Thread: 22lr bdc reticle scope options? (other than my athlon neos)

Got an athlon neos bdc reticle 3-9-40 for the tikka 22 and it's a fine scope - except the reticle is too damn thick and it obscures the smaller targets. (like, really thick).

Whats out there to replace it?
1" rings
light-ish
sfp or ffp
prefer bdc reticle, or some version thereof
budget? well, more than the neos.

I have a vortex diamondback on the 7mm and its got better crosshairs, but I dont think the optical quality is necessarily stellar.

Nothing wrong with the diamondback in it's price range. There are a number of .22 BDC reticles about in some cheaper scopes that seems to work well. I have a fixed 4x killwell and with supersonics and a 25 yd zero the drops are correct to 100

https://www.nzhuntingandshooting.co....review-108998/

The Bushnell Engage series with the Deploy reticle might suit your needs.

My Vixen V1 3-12x mil-dot has fine cross-hairs, the BDC version might be a good option?

Dont get stuck trying to find a BDC reticle, a straight Mil or MOA based reticle will do the same thing and give you more hold over points.

Originally Posted by Beetroot

Dont get stuck trying to find a BDC reticle, a straight Mil or MOA based reticle will do the same thing and give you more hold over points.

I like my mil-dot reticle...

Another vote for Vixen. They come in a few magnification ranges, all 4x zoom though. 2-8, 3-9 or 4-16, with Mildot or BDC reticle. All have side focus / parallax adjustment as well. They are second focal plane so the reticle stays the same across the zoom range. You'll need to work out the subtensions at different ranges for each magnification.

Originally Posted by Bol Tackshin

Another vote for Vixen. They come in a few magnification ranges, all 4x zoom though. 2-8, 3-9 or 4-16, with Mildot or BDC reticle. All have side focus / parallax adjustment as well. They are second focal plane so the reticle stays the same across the zoom range. You'll need to work out the subtensions at different ranges.

My 3-12x doesn't have parallax adjustment, and I don't think the V1 2-8x does either. But they are light! I also have the 4-16x bdc on my 222 - tried to swap it for a mildot version that briefly came up for sale on the forum, but was too slow!

Originally Posted by Beetroot

Dont get stuck trying to find a BDC reticle, a straight Mil or MOA based reticle will do the same thing and give you more hold over points.

yeah but I want to be quick about it not sit there counting lines. JUst a quick rangefind and bam.

Originally Posted by floatingkiwi

yeah but I want to be quick about it not sit there counting lines. JUst a quick rangefind and bam.

Beetroot is right. A proper mil or moa reticle not only mark the lines with numbers (so you dont need to count beyond 5 at most), also work better because you can hold over for any given distance as there are more lines.

BDC reticle lines tend to be neither here nor there. I just learnt that a very good Delta scope has lines at every 7 CM at 100 metres at 12x power.

This reticle below is what I consider the gold standard for a elevation hold hunting reticle. Precise and small centre dot, clear and thin lines, every 8 MOA interval is numbered. The Mil version is very similar, every half mil is marked and every 2 mil interval is numbered. The scope that has it is called Vortex LHT, pricey.

I have used that brand for years on my 22 and my blackout:
https://rapidreticle.com/product/rr-evolution-22lr-2/

The guy was pretty much the only one 15 to 20 years ago to offer that system ( bdc reticle with a ffp scope )

Originally Posted by floatingkiwi

yeah but I want to be quick about it not sit there counting lines. JUst a quick rangefind and bam.

Here's the Vixen BDC (not mil-dot) in action: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWNRjSIYosE

image looks a bit blurry in the video, actual quality is much better - easily at good as my Leupold VX1 3-9x I reckon... except maybe at highest magnification in low light, but then that's a bonus anyway, right? (i.e. 12x vs 9x)

Those Vixens come with a mildot reticle as well.

BDC reticles are great, but they aren't a range and shoot solution, if you know where the crossovers are for each mark, it just gives better guidance for targets that are between crossovers than a normal duplex reticle. i.e. On my .223 I know that at 225yds, I need to hold the second line above the target but the third line needs to be below.

The Burris droptines are ok, I also really like my Leupold VX Freedom TriMOA. It just has MOA spaced hash marks, but at any given distance, a hash mark will be within 1MOA of POI.