[jnyork]

My old friend is very ill with cancer and other things, yet continues on at the shooting range as best he can. Had him out last night to our Monday afternoon .22 benchrest match, he struggled quite a bit, had great difficulty seeing his crosshairs and dot in his scope, he said the dot just kept disappearing, he wound up DNF for the match. I think he has eyesight problems, but the scope itself is part of the problem.

He is using a Weaver 36X scope with the fine crosshair and the 1/8 minute dot, same as mine, and the crosshairs are VERY fine and the dot is indeed tiny. The dot IS hard to see against the background of the black target, as is the intersection of the crosshairs.

My friend is determined to send the scope off to some outfit that will install a larger dot for him, but that is fairly expensive. We got to wondering if he maybe sells the Weaver and buys another brand of scope if it might not work out better for him in the long run.

Does anyone have experience with some other brand of good target scope, 36X or so, that has a little larger crosshairs and dot? All advice and opinions welcome and appreciated. Thanks.

 

[TinMan]

I am not into high power BR scopes, especially very fine hairs and such small dots. Maybe he should try something with an illuminated reticle. At least he might able to see the hairs and dot against the black bull better.

 

[John Kruzan]

Help with scope

jn, I've a suggestion for your friend, try a Leupold 8.5X25 with the Varmint Hunters Reticle. The VX111 models are 30mm with side focus and very nice. The cross hair intersection is thicker than the fine he's using now and thicker than a fine duplex. If he can't or won't shoot off the cross hairs you can coach him to use the first mildot either side of the vertical crosshair as his aim point. Sort of like a dot on the cross wire. This worked like a charm for me several years ago. If he adapts to this make sure to tape a note to the eye piece with which dot is the focal point: because if he's at all like me he'll forget and it's frustrating taking the time to shoot it in again. 25X at 50 or 100yds for 22 rimfire is good enough in my opinion. Hope this helps.
John Kruzan

 

[Trapper6L]

That's a tremendous amount of scope for a 22 rimfire. The handicap with his scope is with the dot. What he probably needs is a dual X type reticle. Even if he can't see the fine part of the crosshairs, the heavy ones are enough that all he needs to do is center it on the target and touch the trigger off. Might show him one of these Weaver Classic Extreme scopes.
https://www.natchezss.com/weaver-classic-extreme-series-rifle-scope-8-32x50mm-illum-dual-x-reticle-matte.html

 

[charlie sterner]

What about trijicon. They have a lil triangle that lights up in the center.

 

[jimp]

If you can change the background color of the targets used, that would help your friend a lot. Weaver may make a 24 or 36x with a larger dot & xhairs but not sure.

 

[Paul Workman]

That's a tremendous amount of scope for a 22 rimfire. The handicap with his scope is with the dot. What he probably needs is a dual X type reticle. Even if he can't see the fine part of the crosshairs, the heavy ones are enough that all he needs to do is center it on the target and touch the trigger off. Might show him one of these Weaver Classic Extreme scopes.
https://www.natchezss.com/weaver-classic-extreme-series-rifle-scope-8-32x50mm-illum-dual-x-reticle-matte.html

(I say) Caliber be damned. Seeing the target (and the reticule) is what counts, IMO.

My Bro has a $750+ Leu VariXIII on a friggin' cheap ol single shot break-open "Handy Rifle". Scope cost 3x+ as much as the rifle. BUT! The dang thing shoots very well - so precise in fact that the rifle warrants a good scope!

I like TinMan's illuminated reticule suggestion. If having trouble seeing black on black (who wouldn't - those Weaver T36s are brutal in anything but bright light and white targets).

Caveat: Something to consider: The minimum range for which the scope parallax can be zeroed IS a concern - especially if targets are under the 50 yard minimum that may scopes have.

.

 

[Bandit]

JNYork, Have you thought about Nikon or Bushnell? I seem to recall they have "peep" type reticules to look through. Bandit