Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics Heavy/thick reticles not much to choose from .

Trying to find a bushnell low powered scope with the Firefly reticle , perused the webernet - not much choice in heavy reticles .
Who offers them now days ? Not really interested in a Lee-up-old ..

The Meopta #4 reticle looks good but I’d like a lighter weight model from them. I’m also done with Leupold, no more of those thank you. But yeah, I need a normal person hunting reticle in a scope that holds zero and weighs less than 16 oz, hopefully much less.

absolutely bucktail. if he isn't stuck on bushnell i'd go meopta meopro or meostar #4 ret any day of the week and 2x on sunday. i love meopta's german #4 personally for a huntin rifle. acquaint yourself on how to correctly use the #4 reticle and you will appreciate it even more. i'm about to take the ole mule stomper/tc encore ph in 35 whelen scoped with a meopta meostar 3-10x50mm with said german #4 ret on a deep piney woods whitetail hunt come next tues.
Big Ed

I need a scope for a suppressed CZ 22lr not looking for a big or several hundred dollar scope . I carry the rifle on my snare trapline and dispatch coyotes etc. very early in the morning .

I have a 4x12-50 Leupold VXR but it's way too big for what i need . Dispatching a critter hiding in thick brush at 10' away is hard w/a scope on 4x . Not many choices in low power heavy reticle scopes - if i was a tactical trapper i'd have plenty of options .

what not try a bushnell trs-25 red dot for 10' shots. get you some 11mm to weaver adapters and go to town bud. i like the utg aluminum adapters for my cz rimfires personally and have worked with a 455 11mm and a 452 wonky 3/8" rail both turned out nicely. if you gotta have a traditional "scope" maybe go a nikon rimfire since you don't wanna spen loopy money or i'd suggest the 3-9x33ao vx freedom rimfire scope. thats what i put on my 9yo cz-455 scout.
Big Ed

Yes -still need the higher power for other shooting . I predator hunt the rivers out of a small boat and the 4x12 is still too big .
Haven't seen a nikon with a heavy reticle - i have two 2x8-32 Monarchs and like them a lot but the fine crosshair doesn't work as well as a 1.5x6-36 Firefly reticle scope , it's on my cz 452 22mag. not allowed to use 22mag/17hmr in FL. for small game/coyotes.

Guess i'll just hold out for a firefly to come along season ends in a few weeks anyway .

FWIW I have a Meopta Artemis 4x32 on my Brno .22 (predecessor of the CZ .22). It has a heavy duplex sort of reticle, in the European style. It is fairly compact and seems to suit the rifle very well. It has enough FOV for very close shots, and (to my mind) enough magnification for shots within the effective range of a .22 LR in the field. Being a fixed power means fewer lenses, which can only help in light transmission, and this little scope seems to perform very well in low light, and has very good optics.

On another .22 I have a 2 - 7 Bushnell Elite. Quite a decent scope, but I don't know that it offers any real advantage over a 4x with good optics, for field use on a .22. I also have various 1.5-4.5, 1.5-5, 1.5-6 and 2-7 scopes, and a few others too, but not on .22s, so it isn't as if I haven't tried them.

Over about 40 years since I bought the first one I've found a 4x scope seems to suit a .22 LR right down to the ground, for the use I have for it (shooting rabbits, hares, foxes, and the odd cat, at distances between a few yards and about 100). Maybe I'm just a bit stuck in my ways.

Bold reticles are tough to find. No problem finding fine reticles in most any model of scope but a thick one is a rare bird.

I've used the following over the past several years and like them:
1. Tract Toric 2-10x42 with the T-plex. This is one reticle that seems bolder than it should. Great scope and reticle.

2. Meopta 6x42 with #4. Heavy outer bars, spacing is close enough to subtend well in low light, fine inner plex for targets. Really like this one.

3. S&B 6x42 #4. Very bold reticle. The inner plex is heavier than Meopta's so target/detail placement can be a little tougher but for low light and stand out it's tough to beat.

I don’t think heavy reticles sell, as I ‘be seen the number of offerings shrink recently, as the OP is seeing himself.

Leupold used to offer “Heavy” Plex reticles in some s opens but seems to have stopped.

It seems illumination is the way to go these days for a high contradt reticle..

I put a heavy Duplex Leupold 1.5-5x20 low on my M99F and there is no missing that reticle for a fast shot or losing it with a heavy brush background. It is no target scope, but pretty good in low light too. It is on my back up rifle, so I decided to take it out this year instead. A neck shot at about 80 yards was no problem, but when another deer that I could have should have shot appeared at about 200 yards, that heavy Duplex covered too much of his hide and gave me a just an instant of hesitation. That was all he needed and there he was, gone.

It's one of the nice things about Meopta's #4. Closely spaced heavy outer bars allow the quick shot and are visible in low light/broken backgrounds. The fine inner plex allows precision at extended ranges. The inner plex may be hard to find in low light but the outer bars are close enough to bracket.

Totally agree. That 99 is going to stay as a walking jump gun and the #1 bolt action is going out for stand hunting from now on. The Zeiss 1.5-6x42 on that one has that same thick on the outside with a finer center cross hair. A rather strange thing happens with that scope or my brain and eyesight in very low light that I can't explain. The center thin section fills in with the same diameter as the thicker outer cross hairs. I know that it is an optical illusion on my part, but if it works that way in really low light that is just fine with me.

Weaver reticle tend toward thicker than average.

You might take a look at the Burris 4X 1.5-6 . It's 30mm, illuminated dot with pretty heavy crosshairs and good glass.
I put one on a Ruger American 22-250 1-8 twist for low light coyotes across the pasture or whitetail in the trees.

Before the Leupold Custom Shop went on hiatus, it was easy to send an existing Leupold scope and have them retrofit a #4 reticle. Swarovski will also swap reticles. Last one I had done was $150 plus shipping.

I am so glad that I've reached an age where I don't need to buy any more hunting rifle scopes. I have three rifles that I do most of my hunting with. One has a Leupold FX-3 6x42, one has a Leupold VX-II 3-9x40, and one has an IOR Valdada 4x32. All have a German #1 reticle.

The scopes currently offered for sale seem much more like range toys than hunting scopes.

Amen. RJ

It seems like the tactical / long range crowd is is driving the market now. The optics makers are forgetting about the hunters who hunt the thick stuff. In Maine or NH i would take a heavy plex, or number 4, over any of the range finding reticles.

The Meopta #4 is a nice reticle. Now if the scopes would have just stayed together...

The Vortex G4 BDC works well in the timber.

The Nightforce Forceplex isn’t terrible, but the main bars are a tad thinner than I’d prefer.

Designers are either focused on the range crowd, or they are going with illumination. I personally don’t want illumination. While I acknowledge it works, I simply prefer to not have any electronic items on my rifle. I also believe a good reticle design and passable glass obviates the need for illumination. By passable glass, I just mean VX2 or Burris FFII, or better, glass. It is not a great challenge to make a scope that enables aiming in dark timber, on an overcast morning/evening, +/-30 min of darkness.

Illumination works if it's low intensity...and I'm happy to use it....but I don't want to HAVE to use it. I'd rather the reticle be designed bold enough that I can bracket if needed. I hate to depend on anything electronic...it's a low battery away from useless.