I have a Burris Fullfield II 3-9x40 on my son's 7mm-08. He has used it successfully to take animals at 240 yard (antelope), 360 yards (cow elk), 477 yards (Mule Deer) and again this year at 130 yards (mule deer). He has also used the Ballistic Plex to cleanly harvest "rocks" at well past 500 yards.
I have a Burris Signature Select 3.5-10x40 with the BP reticle. On my 7 mag I used that scope to cleanly harvest elk at 382, 454, 200, 374, 482 and 576 yards. I also cleanly harvested deer with the 7-08 and this scope at 384, 325 and 290. Daughter used my 7-08 this year with the Burris Signature on it and cleanly harvested her first animal, a large cow elk, at 260 yards.
I used a Vortex Diamond Back 3-9x40 with BDC reticle, on my younger son's 7mm-08 (used to be my rifle, but he earned it from me with his Eagle Scout) on an antelope at 421 yards. He used it on his first big game animal this fall as well, a cow elk at 136 yards.
I have been very pleased with the Burris' and like the optics on the Vortex, but the eye relief is a bit short. I will tell you that my older boy missed a very large buck, his second season of hunting, first animal to ever be able to shoot at, at 310 yards while using his Burris scope and the 7mm-08 (Browning ABolt II). Why? We have our thoughts. Mostly boils down to the fact that I didn't range the deer correctly (hit a large sagebrush behind them about 50 yards) and gave him the wrong yardage, and he had not turned the scope up to 9x and so the appropriate hash mark caused him to shoot over the deer. He had a dead rest and seemed calm, until he fired the first shot and then he started shaking like crazy
. It was awesome, although it was sad that we did not harvest that buck, he still talks about how it was dad's fault and not his.
That is the only thing negative about the BP drop compensating type of reticles. The fact that you must be at the max power or a specific power for the lines to line up correctly. When you remember this must be done, they are very effective tools. When this is forgotten, they can cause some heartache.
I now have a Zeiss Conquest 3-9x40 with the Target Elevation MOA turret installed on my 7mm Mag. I can hit rocks out to 800 yards very easily with it, but have not had an opportunity to hunt with it yet. I also have a Leupold VX2 3-9x40 with the CDS reticle on my Kimber 325 WSM and havne't had an opportunity to harvest anything with it yet either, although I have been trying for the past few weeks on an elk. They just haven't cooperated.
I have just picked up another Burris Fullfield that will either go on my youngest son's rifle and sell off the Vortex, or it will go on my Muzzleloader now that I can use a magnified scope hunting with a ML in Utah. I also picked up another Leupold VX2 with CDS that will likely go on my new 7-08 and I will sell the Burris Signature. I don't know yet. Haven't made up my mind, but I like the BP reticles a lot, but see the benefits of the turret systems, especially for me.
I love the Vortex Viper scopes I have seen. They are great optics in my opinion. That said, I won't buy another Vortex Diamondback due to the very short eye relief. Burris is noticeably better in this regard. The Leupold is WAY BETTER in the eye relief department. The optics are not better than the Vortex's though. At least that is my opinion.
Regards,
FH
