As most of you know we are overrun with hogs here in Texas. Our place is no different and I spend many hours taking out as many as possible. I am always trying to find better tactics and better gear to bag as many as possible. I know trapping may be more effective but its not nearly as fun. I have found that the best method here is to hunt under good moonlight without the use of artificial light at all. This started me looking for the best optics for this purpose. Starting years ago I read all I could on optics design and checked forums to see what was best in low light but never found the perfect thread to address my needs. I wanted a comparison of as many different scopes as possible with the scopes checked side by side at night, not dusky dark or early morning but strictly by moonlight. This makes a lot of difference because your eyes work quite differently at night. At least mine do. So here is my thread. This will hopefully be informative for other hunters and may also help me upgrade my equipment. I ask everyone that is interested to go out on a moonlit night with as many scopes as possible then rank them in order of best to worst. Please also note if your reticle is visible or not. I don't use lighted reticles as they tend to drown out the targets. Heres my ranking of optics that I have used from best to worst.
1.Bushnell Elite 4200 2.5-10X40 Firefly reticle....Nice thick reticle can be seen without charging, have been able to shoot out to 200+ yds with good moon.
2.Bushnell Elite 3200 3-9X40 Multi-X reticle.....adequate but reticle is pretty thin and fades when moon is not bright.
3.Bushnell Trophy 6-18X40 multi X reticle..... not quite as bright as the 3200 but the reticle is thicker (older model I think)
4.Vortex Crossfire 6-24X50 Mil-Dot reticle.....about the same brightness as
the Trophy but reticle is slightly less visible.
5.Bushnell Banner 6-18x50 multi X reticle.....about the same brightness as the Trophy but reticle is too thin.
6.Millet DMS 1-4X24.....was barely adequate with full moon at 50 yds.
7.Simmons 8point 3-9X50...........forget about it!
3,4,and 5 are all about the same brightness and are as low end as I would go if attempting to night hunt.
As you can see I do not own a lot of high end optics and probably never will but have found some effective tools for fair prices. Lets hear what you guys have and how it ranks. Hope this helps someone!
1.Bushnell Elite 4200 2.5-10X40 Firefly reticle....Nice thick reticle can be seen without charging, have been able to shoot out to 200+ yds with good moon.
2.Bushnell Elite 3200 3-9X40 Multi-X reticle.....adequate but reticle is pretty thin and fades when moon is not bright.
3.Bushnell Trophy 6-18X40 multi X reticle..... not quite as bright as the 3200 but the reticle is thicker (older model I think)
4.Vortex Crossfire 6-24X50 Mil-Dot reticle.....about the same brightness as
the Trophy but reticle is slightly less visible.
5.Bushnell Banner 6-18x50 multi X reticle.....about the same brightness as the Trophy but reticle is too thin.
6.Millet DMS 1-4X24.....was barely adequate with full moon at 50 yds.
7.Simmons 8point 3-9X50...........forget about it!
3,4,and 5 are all about the same brightness and are as low end as I would go if attempting to night hunt.
As you can see I do not own a lot of high end optics and probably never will but have found some effective tools for fair prices. Lets hear what you guys have and how it ranks. Hope this helps someone!