FFP vs SFP and Magnification Need. Western Hunting Scope

[HuntHardColorado]

I'll be backpacking in for most of my hunts out west, and was wondering if the added weight of a FFP would be worth it? I also plan to not ethically take shots over 400yds. I want quality glass, and was thinking the 3-15 will be plenty for my needs. Any thoughts or suggestions are appreciated.

 

[Hnthrdr]

There is a lot to unpack here, ffp will allow you to use the subtensions on your reticle at any mag, wind mostly in my opinion… SFP will give you a nice big reticle at all magnifications. What distance will you shoot? 400-500 and under, a SFP will be fine. Do you have much experience with wind calls/ wind holds? Do you have experience dialing up for a shot? What caliber are you shooting? I think most guys would be fine with a SFP scope. I have one ffp that I like but 90% of the time I pack a SFP hunting…

 

[rabbithuntr]

Happy with both my 3-9 and 6x swfa, I know the 6x is hard to come by. Their 3-15 sounds good too although a little heavier iirc.

 

[HuntHardColorado]

There is a lot to unpack here, ffp will allow you to use the subtensions on your reticle at any mag, wind mostly in my opinion… SFP will give you a nice big reticle at all magnifications. What distance will you shoot? 400-500 and under, a SFP will be fine. Do you have much experience with wind calls/ wind holds? Do you have experience dialing up for a shot? What caliber are you shooting? I think most guys would be fine with a SFP scope. I have one ffp that I like but 90% of the time I pack a SFP hunting…

Hunted for years with an old Burris 3-9x. I have a Meopta optika 6 ffp I have on an AR10 but can't stomach the weight for a hunting optic. Shooting a 7mm rem mag. Thanks for the assurance on SFP cause in 95% of circumstances I'm within 250 yards. Wanting to get to WY for antelope soon though, and need to practice dialing a bit before that. (Always just sighted in at 200 and held at tad high for anything out to 300) So no, I don't have a ton of experience with dialing and wind.)

 

[HuntHardColorado]

Happy with both my 3-9 and 6x swfa, I know the 6x is hard to come by. Their 3-15 sounds good too although a little heavier iirc.

Heard real good things about SWFA. I'll have to check them out

 

[coyotekilla]

I'll be backpacking in for most of my hunts out west, and was wondering if the added weight of a FFP would be worth it? I also plan to not ethically take shots over 400yds. I want quality glass, and was thinking the 3-15 will be plenty for my needs. Any thoughts or suggestions are appreciated.

Short answer is either works and you should probably practice your shots before going afield. I hunt mostly open farm ground in pa, shot ranges from 40 yards to 500 is a possibility, most are 150 to 250. For hunting deer, I want a 3 to 9, 4x16 is the absolute most I'll generally take. I prefer a sfp unless I know there are no close shots to be taken. Way to easy to not see where your aiming in low light, busy environments with ffp. You mentioned Backpack hunting, I think I'd be packing a sub 7lb short barreled, med intensity rig with a 3x9 or 2 to 10 on it, probably illuminated recticle.

My other favorite scope is quickly becoming my agm spectrum lrf 4k. It's a digital scope, but range & balistics calculate in, and its low light capability is phenomenal. It's legal here in pa, but check your local laws. I've ran mine on a 22lr subsonic from 40 yds to 275 with accurate results. Took a skunk with it last week at 357 in the dark while it was mounted to a 223 ruger american. Downside, its powered by 18650 batteries and your hiking...

 

[nm.otter]

Fixed magnification = one focal plane.
6x is entirely sufficient for a 500 yard shot.

 

[HuntHardColorado]

You could get away with open sights or a 4x scope if you wanted. Most of my scopes are 6x or a 3-9x kept turned down.



What does this mean?

I'm not comfortable taking a shot on an animal at over 400 yards. Therefore, I won't do it.

 

[Ozzy208]

In my opinion, and take that for what it’s worth. If you are not familiar with dialing external turrets, I would go with a FFP so the subtensions in the reticle are accurate at any magnification. I’m sure you’d be fine either way, but I’d go FFP

 

[SDHNTR]

If you feel the need for high magnification (which is unnecessary for your stated limitations of 400yds) you definitely want FFP so you can dial it back and still use the subtensions. Just make sure it’s also usable at the low end as very few are.

For your use case, a SFP and 3-9/10x is also perfectly adequate.

 

[wind gypsy]

This application has 3-9 SWFA, 3-10 SHV, or 2.5-10 NXS written all over it.

I only buy scopes in mils so the SHV is out and I didn't see enough upside in the 2.5-10 NXS over the 3-9 SWFA to justify 2.5-3x cost so the 3-9 SS is my choice.

 

[nm.otter]

SWFA 6x Gen2 just showed up in stock.

 

[noKnees]

Out to about 400 I do well with a hold over reticle and 9 or 10x is plenty. One bonus of keeping the max magnification down a bit is you can take all your shots at max so the SFP/FFP choice becomes irrelevant, so up to 400 yds I would probably go with a 3-9 trijicon. Light small reliable..

