whitetails in western Kentucky.

Yeah, a lot of illumination is too bright these days--partly as a result of skinny reticles.

To tell the truth, I do a lot more dialing when shooting varmints than big game, because varmints require more precision. I spent years before laser rangefinders ever appeared using a plex-type reticle, both to range and hold, and killed plenty of big game out to 500 with almost no problems--all with wind-holds, as they usually are, since wind isn't as predictable as gravity....

Still use the reticle to double-check the laser's range quite often, especially in flatter country. Did so this fall when shooting my pronghorn buck with the RAR fast-twist .22-250 you sent!

Darrik, John - thanks for the real world insights. This is exactly the kind of info I was looking for. I've found my 54 year old eye have different needs than they did 20 years ago. I've found my arms aren't quite long enough as well....... <G>

This exactly.

My neighbors have a variety of bushes planted around their houses ranging from dark to light. They are all in some stage of brown right now - about matching elk hide. I also have some almost black conifer type bushes. I've been using these bushes at different ranges as the backdrop for my reticle evaluations. Fine crosshairs at edges of daylight are very hard to pick up. The black culvert at the end of the road eats fine crosshairs before daylight ends.