Scope reticle for hunting prairie dogs in SD

[cbmax]

Hi,

I am planning a trip to South Dakota to hunt prairie dogs. I plan on using a heavy barrel AR-15 in .204 Ruger with a 24 inch barrel.

I'd appreciate reccomedations on reticles and scope models. I am pretty set on magnification. Thinking 20X will be the top end. The intended guide said most shooting takes place between 15 and 18 X.

The guide stated to use as fine a reticle as possible. I just want to make sure I don't get something so fine that I lose the reticle on the target. I'd also like the possibility of using the rifle on other varmints such as coyote.

Some possibilities include:

Leupold fine duplex
Leupold target dot
Leupold TMR
Sightron target dot
Trijicon Accupoint Mil Dot
Trijicon Accupoint Standard cross hairs
Zeiss reticle #43

I do not necessarily need ranging capability. I would rather use a range finder. I would use mil dots more for hold over points. I would like target turrets, preferrably exposed.

So what brand and reticle would you recommend?

CB

 

[cbmax]

Anyone home?

 

[rcmodel]

I'm home.
I just don't know what to say.

I have killed an awful lot of PD's out to 500 yards and more years ago using the old Weaver K6 or K10 on a 22-250.

The K6 had a regular duplex, and the K10 had fine x-wires.
Both worked just perfectly fine.

Probably the 10x with regular duplex would have worked even better.

rc

 

[cbmax]

RC,

Thanks for the response! I think I will choose the Trijicon Accupoint 5-20X50
with the regular duplex and green dot.

CB

 

[rcmodel]

You may find yourself getting a lot of heat mirage shimmering across your PD town at 20X.

That makes high power scopes almost unusable during the heat of the day when most of the action takes place.

rc