Pennsylvania Game News - August 2012 - 60

Lock, Stock & Barrel
By Jim Romanelli

The scope power isn’t the only factor to consider . . .

What’s the Right Reticle?
Y
EARS AGO I wrote “Beginners Guide To Scoping” and covered the basics of matching the physical size, as well as the power of the optics to the rifle/cartridge being used. Due to space limitations, though, I didn’t get into choosing the proper reticle (type of crosshairs). When I was young, in the late 1950s and early ’60s, big game scopes with powers of 2½x, 3x, 4x and possibly 6x if shots were consistently long — as occurred out West — were popular. Varmint scopes ran from 8x on up. The reticles were either the plain thin crosshairs or the post type. The plain thin crosshairs that we are all familiar with was made up the conventional vertical and horizontal stadia (hairs) that intersect in the middle, and were the same thickness throughout their entire lengths. These worked pretty well most of the time, unless there was a dark background (as in thick mountain laurel areas and heavy brushy edges) where they tended to be a little hard to see. The other option was the post type reticle that was great for quick target acquisition, especially in dark backgrounds. It consisted of a thick vertical line (post) rising from the bottom of the lens that tapered as it rose to a flat or point about halfway up the diameter of the lens. It could also have a thin intersecting line across the top to help the eye better center the target. One of my college buddies I used to hunt with liked the post so much that he bought two Weaver K4s with the post reticle and used one on his pump .30-06 and the other on his bolt action .222. He liked seeing the whole target propped on top of that point. He would sight them both in at 100 yards, and any farther out he would just raise the point on the post farther up on the animal’s body. For a deer he said it was good out to about 250 yards, with the tip of the post level just under the spine (although I doubt he ever took a shot more than 75 yards). For woodchucks he was able to do about the same before losing it as the post got thicker as he raised it. Back in 1936 a fellow named K.T. Lee developed a “Dot” from spider silk webbing that could be placed on any diameter hair anywhere on either crosshair (usually it was at the intersection of the crosshairs). So for those who didn’t like the post reticle these Dots were just the ticket on thin crosshairs. For big game they usually ranged from two to four minutes of angle (MOA) in size (covering an area two to four inches in diameter at 100 yards), and for varmints from ¼ to one minute in size. I have seen many scopes that have several dots along both crosshairs (spaced in MOA) for quick compensation for elevation and windage, saving time from having to use the adjustment knobs. In the 1960s, as the variable power
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Pennsylvania Game News - August 2012

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