illuminated reticle for night hunting

[imyomama]

ok, so i'm struggling to find a good scope with a decent lit reticle for night hunting .

I have a viper pst 2.5-10x44 gen 1 mil mil , and the illumination pretty much sucqs .. also got a pst 6-24x50 as well and it's pretty much the same ..

i shoot 170 and 300 yards to feeders lit up with either white led lights , or in one instance green led..

Regardless , as the pigs show up , they like to eat in the shadows behind the feeder where it is the darkest .

using the scope with illumination turned off, i usually aim at the low boy feeder where i can see my reticle , than pan right and pull the trigger as the vertical line crossed the neck .. as i can't see the center of the crosshairs itself...

if i turn on illumination, even at the lowest setting , the hog disappears as the reticle is too bright on the lowest setting.

anyone out there with experience on an optic that has a illumination system that actually works at night under artificial light?

thanks in advance.

[sharkhunter]

Following, I have the same problem.

[BrianL]

I have a Leopold Hogsight that I never remember having that issue, but I mainly hunted during full moon. Haven't used it since I got the thermal. I also have a Diamond vortex that I have used without issue.

[RR 314]

Swarovski Z6i with the dot only illuminated. No issues. Same With Kahles illuminated cross-hairs (Plex).

[kcmarullo]

Get you a elusive wildlife light mounted to you scope and your problems will be solved !

[imyomama]

Swarovski Z6i with the dot only illuminated. No issues. Same With Kahles illuminated cross-hairs (Plex).

yikes .. not planning on spending $2800 ... and also no planning on using spotlight either based on other response ..

what i'm looking for is a scope with at least 12x power , mil turrets be a plus as i know my dial ups well , but more importantly a NV setting or at least a low light illumination that's worth a crap ... the vortex pretty illumination is pretty much useless , looks more or less designed to show crosshairs against black targets during the day ... that's not what i'm looking for ... i almost wish they had like a depleted cr2032 , that only outputs 1 volt, i bet that would work.

i have a leupold firedot scope , but it's on loan to a friend and not enough magnification, but I seem to recall it's a green dot and you can dim it really low where this would work .. not fond of the circle around it though...

scope also needs to be decent in gathering light ... i have a swfa super sniper 5-20 on my savage long range rig, i'll try it next weekend and see if it's any better ..

[muzzlebrake]

Burris makes a European version sold in Germany called a Four X 3-12x56mm
That has an illuminated dot in the reticle crosshairs. It has much better glass than the Burris scopes sold here. I guess because it has to compete with German made optics. I have one and it is great for what it is. It's only 12 power so it has fixed parallax but the light gathering is way on up there compared to USA chinese and japanese optics. I got mine thru Cameraland Inc out of NY.

https://forums.outdoorsdirectory.com/forum/more-forums/outdoor-optics/outdoor-optics-aa/2761275-burris-four-x-3-12x56-long-range-4-illuminated-reduced-from-649-99-to-only-349-99

[BrianL]

Does washout just happen at higher magnification?

I'll look thru mine tonight

[imyomama]

Burris makes a European version sold in Germany called a Four X 3-12x56mm
That has an illuminated dot in the reticle crosshairs. It has much better glass than the Burris scopes sold here. I guess because it has to compete with German made optics. I have one and it is great for what it is. It's only 12 power so it has fixed parallax but the light gathering is way on up there compared to USA chinese and japanese optics. I got mine thru Cameraland Inc out of NY.
https://forums.outdoorsdirectory.com...to-only-349-99

figures.. the don't have any

[IA1865]

I have a Kahles k312i that is fantastic in low light scenarios, the illumination doesn't wash out all. They'll pop up every now and again in the classifieds over at snipers hide or the long range hunting forum or you can still find them at Larue (admittedly expensive there). Also can highly recommend the Athlon offerings (have used the Midas and the Ares BTR gen II). Also might look at the Sig Tango 4, amazing illumination that has two specific night vision settings that will likely accomplish what you need.

[kkp005]

Leupold vx5hd with the firedot.., you can turn it down to a very faint dot..

[BolilloLoco]

I have this sitting in the safe and would be willing to part with it. Let me know.

Vortex Crossfire II
6-18 x 44 Adjustable Objective
V-Brite Illuminated Reticle
Model CF2-31029
$200.00

[Evolver]

My preference is the Leupold VX-R and firedot stuff. You can turn it WAY down for night and low light situations. Only problem is that end of last year Leupold quit offering those reticle options on lower end products and now they've priced me out of their market for illuminated reticles. I never jumped on the Vortex bandwagon so thought I'd give them a try for the V-Brite reticle. Unfortunately my Vortex experience was same as OP. Price was right for the V-Brite, but not functional as a night scope for anything beyond spotlighting. I'm still happy for the price, but going from my VX-R to a V-Brite was about the equivalent of going from Gen 3 NVGs back to Gen 1.

For the equivalent of what you can get into real quality adjustable illuminated reticles you could just as well get into low end NVD that would actually better serve the purpose of true night hunting without illumination.

[dbelcher269]

Have you looked at any of the SIG Whiskey and Tango scopes? I know some models had IR mode up to bright and some very low settings in between.

[imyomama]

well , i settled on a trijicon accupoint 2.5-10x56 with amber mil dot and all i can say is WOW! the tritium dot is tiny and the perfect brightness to aim at night , while the glass makes it a breeze to see a black hog under minimal lighting conditions ...

got it sighted in this weekend and could not be happier! my only complain are no exposed turret and 1/4 moa adjustments , but i can live with that ... it has finger adjustable turret under the scope cap and reset turrets , so 16 clicks to my 290 yard feeder ... 4 moa! i can live with that. killed 2 hogs friday night with my 243 and leupold 3x9 ... one at 170y , one at 100y .... looked through the trijicon after as gun wasn't sighted in yet, and it blows my leupold away! it's not even close! best part is no fiddling with batteries ever .. it just works! Very pleased I went trijicon accupoint!