Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics Is Illumination Worth It?

The VX-R has been discontinued for a couple of years so I’d beware of fakes. I have a VX-R 2-7x33 with Firedot 4 Reticle and really like it.

Took the words right outta my mouth.

Heavy clouds or overcast extend low-light conditions by an hour or more at dawn and at dusk. When the days are already short, illuminated reticles make the hunting day 20-25% longer, and the extended parts are the best parts. Win-win-win.

The lower the level of illumination, the more useful the scope--too much and I can't see anything. I also like a simple reticle since I'm not trying long shots in low light. A Nightforce SHV 3-10x42 with the illuminated Forceplex reticle is just about perfect.


Okie John

I like them, and they have useful place.

Have a couple of the VX-R 2-7 firedots. I do not see the advantage of the higher settings, but I really like the lower power settings. Especially during lower light conditions.

I also have a couple trijicon accupoints, no complaints.

The LRHS illumination was a little too much IMO.

I just got a VX6-HD w/fire dot this past year. It made all the difference this past fall in low light/gloomy conditions when I was losing the target against the background. Multiple illumination levels are a must, IMO.

Example of one, but I found that illumination is one area that Leupold did right.

I find it helpful even in good light because properly designed, it draws my eye to the sticking spot. “Properly designed” for me right now is the Duplex w/green dot in the Trijicon Accupoint 3-9, a near perfect hunting Duplex with a subtle center dot.

Some excellent comments especially the bit about needing some sort of illumination with FFP on low power as reticle becomes so thin it is almost invisible. (At least it does to my old eyes)


My favorite illuminated scopes:

SWFA SS HD 5-20x50 Tactical 30mm Riflescope
Matte, Illuminated Mil-Quad, FFP, .1 MRAD, Side Focus
Has tiny red dot in center
I have two and they are on LR hunting rifles used primarily for coues wt

https://www.swfa.com/swfa-ss-hd-5-20x50-tactical-30mm-riflescope.html?___SID=U



Trijicon trijicon tr20-1g accupoint 3-9x40 green dot
Duplex type crosshair with small green dot in center
No batteries needed. Great lightweight scope.
Use it for elk hunting

https://www.trijicon.com/products/details/tr20-1g

I sure liked it this fall on the Zeiss V4 I was using. As noted above, PNW grey overcast and dense woods can result in it being really dark while still technically legal. In the past, losing the reticle was the main reason to “call it” before last legal light, in the instances I did that. Dark etched reticles like in the older Conquests certainly help. Anyway, the illumination on the 4-16x50 V4 goes down REALLY low; on its lowest setting you can barely detect it even in very low light. I used it on the 2nd to lowest setting. I did get to pretend I was shooting a deer with it, at least. Had a few does come out at the end of light one evening, and a couple other does show up before dawn a different day. The illumination was pretty slick at that moment, I won’t lie.

I wish my first-gen Nightforce SHV 3-10x42 had it.

You mean now or the couple of dozen times you've been caught? Go awy, you dope smoking, anti-American POS liar...

If you've ever been in the situation where you could see your target but not see your crosshairs. Yes, illumination is worth it. Happens to me pretty often hunting 30 minutes after sunset or hunting hogs at night. Turn the illumination down low and if you hold the dot on him you've got him.

I've never been in that situation with top end optics. I have several scopes that have illumination and have never needed to use even past legal shooting light.

+2! I recently did field testing at twilight to dark with 3 good scopes, a swaro, a vx3hd and a vx5hd w/firedot. I had a dark target at 200 yds. With all 3 scopes I was able to see and place the x hairs on target until it got so dark I couldnt see anything. But at the last of the last light when I turned on the firedot the illumination washed out the target surrounding it, And yes it was on lowest setting.

I might agree with “needed”. However I’ve absolutely been in low enough- but legal- light in the past where the appropriate amount of illumination would’ve been appreciated.

That’s the key though- appropriate level. They seem to have nailed it on my two Zeiss V4 4-16x50’s but I’m being very specific there because it really is a very fine line between being just bright enough to help see the reticle more easily vs. washing out the target.

I should add, I have some very nice scopes but perhaps what not John’s talking about when he says “top end”. IDK top end, too rich for this workin’ man.

Black Bear are BLACK. Blacker than black when you have minutes left for legal light. An illuminated reticle, especially a dot or center cross-hair is most definitely worth it. A lot of Black Bears that we have shot (stand over bait) happened at the last few minutes of light. I remember one Bear that I shot that I was looking at for a while but didnt know it was a bear. It looked like a typical black hole in some heavy cover. That hole eventually moved and came in.

Even top tier glass wont help if you cant distinguish the cross-hairs when you lay them on that black fur. Truth.

That has been my experience as well, but certain folks here have called me an ignorant, dumbass, backwoods, stoopid climate change denier because I prefer plain ol' reticles.
Now, I may be ignorant, and a dumbass on occasion, but illuminated reticles do nothing for me when hunting.

I’ve got that same scope, non-illuminated, that I may be selling very soon. I will send you a PM.

I shot this whitetail four minutes into shooting light in north Texas this past season. I was ready at two but decided to wait it out. At four he started to look antsy so I pulled the trigger. No issues with seeing the crosshairs on the deer. This with a $200 Burris FF2 4.5-14X.

Crosshairs on the hide of a deer and the hide of a bear are like night and day. No pun intended. Seeing the critter is not the problem.

The problem is seeing the black crosshairs on the coal black hide of a bear.

I have a Burris E1 version with lesser magnification that we took a nice 300+ Black Bear with. The glass didn't matter. It was fine. The red dot made it happen with less than a minute of shooting light left that night.

Killed them without a lighted dot too but never that late.

+1 on that. Black bear in fading light is one place I would really opt for illumination. Better great glass and illumination

I think people's eyes are different in how sensitive they are to light and contrast.

That's why you get the never-ending argument over illumination vs no illumination. For some people there isn't any glass good enough to see the reticle 1 minute into legal hunting time on a rainy, moonless morning/evening.

Well worth it for me. Little red dot on black hogs in low light or under thick canopy of oaks is just the ticket.

Not all illuminated scopes are equal. The rheostat needs to provide a measure of brightness and intensity control. IME, Schmidt and Bender Flash Dot is the best.