Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics Scopes for deer hunting in low light conditions

As does Leupold. Regrettably it's in their scopes. Okay, that's my last dig, I promise.

I bought a Hawke 8x56 w/illuminated dot on clearance from Doug and it's very nice. Haven't twisted the dials enough to really wring it out, but I like the reticle and the light. Has a couple aiming points below the dot too.

Ditto on what RICKMELEAR said about long shots near evening dark. Finding sign or even the spot where a deer was standing at the shot can be tough without snow, and I'm guessing the OP is hunting in the South.

Some excellent advice in this thread, especially about paying close attention to the adventures of Bobby Tomek.

In my experience, most people crank up illuminated reticles far too high, which can make it wash out the rest of the field of view. It can make the reticle seem much thicker than it really is, which opens up your groups. I have the best luck with mine when it's barely visible.

In the Army, I spent a lot of time in thick brush at night. I MIGHT try a longer shot at dawn so I'd have the entire day to track if things went wrong but I agree 1,000% on not attempting long shots at last light. Shooting in low light and shooting at long range are both risky, and doing both at the same time makes the risk exponentially greater. If you don't anchor your target immediately, then you have to track in the dark and you may have to shoot again after legal shooting hours have ended. That's not just illegal, it's also really unsafe unless you're using night-vision optics and you're deeply trained in their employment. Even better, if there are wild hogs in your area, then they'll pull down the animal that you wounded and eat it while it's still alive. I've heard this happen once and I never want to hear it again.

If I were hunting in the place that you describe, then I'd put big wooden fence posts about every 50 yard and I'd paint them white so I could see them somewhat in low light. Then I'd build a range card based on them. If you know that you shot at a deer near the 250 yard post, then at least you know where to start looking. Without that kind of preparation, you could be in for some very long tracking jobs.


Okie John

You're talking about two totally different uses. The ideal scope for low-light shooting from a stand in one very specific place may not the ideal scope for a hunt in an unspecified part of the western US. Bobby Tomek can get you squared away on the low-light side of things, but a good 3-9 with a 1" tube would be fine out here. Plenty of very experienced western hunters on this site prefer a fixed 6x, and even a fixed 4x will put a lot of meat in the freezer if you do your part. They're also a lot lighter than a good low-light scope, and that can make a LOT of difference at the end of several very long days when you're 5-6,000' above where you're used to being.


Okie John

+1

Hard to beat that for the price.

3-10x44’s also.

Look at the Zeiss DL or Duralyt line, whichever was produced in Germany and had the “Blue” tint, it’s a slightly different NM spectrum or whatever that’s optimized for lowlight, the US market isn’t used to that range and the tint caused some concern, UK hunt legally later than here, I’ve also compared some supposed “Lowlight Optics” to German and smaller quality scopes p!$$ all over cheaper, large tube, large objective glass, not even close, I vaguely recall the DL line had target elevation turrets too, sounds like what your after, no judgement on longish shots at twilight as I’ve no understanding of your abilities and as such am not going to make assumptions to support comments, I will say while blood is “illuminated” at night, tracking through pricier filled thickets when things aren’t where they were is an awful, gut wrenching feeling usually, doubly so in bear country

Is there a noticeable difference in the R1 and R2??

all of my bushnell eltes,4200,4500,6500 work well in low ight.

Zeiss

+1 on the Zeiss, especially the European Zeiss. Back when I had more dollars than sense, I bought a 30mm 1.5-6x42 Divari V/VM Euro Zeiss with the first plane reticle and holy smokes! It is like someone is standing behind me with a light on the target. The thing doesn't need a funnel size objective to see way beyond legal shooting light. Good lenses and good coatings with heavy outside crosshairs and I'm set for any legal deer hunting here.

I have 3 Zeiss 1.5-6x42 Diavari scopes. I have 1 Swarovski 1.5-6x42. I have one Meopta 1.5-6x42. I have one S & B 1.5-6x42. And, I have a Zeiss Duralyt 2-8x42.

All but the Duralyt are First Focal Plane scopes, none are illuminated.

All are well and truly capable Low Light scopes.

