Light gathering scopes

[Rich Coyle]

One thing I have learned regardless of scope quality. The human pupil can only expand to roughly 5mm in low light. So with a 50mm objective anything over 10 power at last light is pretty much useless. With a 40 mm it's 8 power etc. 56 will get you 11-12. Not a whole lot of difference. Glass quality is such a subjective thing I dont know how you measure it. Is there an actual standard for light transmission tests or is that just manufacturer data?

Here's what I have proven to everyone who has come to my porch and compared any scope of any brand on my deer antlers 131 yards away. If your scope is set on 10X and you loose the antlers to darkness, merely turn them up to 15X and you can see the antlers again.

 

[cajun]

Here's what I have proven to everyone who has come to my porch and compared any scope of any brand on my deer antlers 131 yards away. If your scope is set on 10X and you loose the antlers to darkness, merely turn them up to 15X and you can see the antlers again.

What brand scope?Over 40+ years of deep south stand hunting where deer basically move at dark thirty at the end of shooting light or maybe a little past it was necessary to lower the power level to get enough light to see period with the smaller field of view at higher power.

 

[shooters]

What brand scope?Over 40+ years of deep south stand hunting where deer basically move at dark thirty at the end of shooting light or maybe a little past it was necessary to lower the power level to get enough light to see period with the smaller field of view at higher power.

It's that theory that magnification trumps exit pupil which holds true. Definitely proven this for my self over the years. Especially with binoculars. With rifle scopes, there does come a time where increasing the magnification has diminishing returns. For my optics, that's usually around that 18x and up.

 

[cajun]

It's that theory that magnification trumps exit pupil which holds true. Definitely proven this for my self over the years. Especially with binoculars. With rifle scopes, there does come a time where increasing the magnification has diminishing returns. For my optics, that's usually around that 18x and up.

Well my experience at the end of shooting light I have to be on 9-10 or I just cant see. Leupold and Zeiss mostly on hunting rifles.

 

[Rich Coyle]

What brand scope?Over 40+ years of deep south stand hunting where deer basically move at dark thirty at the end of shooting light or maybe a little past it was necessary to lower the power level to get enough light to see period with the smaller field of view at higher power.

About any brand.

 

[schmalts]

Nothing will trump Objective size for light gathering no matter what brand you are looking at. Exit pupil is real math and is the number one thing to look at, and then the coatings, glass quality and design after that.

 

[Rosebud]

I think 5mm is correct roughly for older people like myself but the younguns can dialate as much as 7mm I read.

I know I can tell a lot of difference now at 51 as opposed to 5 years ago. But I have cataracts growing which robs light I think. Having hunting with my new VX5-HD all season, it's just barely adequate at 70 yards or so, 30 minutes after sunset in the timber on a lot of days. I'll likely need more soon. Guess I'll start saving for a Polar. Haha.

Get your cataracts fixed. What I did, its amazing the difference. Like I could see thirty years ago.

 

[KoolBreeze]

Get your cataracts fixed. What I did, its amazing the difference. Like I could see thirty years ago.

They say they aren't big enough to fix yet.

 

[General RE LEE]

50mm or 56mm don't allow anymore light than a 40 or 44mm when on 3x or 4x everything else being equal.

 

[KoolBreeze]

50mm or 56mm don't allow anymore light than a 40 or 44mm when on 3x or 4x everything else being equal.

I agree but I think their point is that if you can zoom in to say 10x - 12x+, and still have a large enough objective to provide adequate exit pupil, you can squeeze a little more time out of the scope. Makes sense to me, as I usually hunt with my scope on 3-4x but I find it advantageous in low light to zoom it up a bit more to 8-10x. Much beyond that point though, to my eye, my VX5-HD 3-15x44 gets noticeably darker. Which tells me I should have probably went with a larger objective for my needs.

 

[Rich Coyle]

I agree but I think their point is that if you can zoom in to say 10x - 12x+, and still have a large enough objective to provide adequate exit pupil, you can squeeze a little more time out of the scope. Makes sense to me, as I usually hunt with my scope on 3-4x but I find it advantageous in low light to zoom it up a bit more to 8-10x. Much beyond that point though, to my eye, my VX5-HD 3-15x44 gets noticeably darker. Which tells me I should have probably went with a larger objective for my needs.

You are correct. In a side by side with the Leupold V6 4-24X52, Swarovski z5 5-25X52, and the Bushnell 6500 4 1/2-30X50 the Leupold VX5 3-15X56 lasted six minutes longer than them with all on the same magnification setting.

 

[General RE LEE]

I agree but I think their point is that if you can zoom in to say 10x - 12x+, and still have a large enough objective to provide adequate exit pupil, you can squeeze a little more time out of the scope. Makes sense to me, as I usually hunt with my scope on 3-4x but I find it advantageous in low light to zoom it up a bit more to 8-10x. Much beyond that point though, to my eye, my VX5-HD 3-15x44 gets noticeably darker. Which tells me I should have probably went with a larger objective for my needs.

I've really tempered how much I zoom on game before the shot. I've found 6x out to 300 yards 4x at 200 and 3x under that is optimal. I have enough magnification to make the shot in the lowest light, but more importantly a wider FOV to see how the deer reacts and what happens afterwards.

I used to zoom to 9 or 10x on 250-300 yard shots and completely lose sight of the hit and what happens afterwards in the scope. At that point I'm watching with the naked eye.

With my lighter kicking calibers with a good lean into the recoil pad and low power, I can shoot and see the hit, the reaction and the aftermath in the scope.

 

[westexhunt]

I cannot compare it to any of the seemingly 10's of dozens of very particular German scope's mentioned before, but the Trijicon 2.5-10x56 seems like a legit low light scope

 

[Marky_mark]

best I've had for low light is a ZEISS 3-12x56 victory. You can see at night with that thing