Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics How many guys hunt with lighted Reticle

How many guys hunt with a lighted reticle? I don’t and here in MI or atleast where I hunt the last 15 minutes of legal shooting during deer season does get a bit dark. In the past it I was watching something or wanted to find something in the scope it just doesn’t seem to be an issue. My Son in Law was bear hunting last week and within legal shooting times he felt that a standard reticle on a black bear would be hard to see.
That’s why I ask how many use a lit reticle?

Hank

For my eyes an illuminated reticle is too bright and IMO is not desirable. I have recently discovered a scope that just has the dot illuminated and it can be turned down very low creating a major enhancement in low light hunting.

I don’t have any. A regular scope let’s me see after legal shooting hours. I can see where it would be helpful on a black animal

NO need where I hunt.

I like them...have a Zeiss with no60 illuminated center dot that can be turned down low... its great for last light hunting especially against dark background.
couple of the vx5hd with firedot are nice as well.
YMMV

I have hunted with illuminated reticle scopes.

red dots.

Digital night vision.

One of my favorite red dots is a solar powered tasco which is on my crossbow. While it can use batteries as a backup, as soon as there is any discernable light at all outside, it's beginning to illuminate.

I’m a fan, but only if they can be turned down in dim light to avoid flare and interference with my vision.

I think it’s important that the reticle be good unlit as well. Not all illumination is daylight bright, and conditions sometimes favor turning it off. As mentioned above, a small illuminated dot is better most of the time as opposed to a large section or the whole dang thing. The Trijicon Accupoint 3-9 is about perfect IMO, heavy side posts that come very close to center, and a small dot in the middle. The new illuminated T-Plex from Tract looks like a good one too in pictures.

I’d rather have it and not need it than need it and not have it.

I have several scopes with illuminated reticles but I don’t think I’ve ever used one to make a shot. To me, it seems as if they’re all a little too bright even at their lowest setting.

The Leupold Fire Dot is pretty good if not great in the TMOA reticle.

I set mine so it only shows a low burnt orange glow in low light.

Leave it on for months and months at a time as it shuts down with 5 minutes of no movement and light up when ever you pick up the rifle.

I have 2 Jap Weaver Classic Extremes,2-10x50 and 2-10x56,with 4A illuminated dot reticle.They’re done right,with a variable rheostat control that dims to nearly nothing.But the reticle is so thick I rarely even use the illumination,though it’s nice to know it’s there if I need it…

This is my first deer season using illumination.

Have recently added 2 illuminated scopes, 7x56 meopta meostar, and a 2-10x56 trijicon credo hx. Have only taken one deer and it was well before sunset.......I dont turn the battery on till almost dusk..

Each scope has about 8 levels of brightness...

I have 2, a Kahles 1.5-6 on my 375 when hunting DG and just added a Burris FF4 2.5-10 that hasn't been mounted on anything yet. Helps in the thick and nasty stuff to instantly pick up your aiming point.

I like them, and just picked up a couple.

I do by default on just about all my rifles now as ive switched to lpvos on about all of them. Mine just have the center dot illuminated. Good scopes you can turn the brightness down to about nothing. Good point about black furred bears too. Never gave that much thought. Most bears here are some sort of color phase, and the black ones ive shot have all been with iron sites or illuminated reticles. Black furred bear i shot this spring was with a zeiss victory v8. No problem seeing the aiming point against the black fur with that little red dot.

I've used an accupoint 3-9 mil dot for a lot of years on my grab and go deer rifle. It's a decent scope, the single dot illumination show up well on target without any kind of flaring. Now as to whether or not it ever made it possible to cleanly take a shot on game for me I'd not take without a little orange dot, that's a big maybe.

This is great info
I started asking about a scope for him but it makes me think more about usefulness for myself.
I like the thought of being able to really turn it down low
I have really embraced Meopta scopes I will start eyeing them with a lighted ret
Hank

I’ll be using a couple of Zeiss scopes with the illuminated 60 reticle this season. Will be my first experience with illumination. I like that it’s a dot that can be turned down really, really low

In my younger years I always said that seeing the reticle wasn’t the problem. I’m still amazed at some of the way after sunset shots I made with a lowly Leupold 3-9x40 scope. At close to 50 now my eyes need all the help they can get in the dark. Alpha glass, big objectives and illuminated reticles

Several of the scopes I use have them. Some are well designed and some are not. In most cases I try to avoid using them but there are a few times they have been helpful in very low light. I prefer to use a reticle with bold enough bars, centered close enough to the middle of the reticle, that I can bracket the target between them and avoid illumination.

I like lighted reticles, if you don't need it just don't turn it on. I'm starting to rethink their utility though, it seems that conditions where it's helpful are rare for the hunting I do, and I'm not a fan of big heavy scopes on hunting rifles.