Mildot or Truplex

[Purebred Redneck]

I've never shot with a scope with a mildot reticle.

I'm looking for a scope to put on the 17hmr I'm getting and have decided on the simmons prohunter series for 180 dollars (hey, hey...no jokes now)

The specs on the scope is 13oz, 6x21x44, target turrets, and 1/8" clicks. The only difference is mildot vs truplex.

What reticle would you suggest for a gun that is say 90% target shooting and 10% small game hunting???

[sebastian]

Mildot.
But be sure that the dots are small enough. I'm not sure on simmons prohunter, though?

[jimiowa]

At Rimfire ranges I would go with tru-Plex.
Mildot will do little for you if you are not willing to do a lot of reserch with a ballistics calculator to determine which dot to use at given range intervals.
Now for quite a few dollars more Shepherd makes a scope that would work much better.

[Bill]

If your planning on putting this on a squirril rifle I probably would forgo the mil-dot and just go with a 4X12 or something. I own that scope with duplex crosshairs and its great on praire dogs but for your country and squirrils its a waste of time.
For paper punching its not bad at all though.
And unless your using the scope for ranging and have a mil-dot calculator and/or want to sit and do the math in your head is going to be worthless.
So what would be best is to have a drop table and use the duplex cross hairs and click in your comeups and fire away if the scope has good returnability. Mine don't so I set it and leave it.

[jimh]

Red i could be wrong here but you don't strike me as the most patient (sp) fellow i've ever met. i would be willing to bet the farm that you would get a tad frustrated with it but then again you could prove us all wrong. i thought about getting one until i had a guy let me shoot his rifle with mill dot recticle and i found it a bit busy for my taste. i only ran five shots out of the gun so i may change my mind with more time behind it. if you do get one i'll have to see how you like it after time.

[klsm54]

Unless I miss my guess, the Mil-Dot in the Simmons is not going to be as fine as one would like, especially on a paper punchin', squirrel snipin' 17.

I'd pick the duplex, and in my eyes you are buying way to much power. 17's are flat shooting, but not to ranges where you need 20+ power. I'm leaning to what Bill said, 12X should be plenty, or even a 4-16X that quite a few companies are making now.

[jimh]

Red, when you shot my .17 it had a 12x on it. what did you think of that power range? for those who don't know my scope is a duplex and has a much finer cross hair than most other duplex. the fat part is about average but the middle section is pretty fine. i do think for target shooting the scope could maybe use a tad more punch maybe up to 14x but for the .17 i don't consider mine to be really under powered at 12x.

[Jack]

My opinion is that all the Mil Dot reticles I've seen are a bit too thick for a rimfire, and the dots are too big. I find the Mil Dot too thick for longer range varminting, too, so maybe it's just me.
As to power, once you get over 16X, mirage gets to be a common problem. If you plan on reading mirage when target shooting, more than 16X might help. For normal field shooting and casual target work, I bet you end up dialing down a 6-20X to about 14-16X anyway, to avoid mirage- catch myself doing that on a lot of days.
So, I'd suggest taking a look at a 4-16, if you can get one you like. I have a Weaver V series 4-16 that I like very much. Doesn't have target turrets, though.

[bounce]

Hear I am going to sound more like the Red we know!! I have on my Marlin 17 V a Tasco World Class TM .22 3 to 12 X 40 and on the front it adjust from 10yds to 300 then 00 Cross hairs are a very mild line to anout a 1/8th inch from center then very thin. T/m's found it on sale when I had just bought the marlin .17 HMR for $65 bucks and I could not be any happyer with it than I am. Its Plum good enough for this cal. and all shooting

[Purebred Redneck]

Jimh
I was wondering what power I was shooting - I knew it was more than 9x because that's what I was shooting. At 50 yards the 12x was fine.

And Jack is 100% right on.
When I shoot my centerfire I do keep it around 14-16x. If the weather permits, I will shoot it at 18x. Most likely I'd do the same with the 17.
What I want to do is shoot at the max power I can (mirage permitting) and then crank it up to see the groups.
I personally would want something more than a 12x max. A 16x max would be fine, but hell you can shoot a 6x21 on 16x
And I can certainly squirrel hunt on 6x --- that's not a problem because I normally kill them on 6-9x anyway.
But like I said, this is going to primarily be a target gun and I might want to show off a little bit like hitting 410 shells at 100 yards ;D ;D ;D (or making a smiley face inside jim's ruger's groups) ;D

I would just put my 6x18x50 on the new gun but the thing weighs a ton. I can't do that on a squirrel rifle. I once for giggles shot it on my 22lr and it produced wonderful groups compared to 9x but it is just too heavy.
I think a 13oz scope of that magnification is very light and would work extremely well on a 6-7pound rifle (depending on if it's a factory or aftermarket stock).

Bill, you say you have the same scope?
Can you tell me a little more about it?

[Purebred Redneck]

I was posting the same time as bounce.

I saw a few decent looking "bargain" target scopes out there. And they really would fill my need for 80 dollars less. They all seem to be 20-22oz. For a little more I can get something that's almost 1/2 the weight. That should help the total weight a bit when I get a bulky, heavy laminate stock on the gun.

[Bill]

I had that scope on my Ruger 77V in .25-06 and bought it just after they came out. I found it to be a fairly clear scope although mine was a bit wavy out around the outside edge but I didn't pay that much attention to that part and mine always torqued me off with returnability as I would shoot a round or two before it settled down or had to tap on it. But for running coyotes I didn't have a problem and shot a number of them out to 500 yds with no problems and no problem seeing them clearly either. I never did try it on a Rimfire or trying to see anything close as that wasn't what I bought it for.