Rifle Scopes Visiblity with running a 5-25 reticle at 15x

[munsonbw]

I have been narrowing in on the PST gen2 and I am pretty sure I want the higher magnification of the 5-25. I have several sfp scopes that are around 14-16x and I sometimes like to punch paper and am left wanting more. Yes, I know it is perfectly doable at 15x, but you don't see benchrest guys using anything that low for a reason. I shot with a couple of guys and they advised me that 15x is a bit of a challenge to see the 1200yd targets at the local PRS style match. My question is if I run the 5-25 scope at 15x can I even see the tree part of the reticle? I tried to watch some youtube videos and it looked doable, but that was screen sized and sitting still. Same question applies to the Athlon reticles as, they are also on the list.

Thanks,
ben

 

[Mossyoak44]

The farthest I’ve been able to shoot my Athlon Cronus BTR is 800 yards. I played with it around the 12x-16x range and didn’t have an issue seeing the tree reticle.

 

[lte82]

I have been narrowing in on the PST gen2 and I am pretty sure I want the higher magnification of the 5-25. I have several sfp scopes that are around 14-16x and I sometimes like to punch paper and am left wanting more. Yes, I know it is perfectly doable at 15x, but you don't see benchrest guys using anything that low for a reason. I shot with a couple of guys and they advised me that 15x is a bit of a challenge to see the 1200yd targets at the local PRS style match. My question is if I run the 5-25 scope at 15x can I even see the tree part of the reticle? I tried to watch some youtube videos and it looked doable, but that was screen sized and sitting still. Same question applies to the Athlon reticles as, they are also on the list.

Thanks,
ben

In fact, most "trees" are somewhat optimized for 15x. At 25x you lose a ton of the reticle as it's outside the field of view (You won't be able to hold for 1000-1200 yards most likely at 25x), and if you try to use the tree at the fringe of the glass, you can run into optical distortions or aberrations, especially on the lower end scopes.

 

[Dthomas3523]

I almost never run any optic over 18x during a match. No problem this far out to 1100.

Also, benchrest and PRS are going to be vastly different in the application of an optic.

 

[Dthomas3523]

For reference, here is skmr3 reticle in a 525 at 18x and 25x

 

[Lowlight]

Front Focal Plane reticles are generally thicker so you can see them. This is why F Class and Benchrest use SFP scopes, the reticles are fixed and don't adjust with the magnification.

Unless you use a very fine reticle, which aren't usually an option in a budget-minded scope, you can see the reticle down to 8x pretty well.

If you need an extra boost of visibility at low power, turn the illumination on, that helps.

 

[Flatbush Harry]

I run a Vortex Razor 5-20x50 HD Gen 1 on my AI AT. At a LR clinic this summer I had no trouble finding targets out to 1,200 yards dialing magnification down to 12x and then dialing up to 20x once I had the target. I could not find targets at 1,450 yards even at 20x. I will be interested to see how a Razor Gen 2 4.5-27x56 works out this year (I was able to find a real bargain on this scope with an EBR-2C MRAD reticle. Bargain was available because of EBR-2C phaseout).

Harry

 

[Kopfjager1]

Here's a picture of my Razor 4.5-27 at 15x. The edge of the closer hill is around 1200 yards.

 

[munsonbw]

Thanks for the feedback. While I will try out F-class and probably use whatever scope I buy, I understand that it isn't well suited for the task. It that game sticks I'll get a proper high mag sfp optic. Those reticle pics are perfect. Thanks for taking the time to share them. I continue on my quest to find a 20x and up scope. Lots of tempting deals on 15x stuff, though.

 

[BCP]

I see a LOT of 8-32X nightforce scopes at the local F class meets for paper punching at 600 and 1000

Something like the Bushnell HDMR should get you there if you want FFP and a christmas tree reticule and they pop up for under 1k all the time on this site