Chuck... that is exactly what I will have to do...
Best Low Light Scope for deer hunting
- Thread starter daniel brothers
- Start date
Manufacturers have been getting an extra 10 mins for so many years we should be able to hunt till midnight by now
Kidding aside, good glass is so nice to hunt with. It'll spoil you quick! As far as lighted reticles, I don't rifle hunt with them but my experience from archery hunting is that they need to be able to go down very dim in order to be useful in low light. Otherwise it gets really hard to see a clear sight picture of the animal, the bright pin washes out the image of the animal behind it. Optics gather more light than a naked eye so maybe the relative dimness of the reticle may not be as big of an issue but I think I'd still prefer to be able to turn the brightness down to almost zero. While I haven't used one, I like the idea of Trijicons of using an adjustable fiber optic instead a battery but that may just be my bias in favor of that technology from bow hunting.
TC... you are right about lighted recticles on a bow...it don't work for me either. On a rifle... I think you would only need a dot illuminated at the most...why light up the whole recticle when the target is really close.
2nd season with my Swarovski Z6i and can’t imagine anything better
p.s. no neighbors were harmed in the making of this post
p.s. no neighbors were harmed in the making of this post
X-Caveman
Gold $$ Contributor
While I know it isn't anywhere approaching "the best", I've liked my VX5 3-15x44 so far. It has the center dot illuminated heavy duplex. Both deer I've taken this season were with about 3 legal minutes to spare and up close. The low power, decent glass & reticle made for quick acquisition and shooting. It's lightweight and the silly custom turret is spot on out to 500 yards, which is as much as I need for where/ how I hunt.
Im a niteforce fanatic. 2dd dot recticle.
But
One of the clearest brightest scopes ive ever used is a 1980s redfield illuminator . I got rid of it ( gave it to a son whos buddy talked him into a dadgum crappy nikon) wish i had this one back.
But
One of the clearest brightest scopes ive ever used is a 1980s redfield illuminator . I got rid of it ( gave it to a son whos buddy talked him into a dadgum crappy nikon) wish i had this one back.
What magnification is this and what price range ?2nd season with my Swarovski Z6i and can’t imagine anything better
p.s. no neighbors were harmed in the making of this post
Thank you.
Its just what i need.
LOVE THE DOT
Its just what i need.
LOVE THE DOT
Mudcat
Gold $$ Contributor
A few years back I decided to see which scope would be best for getting the most "shooting light" so I set up a NF, IOR, Premier, S&B, Leupold, USO and a couple other big $$ scopes on the railing on the back porch and set up a deer decoy 325 yards out in my field in the cove. The Premier, S&B and NF were at the top, and close enough I chose based on reticle from there. I have to admit though, the USO i run on my PRS gun is right there too, with the added benefit of having a large elevation knob that I have "numbered" for each 100 yards, so its been in use the last several years for the wife so she can quickly dial in the exact yardage where the deer may be standing in the field (our current set up gets us out to just shy of 500 yards). As mentioned, the big difference comes in with the really good glass and the large objectives. Not too handy if you are moving or maybe in a tree stand, but from our ground set up, its a moot point. And no question we can get another 10 mins, if not more, of shooting light even at the longest distances we have available. And we all know that the last few mins seem to be big when hunting in the evening. Its paid for sure for me with one 120+ class whitetail that I know I could not have taken the shot when I did with a "basic" scope. But, YMMV, of course.
Good post Mudcat.... which USO scope did you us??
Turbulent Turtle
F-TR competitor
You did not mention at which power you had the Monarch set when you tried to find the deer with your scope.
As I'm sure you are aware, the size of the exit pupil is directly related to the magnification used. For instance, if you had the scope set on 5X, the exit pupil would have been 44/5= or 8.8mm, almost 9. Since the human pupil can only go up to about 7mm, the exit pupil already provided you with the maximum that your eye could use.
The problem is of course, how much light is transmitted from the objective through the scope to the eyepiece and your eye. The Nikon Monarch scopes are legendary for their high light transmittance factor. It's all a matter of lens coating and Nikon is a leader in that respect.
I have hunted pigs at midnight with and AR topped with a Nikon Monarch-X 2.5-10X44 with an illuminated reticle. This was a while back, but the last time I did that, the scope was set to 4X or so and the reticle was lit and I could plainly see the pig in the scope and my 75gr Swift dropped him at 85 yards in full gallop.
The other folks in the hunting "party" could not see a thing through their various Leupolds and similar scopes. (They didn't understand the relationship between exit pupil and magnification, plus most of them had small objective lens to start with.
What I would suggest you do is experiment with your existing scope at night at various magnifications. It may well be that you need a bigger objective or less magnification or both, but I'm telling you right now that trying to beat a Monarch in that respect is going to be difficult. You will need a much bigger objective and keep it at low magnification.
If I may ask, how long have you had this scope? I recently bought a 2-10x42 CDS-ZL2 model for a mountain rifle that is being built. It was a second option behind a NF 2-10x42 due to weight, but I have read some disheartening reviews concerning the turret longevity/reliability/tracking. I hope this isn't the case because for the price it actually compares respectively up against my NF, Kowa spotter, and Swaro binos.
Ryan
X-Caveman
Gold $$ Contributor
I've only had it a year or so, but so far it seems fine. I don't do much dialing of the turrets, but the few times I've dialed from 100yd zero to 500M and taken a cold bore shot, the elevation of impact was shockingly close. I have the CDS turret on. It's a 22" 6.5x47 shooting Hammer Hunter 110s at about 3,000 FPS.
My only complaint so far is the illumination control button. It's practically useless, especially if you're wearing gloves. The saving grace is that it goes to sleep if it sits still for a few minutes, and wakes up when it senses movement. I like the low profile turrets and the locking elevation turret. The glass is really good to my eye, and seems to get clearer with increasing magnification, which is the opposite of every other scope I own.
I also own the NF SHV 3-10x42. I like the VH5HD better. Better glass, lighter weight, better hunting turrets. I wish you didn't have to choose either reticle illumination or side focus on the SHV, but you do. I chose the side focus, which is great when there's plenty of light, but there's no way I could hunt as late with is as I can the VX5.
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