What's your favourite Prairie Dog Scope RETICLE?

[LonewolfMcquade]

My Nikon M Tactidal 308 800BDC has killed out to 700 yds (farthest opportunity so far) on the little ground rats!

 

[steve123]

H59 reticle in a FFP S&B, just the right line thickness. No need to ever dial unless just for the heck of it.

FFP means the hashes will be correct on any magnification for when mirage kicks up and the mag needs to be dialed down. And when scanning the town for dogs with a wider FOV no need to dial the mag back up to make the hashes correct.

 

[RegionRat]

I'm liking the NF MOAR and MOAR-T these days.
I also like the SWFA variable, which is basically the same concept.

Nothing but hold for the first 300 yards, then clicks for elevation only at distance. (We use mostly 223 and some 204 and 6mm)

I'm comfortable in either minutes or milliradians, but I prefer to run minutes in case I sit a rookie down on the rig.
Since most old competition targets and grid paper targets are in MOA, it flows better from paper to field. (Just an opinion.)
It is arbitrary since I have taught some folks to run Mils and they did just fine.

I also prefer first focal plane for the same reasons as above. I get a significant number of new shooters who did not grow up shooting and I have found they adapt faster to MOA than to mils. When I give the dope commands, I only have them click for elevation and then hold for wind, they can start to internalize the experience of shooting inch grid target paper to what happens on a PD out at a distance.

 

[KY_Windage]

If I hold off after a miss, I do it in " width of prairie dog".

Or "length."

That has been my evolution, too. The FFP guys talk about how fast they can read their reticle and send a held-off shot. Well, there is nothing faster than simply using your target as the scale and pushing over "two PD widths," or "three PD lengths," etc. People worrying about how inexact that is must not have shot in the prairie wind much, because it varies wildly over 300 yds or more, and you don't even have wind-flags out. Your only real hope in a good wind is to shoot, see where you hit and instantly correct and shoot again, before the wind changes again. SFP/FFP makes ZERO difference.

At first I wanted to learn how to measure the wind and then hold over the exact amount of MOA to put me on the target. But once I got that down I moved on to simply using my target as the yardstick. Not all PDs are the same size, of course, and you have to be able to tell the young ones (adolescents) from the adults, but that can be done well enough with practice.

You know, if NF put the MOAR-T reticle in any FFP scope maybe I'd get one, "just in case." But they don't, so it is SFP for me. But since I am getting so much better at just "Kentucky-ing" the squirrels (hence my name), it really doesn't matter. The really, really important thing is having a platform you can see your strikes with. Even using the rat as the scale, I still usually look down and see which hashmark I am on. Then, if I miss, I see which one I should have been on. It does not matter whether it is minutes or mils or FFP/SFP or what the power is set on -- if I held over 4 lines and the bullet hit at 6, I know what I need to do.

But I also note that I held over 2 PD lengths, when I should have held 2-1/2, and I log that away for future reference.

 

[Doug30racer]

I have been using leupold with the wind-plex in the cds models. you can adjust focus, zoom in and out for scanning. adjust for range and very minimal junk clutter in front of your eye. 8 to 25 powers is great as long as you shoot under 800 yards. if you are going to shoot further i recommend more power.

 

[Nick LaFave]

NF MOAR

 

[benchracer]

Recently set up my .223 with a 1st Gen Zeiss Conquest 4.5-14x44 with a RZ-1000 reticle. The RZ-1000 is designed for 175 SMK's from a .308, but I have found it to work very well with 53 VMAX @3200 from a .223/5.56 NATO. It is a FAST reticle to use for both range and windage changes. Wind holds allow hits in strong crosswinds. I will be keeping my eyes open for scopes like this on the used market.

 

[jcm24m]

This is an easy answer = Nightforce MOAR-T

 

[sandwarrior]

USO MOA Gen I (IPHY) 60 inches of hold left, right and up. And, with a 20 moa base, 85 more inches of dial up. I don't like Horus/christmas tree reticles. Too cluttered.

