For many years I've been a casual shooter of mostly short-range paper targets. That makes reticle choice relatively easy for me. At least compared to a guy who needs to track a moving animal through their scope while crouching amidst a tangle of trees and branches.
A couple of years ago I was able to buy and directly compare about dozen SFP airgun scopes in the $200 to $500 range, most of them with illuminated reticles. Many forum threads on scope focus on the clarity of the optics, which is certainly a big deal with tiny targets at longer (>75 yard?) airgun ranges. Lens coatings and precision gearing in scopes have improved a lot in the past few decades and I'd expect all of them to have at least acceptable if not stellar clarity at airgun ranges.
After lining up all of the scopes side-by-side I found that the most important characteristic for 'usability' was the size and comfort of the eye box. Meaning how far I could move my eye around the space in front of the eyepiece while still keeping both the target and reticle in sharp focus. Needing to hunt around each time you shoulder a rifle to get into the correct eye position for your scope is a bad thing.
And then there were the reticles.
Maybe 30 years ago I bought my first good Leupold scope. It cost me a lot at the time and I couldn't wait to try it. I figured that the 'fine target reticle' was just what I needed for all of the fine target work I imagined that I'd be using it for. Well, that reticle was so fine that it was useless since I could hardly see it. Since then, I've preferred a partially lighted reticle. And it needs to be bright enough to be seen in daylight when turned up.
After comparing the scopes I sold all of them except for a couple of Athlons with BDC 600 IR reticles.
They have an illuminated center cross, visible in sunlight, with bold outer posts. Very simple and traditional.
Athlon has a list of their many other reticles here --> https://theopticzone.com/athlon-reticles/
JP
A couple of years ago I was able to buy and directly compare about dozen SFP airgun scopes in the $200 to $500 range, most of them with illuminated reticles. Many forum threads on scope focus on the clarity of the optics, which is certainly a big deal with tiny targets at longer (>75 yard?) airgun ranges. Lens coatings and precision gearing in scopes have improved a lot in the past few decades and I'd expect all of them to have at least acceptable if not stellar clarity at airgun ranges.
After lining up all of the scopes side-by-side I found that the most important characteristic for 'usability' was the size and comfort of the eye box. Meaning how far I could move my eye around the space in front of the eyepiece while still keeping both the target and reticle in sharp focus. Needing to hunt around each time you shoulder a rifle to get into the correct eye position for your scope is a bad thing.
And then there were the reticles.
Maybe 30 years ago I bought my first good Leupold scope. It cost me a lot at the time and I couldn't wait to try it. I figured that the 'fine target reticle' was just what I needed for all of the fine target work I imagined that I'd be using it for. Well, that reticle was so fine that it was useless since I could hardly see it. Since then, I've preferred a partially lighted reticle. And it needs to be bright enough to be seen in daylight when turned up.
After comparing the scopes I sold all of them except for a couple of Athlons with BDC 600 IR reticles.
They have an illuminated center cross, visible in sunlight, with bold outer posts. Very simple and traditional.
Athlon has a list of their many other reticles here --> https://theopticzone.com/athlon-reticles/
JP
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