I will not use any of them to shoot anything past about 200 yards at the end of legal shooting hours (1/2 hour after sunset here). I have used them all right up to the the last minute though. Even at only 200 yards By the time I unload the rifle, climb down and hike out to somewhere in the vicinity of where Bambi ought to be, it is DARK. Every deer I have killed at the very bitter end of legal shooting time I have been extremely careful to do my absolute best to drop them where they stood and been lucky enough to accomplish it. I do not know for certain that I might have lost one had it run, but I do know that walking directly to a carcass any distance in the dark even with a VERY good light is not as easy as you think. Where I hunt deer with my crossbow They normally come through right in the last minutes. By the time I put the bow away, get out my tracking stuff, climb down and walk 20 yards to where Bambi was standing it is DARKER! I use 750 lumen to 2000 lumen LED lights that focus. I can light up the ground around my feet every bit as bright as daylight. Deer do not normally begin to bleed much if at all at first. Some, do not bleed at all until they tip over, and that is true of both rifle and bow shot deer. I have found deer by wandering around in the dark with a flashlight because there was no blood and that was my only option, and those were deer that I shot far enough before it got dark that I had a lot of time to exhaust all possibility of a blood trail before I did it the hard way.

Do not risk a shot beyond maybe 100 yards where you should be able to drop them where they stand EVERY TIME. I shoot deer with lighted nocks on the arrows and can see them go through Bambi in the scope on the crossbow. I have seen deer double lunged with large 4 blade broad heads manage 200, 300, 500 and just a tad over a mile. Mostly like with a rifle they are down and dead inside 80 yards. But... even with a rifle I have seen a fawn with red soup for lungs and 2/3 of it's heart gone and the both shoulder blades hit about an inch from the base with a 50 cal still manage 60 yards and not go down at the shot. Nor did it bleed at all past the first three jumps.

Pigs and coyotes are a different story.

I have a several years old zeiss victory 1.5-6 x 42 with their #60 from cameraland that I like a lot. Most of my shots here in GA are below 100 yards, and there are times 30 minutes before sunrise when we can shoot that in some environmental situations its still dark for a few minutes. I have used the illumination a few times, killed one deer with it minutes after legal shooting began under a tree canopy. The zeiss illumination is very good, better than the NF illumination in my opinion. Thin reticles and low light do not go together well regardless of your scopes objective size or optics quality unless they have decent illumination in them.

I just saw someone bash Leupold and then talk about the new Hawke he just bought. this getting comical.

Well as a Euro allowed to shoot an hour before first light and an hour after last light I can say from experience:-

Woods low light is the hardest. Fields allow most good scopes to work reasonably well.

A bad illuminated reticle is worse than a good non illuminated. The main fault is not going dim enough. My swaro PV 8x56i is too bright at lowest setting

Long shots in low light are to be avoided - I have a dog for trailing and I've still learned not to.

Ultimate performance gets expensive real fast. Ultimate performance is Zeiss Victory 3-12x56 HT. I have it - it truly is fantastic. I would also consider S&B Polar 96 4-16x56. Both are 95 or 96‰ light transmission. One thing to be aware of is that the reticles of these have to be illuminated as they are very thin. The HT adjusts to so dim you cab shoot in near complete darkness

High zoom ratios suck light transmission - Swaro Z6 is d not very bright. Standard older Zeiss Victory or Swaro PF/PV are 90/91%.

The lower Zeiss eg V4 and V6 do not have a good optical reputation in Europe - they are often for sale used, HTs very rarely indeed.

Finally truly great optics allow you to place a red dot on a deer like shape and kill it - what specific features allow you to determine it truly is a deer?

Really hard to beat a 3-15x56 vx5hd in the sub-$1000 range for low light.

For me ALL I use now here in Alabama are
Leupold FX-3 6x42 Heavy Duplex or German #4
works well for OLD eyes and night blindness

My best low light scope is the 3.5-10x 44mm Meopro.

I have Leupold VX3i’s. I have no trouble seeing 30 minutes before and after daylight.

The Meostar R2 8 X 56 looks promising. I would have to get some input on the reticles available for this scope before I got one, but the Meostar spotting scope and binoculars I have compare closely to my Zeiss Victory and Swaro SLC binoculars.

Most of my scopes do fine in low light. That isn’t the problem. In dim light, with a herd of black hogs at the feeder, I couldn’t see the black crosshairs against the hog. Finally I got a Leupold VX5 3-15 CDS with the firedot. Been blasting pigs since. Love that firedot.

It is hard to see black pigs when it is close to dark. I center them in the scope. A fire dot would be nice for pig hunting!