Sold out at the moment but this would be my pic.

http://www.cameralandny.com/optics/zeiss.pl?page=521405

I have seen ex demo units go for as little as a couple of hundred USD from Doug.  They offer a good range of bold and/or illuminated reticles.

To get a german no 4 in a leupold 4x or 6x you need to go through the custom shop which adds cost.  They do offer the heavy duplex but it's not quite as good as the crosshairs are fatter and the outer posts are thinner than the german no 4.

The reason that the german reticles are called german is that they do a lot of night hunting which the yanks don't do as it's illegal for most game species in the states.

Edit: There is also the Trijicon range of scopes with their radioactive illuminated reticle and bible references stamped on the side.  Not cheap but they are apparently the bomb.

Benelli boy wrote on Feb 18^th, 2010 at 8:28pm:


umm at the kill rate we were getting I should have that paid off in about 5 years and just enough left over for a short retirement. Things have improved. That was my worst night.

Trout wrote on Feb 18^th, 2010 at 9:22pm:


Dont tell me to get a Tasco. 

headcase wrote on Feb 18^th, 2010 at 3:08pm:


To my eye optics wise they're pretty much the same. No milkyness when zoomed up.

In a weird way crosshair reticle, I like them both as they do their job. The Mueller with the sharp 30/30 on the HM2


but the Hawke with mildot because when I need to do longer range on the .22 I use them


When shooting the HM2 longer range it's still point and click for me, for the .22 the mildots are handy for drop. Ignore the flare, etc in the photos, I'm still playing around trying to sort out positioning for scope cam videos.

crzy-man, awesome work at living up to your name and great input to the thread. Well done.

KScott_NZ wrote on Feb 19^th, 2010 at 12:13am:


I gave advice on the best scope for the job unlike you.  You gave advice on what you "could" use on a limited budget that work's "ok". 

Both those photo's are out of focus and blurey (could be the camera but I dought it), this may be sharp optic's in your eye's but until you pick up a good scope and look through you have no idea what your on about.

KScott_NZ wrote on Feb 19^th, 2010 at 12:13am:


Nice pics KScott, the hare is a cracker.

In scale of importance-
1/Small difference in lens size up from 40 to 56 a bit less than 100% more light gathering.
2/Lens coatings are important.
90% vs 95% top end makes a diferenc. Can't really identify with 90%
3/and then include something like Zeiss T coating for a bit more improvement.
Anything with assembled in USA on won't have that.

Cranking out the diopter helps a bit but start to loose resolution.

I only hunt NI deer...
Its only 8mm though. 40 to 56.