First or second focal plane and why?? I’m strictly a hunter
All fixed power scopes are FFP, so that is easy.
With low power variables there's not much in it really. I use both. With FFP both the reticle and the target image get larger and smaller as you change magnification. This means that the reticle subtension stays the same at any magnification, so if you rely on dots or hash marks or other features of the reticle for holdover or hold-off you can do it at any magnification. Some will say that the downside is that the reticle covers a lot of target at high magnification. or is hard to see at low magnification. In practice I haven't found this to be true, at least if you have a reticle like a German No 4 or a good duplex.
With SFP the target image gets larger as you increase magnification, but the reticle doesn't, so it covers less of the target as you wind the magnification on, and more of it at low magnification. If you want to use features in the reticle you need to do so at a particular magnification. You may also find that POI may drift a bit as you change magnification in an SFP scope, but with a good one it won't be by much. If you zero at maximum magnification and use magnification that for the long and difficult shots, you probably won't even notice.
For close range shooting it really will make bugger all difference though, either way. You'll tend to find that most low-medium priced scopes are SFP.
