First focal plane or Second focal plane?

Riverbottoms

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I have a 6.5 creedmoor that I bought last fall. Im planning on buying a scope soon and was looking for a scope. I know the differences be between first and second focal planes. My question is the first focal plane worth the extra money. I have a good range finder so I wont be using the reticle for yardage estimating.

Could some one help me out on this!
 


Kurtr

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I like it as when i hold over i dont have to worry about the power and u find my reticle still usefull on low powers. It would depend on reticle and scope to make a real recomendation
 

PrairieGhost

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They both have their advantages. I think I have four first focal plane and maybe two dozen second focal plane. On my AR in 223 I like the second focal plane used with Strelok+. The reticle is bullet drop and I can change the yardage by changing the power setting. I wanted a new lightweight toy so two days ago I ordered a Ruger American Predator in 308 which has a short (18 inch) barrel. A Vortex Strike Eagle will go on that rifle. With the rail on the rifle and good tactical rings I would guess at times I will switch to one of my extra scopes which is 4.5 to 14X, or maybe even my Fast fire III.

I don't think there are any hard and fast rules except have fun. I have shot a couple of deer with a 22 Hornet, and prairie dogs with a 300 mag and even a couple with a 458 Lott. Oh ya, and a couple with a 50/140 Sharps.
 
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KDM

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They both have their advantages. I think I have four first focal plane and maybe two dozen second focal plane. On my AR in 223 I like the second focal plane used with Strelok+. The reticle is bullet drop and I can change the yardage by changing the power setting. I wanted a new lightweight toy so two days ago I ordered a Ruger American Predator in 308 which has a short (18 inch) barrel. A Vortex Strike Eagle will go on that rifle. With the rail on the rifle and good tactical rings I would guess at times I will switch to one of my extra scopes which is 4.5 to 14X, or maybe even my Fast fire III.

I don't think there are any hard and fast rules except have fun. I have shot a couple of deer with a 22 Hornet, and prairie dogs with a 300 mag and even a couple with a 458 Lott. Oh ya, and a couple with a 50/140 Sharps.

Confirmed kills or did you just blow away enough square yards of earth to make the assumption?? (Grin)
 

Riverbottoms

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The scopes im looking at are the Vortex viper PST or the Vortex viper HST, 300$ difference!.. all the same options, but the PST has Illuminated reticle. Do you guys use the Illuminated reticle that much?
 


Kurtr

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I use the 6-24 vortex hs lr with the xlr reticle. Of those 2 i would go with the pst if it is the gen 2
 

PrairieGhost

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All four of my ffp are Vortex PST. I have never used the reticle light up. I wanted the EBR MOA with numbered minutes of angle on the 4 to 16 power, and the EBR-2C on the 6 to 24 power. I really like the minute of angle EBR-2C
 

Bed Wetter

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I tried a couple FFP scopes and found that the utility of lower magnification holdover was lost in the fact that the crosshairs were too small on low magnification to be useful and too fat on high magnification to be precise. Went back to SFP scopes. I figure if I need to adjust my hold at lower magnification, I can just adjust using turrets. (Hahahaha just kidding. Wags and SDMF know adjusting for elevation is silly, which is why I've sworn it off.)
 

Kurtr

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if you are that far down in mag you wont be using hold over so cross hair is all i need. what reticles did you run i know with the open center and dot on my xlr that pdogs out to 700 are not to covered up
 


tinker

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im in the same boat...waiting on a pst gen 2, 5-25 ffp moa to ship to me and try it out on my ruger precision!
 

PrairieGhost

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Bed Wetter I don't see the reticle very good on 4x either. However keep in mind that no matter how course they look they still only subtend .21 inches on the EBR-MOA, and .10 inch in the EBR-2C. That's 2.1 inch and 1 inch at 1000 yards. The EBR-2C has a .25 inch gap in the center. On 24x you can just bracket a 22 cal bullet hole.
 

PrairieGhost

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Confirmed kills or did you just blow away enough square yards of earth to make the assumption?? (Grin)


Actually the 300 mag with higher velocity was the most destructive. It looked like a person shot into mud, but when we went and looked we found pieces. The two large calibers didn't look anymore destructive maybe not as destructive as a 223. I gave up shooting them with a round ball in my Hawken. I suppose they only lived a few seconds, but they did get down the hole with a 180gr round ball at 1700fps. Not what I was expecting.
 

LBrandt

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Actually the 300 mag with higher velocity was the most destructive. It looked like a person shot into mud, but when we went and looked we found pieces. The two large calibers didn't look anymore destructive maybe not as destructive as a 223. I gave up shooting them with a round ball in my Hawken. I suppose they only lived a few seconds, but they did get down the hole with a 180gr round ball at 1700fps. Not what I was expecting.
You don't happen to have an RPG in your arsenal do you ?
 


Norske

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The illuminated reticle may be a problem in if you hunt even coyotes with the rifle. Check your hunting proclamation and even call the G&F about what's considered electronic sights. I don't know the current regulation, but some years ago anything battery powered wasn't legal for anything afield.
 

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