Old Eyes-Illuminated Reticle

[bench]

Fellas,
Would a illuminated reticle help me see the target dot in the scope better than a black dot on a black target X ring.
I now just bracket the X ring and think I could center the dot better to the center of the X ring if I could see the dot better.
Do any of you shoot the illuminated reticle on the black targets??

Thanks
Bench

 

[Fort_Bragger]

I'm red/green color blind, so it's no help for my old eyes. I do save money on batteries I don't need. :0

 

[chkunz]

I am having the same problem. For NRA High Power we have a target designed for iron sights. But we now have gone mostly to scopes and we have a black reticle on a black target, not a good design.

I have a Vortex XTC that I shoot standing with and I tried the red illuminated recital and it is great on low light days but is not visible in bright light. I have a HI-LUX XTC with a green illuminated reticle and the next time at the range I am going to see how that works.

Some have recommended holding on something in the white and adjusting the sights for the center. This should work and I tried it once but I had a mental block. I may have to revisit.

Hopefully someone else has solved this and can advise. The answer is probably a more expensive scope.

 

[hogpatrol]

Simple fix for this is for the regulating bodies to get out of the tenth century and go with blue targets.

 

[hogpatrol]

I prefer green illumination, day or night. The guy who came up with red for a reticle didn't know anything about the human eye.

 

[Turbulent Turtle]

Fellas,
Would a illuminated reticle help me see the target dot in the scope better than a black dot on a black target X ring.
I now just bracket the X ring and think I could center the dot better to the center of the X ring if I could see the dot better.
Do any of you shoot the illuminated reticle on the black targets??

Thanks
Bench

The short answer is yes.

My vision is classified as "mild protan" or more commonly known as "red-greed colorblindness." This means that my red cones do not detect as much red as regular red cones, but they respond more to green than they should. This makes it difficult for me to sometimes differentiate between red, brown and green and some yellows and green also orange and green. It does NOT mean that I see nothing if it's green or red unlike someone wrote earlier.

A green illuminated reticle is VERY visible to my eye and allows me to distinguish the reticle on a black background. Unfortunately, reticle illumination is hit and miss in many scopes. Off all the scopes I have which have illuminated reticles; the best illumination is in my old Nikon 2.5-10X where I have the choice of 5 levels or either red or green illumination with an easy to use knob. The illumination in my Nightforce NXS 12-42X56 was virtually uncontrollable and thus useless. The March illumination is decent, with a simple control button, but it's too weak to use on bright days. I also got the 6-position switch which provides better control but the maximum brightness is the same as the original.

I'm in my mid-60s and my March-X 5-50X56 with its excellent MTR-2 reticle became very difficult for me to discern it on the black target. March changed the reticle to an MTR-5 with twice the thickness on the stadia wires and thus, with a 4X enlarged central dot, I am once again, able to discern it on the black target.

The black on the NRA target is called the "aiming black" and has been in use for a long time as it worked really well with aperture sights. On my old target rifle, I have several apertures of different size for the front sight, one for each distance. The black is definitely a pain for the older eyes using scopes with black reticles. Illumination does help if you get the correct one.

 

[chkunz]

Simple fix for this is for the regulating bodies to get out of the tenth century and go with blue targets.View attachment 1112058

Why blue? I was thinking about leaving the black as is and then doing something like a white X ring. This would work for both iron sights and scope.

 

[rebs]

use a six oclock hold on the bottom edge of the target and zero your scope to hit the x ring.

 

[chkunz]

use a six oclock hold on the bottom edge of the target and zero your scope to hit the x ring.

I tried that once in practice and was amazed at how much worse my group was. I only tried it once and it may need some practice to make it work. Not really sure why but holding the target dot inside the X ring and breaking a clean shot is still the best but I have to be able to see it.

 

[bench]

I agree with just changing the color of the X ring that would help a bunch.
I think a illuminated reticle would help against the black X ring and if it does not help just turn it off.

 

[Ledd Slinger]

Fellas,
Would a illuminated reticle help me see the target dot in the scope better than a black dot on a black target X ring.
I now just bracket the X ring and think I could center the dot better to the center of the X ring if I could see the dot better.
Do any of you shoot the illuminated reticle on the black targets??

Thanks
Bench

Absolutely an illuminated reticle will help you see it on a black target much better. Especially if you get a scope with the dual Red/Green illumination. I prefer the Green in normal daylight/sunlight and Red in low light. Other's preferences may vary, but at least that way you have both colors available to decide for yourself.

I prefer scopes with the illumination mounted on the side parallax focus knob. Much cleaner and easier to use.