First vs second focal plane for Hunting

[teesquare]

No doubt this have change for the better. In the 80s a rangefinder was 4ft wide and needed a tripod. That why I shot a 257wbymag. 30 inches drop at 500 yards made shots not to bad. Speed was king. Now with good rangefinders under 500 bucks in your shirt pocket range isn't the problem. Wind is. So the slower high bc bullets rule long range hunting now. Anybody try the Sig that puts a dot in your scope via Bluetooth with the rangefinder.
Shep

Yep....like it a lot. Not for being great glass...it is "good", but not top shelf glass. But - the electronics package that is part of the scope/rangefinder combo is incredible. And - accurate as well.

 

[Andrew Massi]

the more I read and watch videos the further down the rabbit hole I go. I am new to long range shooting/ hunting. I have been looking at all kinds of scopes and I can't figure out whether first or second focal plane is what i need. I will be mounting a scope on a bergara ridge hunter 300 wm. My max distance will be about 500 yards. Any help is appreciated

2nd focal plane for me mostly
Seems the better I get at shooting long range the closer I end up harvesting game
7 of my last 10 bucks were shot under 200 yards and 5-6 power. No dialing or holdover required but ffp crosshairs at that range are hard to see, impossible to see in low light without illumination. I had a flock of ffp scopes but most hunting rigs wear SFP now as I find them more useful for western hunting.

 

[Goring2358]

I have used both and for hunting I like second focal better. With your scope set to low power on a ffp the recital can be hard to see when it is low light conditions.

 

[aushunter1]

As for holdovers, rest assured that if you hunt long range you will be at some point be using them. The longer you hunt you will come to realize that although dialing is wonderfull, and the best, it isn't always in all situations.
Never take your eyes off the animal, especially in wooded terrain. And you can use the animal or the rock your shooting at as a gauge as to where to hold for follow up shots as easily and maybe even faster than using a reticle.

Exactly, in probably 80% of the time you will only have moments to take a shot not.minutes.
It all dependant on location of course, while a lot fo areas you guys seem to shoot are wide open fields a lot of our game hunting is in dense forest or bushland so an opertunity might onle be seconds.
Not enough time to get out a range finder, use a balistics app & adjust turrets!

At some point you have to know your reticle!

 

[Shootin4fun]

FFP is not so great on lowest power as the reticle is very thin and hard to see in low light conditions like elk hunting in woods early and late. The solution is to incorporate illumination.

Last week a friend showed up at the range with a new FFP NX8 4-32 x 50. On 4X the reticle is very thin BUT it has green and red illumination!

Illuminated reticle is fairly common on FPS scopes. My Tango 6 6-30 and Vortex 5-25 both have it. It made sense to me to include that Option when I bought them for low light visibility.