 

[Macintosh]

I assume youre putting it on a sporter-weight rifle?

If you want to use a graduated reticle either for elevation or wind, 99% of 2fp scopes are only accurate at max magnification. People do it (see above) but they're clearly more smarterer than me, becasue I cant do it without making lots of mistakes. To me, 2fp=a MAXIMUM of 10x magnification on the upper end in order to be able to use the reticle without requiring excessive magnification. Above 10x, maybe 12x with a lower-recoiling rifle, I think ffp is an absolute must-have, full-stop.

7rm has enough recoil that at 400 yards you are almost 100% not going to be able to keep an animal in the scope at any higher magnifications, so a significant consideration is simply field of view. IMO you are far better off with a wider field of view, which I would prioritize over a little extra magnification. To me 15x is too much magnification and will be a liability if you plan to use the reticle graduations. If you plan to use just a duplex reticle then field of view is the only consideration, and you can just dial it back to wherever you want, but I still think 15x is excessive for big game at 400 yards.

 

[Kyguy]

Added weight compared to what? If you are looking at the extreme ends of the spectrum like a compact ultralight 3-9 at 12 or 13 oz as opposed to the 2.15-15 or 4-20 at 25-30 ounces, yea, it's a big difference. When you look at high end scopes, there's almost no different in weight between FFP and SFP at similar magnification ranges.

SFP scopes like the Nightforce SHV 3-10 is 22 oz, Vortex Viper HD 2-10, is 19.9 oz, Leupold VX5 HD 2-10 is 17.9 oz, Tract Toric 2-10 is 18.6 oz (though the 4 different ones I played with were all in the 22 oz range). FFP SWFA 3-9 is 19.84 oz. There's literally NO weight difference. I toyed with the other three scopes I mentioned, and while they were all excellent to look though, there was just something about each of them that didn't click with me. I just bought 4 of the SWFA 3-9 and they seem to be the ticket for me, even though I'm in the east and not expressly looking for "long range" hunting capability.

The reticle is very visible even at low power. I sat on my deck with the Viper HD and the SWFA, both on low power, until well after legal hunting light, and glass wise, there was no advantage of one of the other. At low power, the center stadia on the Viper were more visible (they're thicker too) than on the SWFA, but again, not enough to fret the difference. I thought that illumination was going to be a game changer, but with my astigmatism, the illumination flares and starbursts, which offsets its usefulness to me. So, I'd rather have a heavier outer reticle than illumination.

9x or 10x is more than enough for any deer/big game hunting out distances that 95% of us shouldn't be shooting at. If you can't kill a deer/bear/elk at 500yds with 9x, it's not the scope that's the problem. I shoot prairie dog sized steel targets at 200 yds + with scopes set on 2x and 3x all the time. I honestly can't fathom why people need 16x, 20x, 25x and more on big game hunting rifles. even if they're routinely killing stuff at 700 yds+. I suspect that more of those folks are using the big scopes on their rifles not just as aiming devices but for the same purposes as binoculars and spotting scopes, though none would ever admit it.

 

[Southern Lights]

I use FFP for longer range matches, but my hunting rifles have been SFP simply because of the lower weight, bulk, and much easier to see reticle at low mag ranges. Most FFP reticles are poor at 6X power and lower where many closer shots are taken. Since the vast majority of shots for most hunters is likely under 400 yards there is no advantage to FFP.

If you think you will be shooting up to 400 yards though I would highly recommend a reliable dialing turret vs. using holdovers. You can miss a shot by dialing wrong, but I've seen it happen more often using holdovers.

FFP is perhaps useful on game if you miss and want to make a fast correction. But this assumes a lot of things such as the animal actually doesn't start moving off ruining your range and correction. It also assumes the miss was actually wind related and not related to the shooter messing up the shot causing the miss. In which case, you are trying to correct shooter error with hold offs and this can just make things much worse.

For mag range, I typically do 1-1.5X per 100 yards. Low range I am always at 3-4X when walking around for close shots. At 400 yards I'd be about 6 power. Maybe 8-10X if I'm really trying to see the animal in stable prone. If you go too high, you will have a harder time spotting your impacts and may lose the animal for a follow-up due the narrow field of view.

 

[KenLee]

Accupoint in 3-9x40. Self adjusting illumination with no battery to die.
Duplex or mil-dot reticle of your preference. I prefer the amber dot.

 

[KenLee]

Accupoint in 3-9x40. Self adjusting illumination with no battery to die.
Duplex or mil-dot reticle of your preference. I prefer the amber dot.

Oh, and it's 13.4 ounces.

 

[slm9s]

Razor LHT 3-15. Great illumination, great reticle, great glass, use the turret or reticle for long shots, great tracking (i have 5 of them and they've been 100%), lightweight, and great mag range for hunting.

 

[Axlrod]

Razor LHT 3-15. Great illumination, great reticle, great glass, use the turret or reticle for long shots, great tracking (i have 5 of them and they've been 100%), lightweight, and great mag range for hunting.

Forgot great warranty