Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics Large Objective scopes and low light shooting

LOL.

No.

Once the optic exit appature exceeds the shooters pupil there is nothing to be gained as far a "brightness".

But an increase in magnification brings an increase in brightness as 10X is 10 times as bright, sort of.

Just like being 10 times closer is brighter.

Physics, it's fun.

"Appature" is simply fhuqking AWESOME +P++! Hint.

Fhuqking LAUGHING!...............

While I love smashing on you I will admit you spell better.

Aperture.

Now post some video.

I'll wAIT, FOR A BIT.

My low light hunting has been done with my Swarovski 2.5-10x56 PH, Meopta 3-12x56, and a borrowed Schmidt & Bender 2.5-10x56. These scopes were designed for night hunting of boar in Europe. Having spent a lot of time behind these scopes at night I can say without a doubt that yes, they do help that much. With a decent amount of moonlight you can hunt all night. The reticle is as important as everything else and as one poster mentioned, you'll generally be shooting with the power maxed out to discern the detail to make the shot. There are caveats though, you're not going to get a blister pack bushnell with a 56mm objective and have it do anything for you, you've got to start with best quality glass.

There are other considerations than just the scope too. Your eyes don't completely adjust to darkness until after about an hour of low light. Remember your biology classes and how they eye receptors are composed of rods and cones, cones are for daylight vision and rods for low light. It takes about an hour of low light before you get your full night vision, that's why you use green or red lens on flashlights to avoid messing up your night vision. Bright light will bleach out your photoreceptors and it takes about an hour to get your night vision back after you've been hit with bright light. During that time you're not going to be able to take full advantage of a scope like that. Most people compare them right at dark when their eyes aren't adjusted and say they can't see any difference, wait an hour in the dark then try it, you'll see a difference. If you just want to shoot to the end of legal shooting hours then most scopes today will handle that fine, but if you want to hunt at night then those top quality 56mm scopes stand out. They've got to have some light though, if it's pitch black you're going to have to use thermal as mentioned.

It is not the magnification that makes the image brighter. Magnification only makes it bigger. And easier to see, given enough light.

It’s aperture dependent.

At night... Assuming your target isn’t producing it’s own light, a 50mm scope at 10x will be much brighter than a 50mm scope at 50x.
Just like 10x in a 20mm scope will be much dimmer than 10x in a 50mm scope.

Nope.

The bigger objective brings a bigger exit aperture and better resolution.

Magnification brings image brightness.

The issue is when you eye pupil is expanded bigger than the exit aperture and this causes a feeling of darkness.

As to scopes with large objectives being too big, here’s my Carbon Mini with the Trijicon 2.5-10x56. Total weight sans sling is 7.0lbs. Is a trifle top-heavy, but not fatally. Fore ‘n aft balance is good. I don’t think it looks too big.

Before someone asks, the scope is positioned so I can get a full view at 10x, and not whack my lovely nose with the bolt.

What size rings? Can you put scope flip up on there or is there no clearance? Almost touching the barrel?…

SWFA lows. Talley (I think) rail. Plenty of barrel clearance; the factory see-throughs fit fine, although I have to turn the one on the eyepiece so the bolt doesn’t hit the nubbin that holds the elastic. I’m pretty much over flip-ups so wouldn’t be an issue for me anyway. Might have ones that will fit in my box-o-crap, where they shall stay.