It seems as though scopes with reticle in the first focal plane (FFP) are all the rage now, though for my life I have no idea why. I understand that your reticle size increases and decreases as you move through the scopes power range. This makes ranging at any power setting easier…though not practical in my opinion.
This past weekend out at the ranch a few buddies came out to hunt hogs at night and all had scopes with FFP reticles. One scope was a 4.5 - 14, another was a 3 – 18 and the other was a 6 – 24 or something close to that. None of them did any range finding with their scopes reticles as they all had laser range finders. However they all had some very nice high end scopes with incredible glass.
During the afternoon we did a lot of shooting. Got to say they were very happy and impressed with the scopes and rifles as was I. Funny thing happened as it started to get dark. They wanted to take a couple shots when it was dark using the red LED spot lights to try it out as none of them had ever hunted at night. That evening we went back out to the range with about 30 min of daylight left. As darkness closed in none of them could see the targets in their scopes on the high scope power settings. As they turned down their scope power the reticle decreased in size though they could see the target. The problem was the darker it got the more they had to turn down their scope power and though they could see the target, their reticle was too small to make any sense out of. Once we turned on the red LED spot lights they were able to increase their scope power. It was a balancing act of scope power verses being able to see enough crosshairs to shoot.
For me I’ve never seen what all the hubbub was about with FFP scopes especially in low light situations. I understand the use of FFP for ranging but other than that it I see them more of hindrance than a help.
Am I missing something else!
This past weekend out at the ranch a few buddies came out to hunt hogs at night and all had scopes with FFP reticles. One scope was a 4.5 - 14, another was a 3 – 18 and the other was a 6 – 24 or something close to that. None of them did any range finding with their scopes reticles as they all had laser range finders. However they all had some very nice high end scopes with incredible glass.
During the afternoon we did a lot of shooting. Got to say they were very happy and impressed with the scopes and rifles as was I. Funny thing happened as it started to get dark. They wanted to take a couple shots when it was dark using the red LED spot lights to try it out as none of them had ever hunted at night. That evening we went back out to the range with about 30 min of daylight left. As darkness closed in none of them could see the targets in their scopes on the high scope power settings. As they turned down their scope power the reticle decreased in size though they could see the target. The problem was the darker it got the more they had to turn down their scope power and though they could see the target, their reticle was too small to make any sense out of. Once we turned on the red LED spot lights they were able to increase their scope power. It was a balancing act of scope power verses being able to see enough crosshairs to shoot.
For me I’ve never seen what all the hubbub was about with FFP scopes especially in low light situations. I understand the use of FFP for ranging but other than that it I see them more of hindrance than a help.
Am I missing something else!
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