I want to get into hunting pdogs. How important is the reticle when choosing a scope? What do you guys use?

I haven't gone prairie dog shooting YET but i like playing around with mildot reticles. Just bought a scope with one in it and i absolutely lobe it! I also like duplex, I like reticles as long as they don't have target blocking circles in them.

For p-dogs around 200 yards, I'm using a Bushnell Trophy 4x-12x with a "Multi-X" (a.k.a. "duplex") reticle on my .22 K-hornet. For longer range (300+ yards) I'm using a Burris 8x-32x - 50mm with a "Fine-Plex" reticle on my .22-250 and on my .204, I'm using a Bushnell 6x-18x - 50 mm with a "Multi-X" reticle. At 300+ yards, a thick verticle crosshair can blot out a skinny young prairie dog that's standing upright. The duplex type reticle works okay at the longer ranges, but I prefer the fine crosshair on the Burris scope.

Thanks for the reply. Was thinking about a nikon monarch 5-20x40, but they only offer a couple of reticles. You would think they would offer a fine duplex on a high powered scope. Does anyone know about the grand slam varmint dot reticle for dogs.

The finer the better IMO. The Burris scopes I own have a "Fine Plex" reticle that I like.

A lot of guys like the mil-dots. They are nice for guaging distance or at least a reference point. Leupold has a "Varmint Reticle" if money is not a concern.

Nikon makes a nice scope, but the "Niko-Plex" may be thicker than you would like.

ABSOLUTELY, stay away from Nikon's BDC reticle, it's a POS. Trust me..............

Have to agree with Red. I like the fine crosshairs for the most part. I have a Weaver and a Mueller scope with the fine crosshairs. They are great out to 2-250 yards with a flat shooting cartridge.

For longer work I like a mil-dot or the Blastic Plex from Burris. I also agree the Nikon BDC looks "bulky" to me for small targets.

I have Mil Dots, duplex and a BDC (on my 22) The BDC id worthless for a PD gun if you hand load in my opinion (and maybe even if you don't) I teach with Mil Dots and they work very well out on the PD fields. I would recommend cross hairs that are fine and not heavy like many duplexes if you go that route.

A Lee Dot would work if it was about 1/2 minute but I don't think it would do that well past about 300.

Greg L.