 

[K9TXS]

Nightforce MOAR & Leupold TMOA

Both 2nd plane.

 

[expiper]

Or "length." ,,,here is a man that has shot in the wind,,,,he has learned that the best information that you have is the last shot that went down range,,,Roger

That has been my evolution, too. The FFP guys talk about how fast they can read their reticle and send a held-off shot. Well, there is nothing faster than simply using your target as the scale and pushing over "two PD widths," or "three PD lengths," etc. People worrying about how inexact that is must not have shot in the prairie wind much, because it varies wildly over 300 yds or more, and you don't even have wind-flags out. Your only real hope in a good wind is to shoot, see where you hit and instantly correct and shoot again, before the wind changes again. SFP/FFP makes ZERO difference.

At first I wanted to learn how to measure the wind and then hold over the exact amount of MOA to put me on the target. But once I got that down I moved on to simply using my target as the yardstick. Not all PDs are the same size, of course, and you have to be able to tell the young ones (adolescents) from the adults, but that can be done well enough with practice.

You know, if NF put the MOAR-T reticle in any FFP scope maybe I'd get one, "just in case." But they don't, so it is SFP for me. But since I am getting so much better at just "Kentucky-ing" the squirrels (hence my name), it really doesn't matter. The really, really important thing is having a platform you can see your strikes with. Even using the rat as the scale, I still usually look down and see which hashmark I am on. Then, if I miss, I see which one I should have been on. It does not matter whether it is minutes or mils or FFP/SFP or what the power is set on -- if I held over 4 lines and the bullet hit at 6, I know what I need to do.

But I also note that I held over 2 PD lengths, when I should have held 2-1/2, and I log that away for future reference.

 

[Big_Daddy]

NF MOAR-T

 

[Treerat-sniper]

Its been over 20 years since I've been pasture-poodle hunting but I ran a Leupold VXII Varmint-plex 4-12x40 on my little .223 bolt gun. Wish they still made those reticles.

 

[Lone Hunter]

I like the NF NP1-RR. It's a good ranging scope but too busy for some. Personal preference. I Also like the TMR Reticle and Varmint Reticle. Really I like any scope as long as it's good quality because as I've gotten older I can't see sh-t with irons anymore.
Forgot to add the OP asked about prairie dogs so I can't say about them. Have been out west and seen them but never had the chance to shoot them. But, I've shot a lot of groundhogs and crows and it works. Works on coyotes too as far as ranging and killing them.

 

[Hohn]

Don't laugh-- but the Mil Quad on my SWFA 12x has been surprisingly useful. It has reference hashes and can be used for ranging, but it still manages to avoid being terribly cluttered. Being a fixed mag scope, the subtensions never change-- and they are just the perfect balance between legibility and getting out of the way. The hair thickness in the middle is about the same as a floating dot on many reticles, so you don't get much target obscuring at all. That 0.04 mil line thickness is the same as 4mm at 100m. So at 100m, the lines will not cover a 22 caliber size hole.

By comparison, the MOA-quad quad reticle in the MOA versions of the scope are not as clean (more hashes) nor as easy to use (they are tiny and difficult to count if you use for ranging).

 

[sscoyote]

I'm shooting a 17 HH Savage Striker now as a walking PD'r and love it--but LER scopes are a bit more challenging than rifle scopes. I now have a 2.5-8X Nikon with BDC reticle and find it's just fine for ranges to 300ish or so. I always loved tree reticles though for quick reference but if I had to pick one match-up that I liked the best it's got to be the old 3-9X Pride-Fowler Industries Rapid Reticle on my Magnum Res. Picuda 22 LR pistol. I especially like the windage line stadia along the "200-yd" stadia line for reference. Even when dialing beyond the lower stadia's MOA reference I will apply the windage lines for reference--excellent system IMO.