Re: Vortex Recon R/T 15x50 Tactical Scope
I acquired the 15x50 RT about one month ago. The clarity and brightness of the glass is awesome, and I definitely like having the ranging reticle. However, if you're planning on using this to spot holes in paper from 100 to 200 yd, I'd say you might want to keep looking, 15X doesn't seem to be enough with a 50 mm scope for my eyes.
I mainly wanted to try it as a lightweight spotter to see mirage while on the firing line during F-Class comps and to possibly see the scoring/marker disks out to 1000 yd. Although I haven't tested whether I can see the marker disks at 1000 yd in a comp yet, my best estimate is that it will work just fine as the contrast of the white disk against a black background is very high.
I had it out a couple weeks ago shooting at 100 yd and was NOT clearly/easily able to see holes in white paper with it at that distance. I could see the holes if I really stared through it for a while, but it took a bit of effort. I'm sure it would work fine at those distances with splatter targets, which also have high contrast, but maybe not so well with plain paper. However, that was not the purpose I intended it for as I mentioned.
Overall, I'm really very pleased with the scope, it's a very nice little piece of kit, but I think you're asking a lot to spot holes in paper with it at those ranges. Maybe your eyes are good enough that it will work for you better for that purpose than it did for me, but you might want to look through one first before dropping the coin if you can manage to find someone nearby that has it.
I should also mention that if you do decide to get one primarily for use in spotting holes in paper, you might consider the version without the reticle. I specifically wanted the RT version with the reticle because I figured if it didn't work for comps like I wanted, it would be great for use camping, outdoors, etc. However, the reticle does clutter the sight picture somewhat, which might also make it more difficult to use strictly for spotting holes in paper.
Edit: I forgot one other point; specifically, it has pretty short eye relief. So short in fact, that I found it difficult to get a complete sight picture (full field of view) while wearing eye protection.