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Posted: 7/25/2015 2:04:14 AM EDT
| I've been looking into buying a scope for my AR-15 and I was wondering if someone could help explain first focal plane vs second focal plane to me and if one would be better for my use, which is putting holes in paper and shooting at steel plates. |
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First focal plane reticles will appear smaller to your eye at low power and will seem to grow in size as you increase magnification. This means the reticle stays the same size in relation to the target, and is useful for ranging or holds at all power ranges. On wider mag ranges the reticle can be hard to pick out quickly at low magnification. The bushnell elite 1-6.5x first focal plane models are a good example of the reticle becoming very hard to use at low mag ranges.
Second focal plane will seem the same size to your eye at all power ranges, but the ranging or drops of the reticle are only usable at a certain (usually max) magnification. For higher power scopes, first focal plane would be more useful. I can see ranging at both 10x and 20x on a higher power scope on a precision rifle. For low power variables where speed in close is a consideration, secodn focal plane will be more prominent and will allow you to get away with reticle design that's not perfect. |
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I have a hard time using FFP reticles at lower power. The reticle has to be designed in such a way as to be thin enough at low power ranges to not cover targets at the higher end, as a consequence, 5x and below made it really difficult for me to use. That's just my opinion.
In the higher ranges the scopes I have looked through/owned, I have had no issues. |
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For long range shooting, such as regular shooting at 400 yards and beyond with scopes with power over 14x, FFP makes a lot of sense.
For lower power, and for low light shooting, you need a thick, conspicuous reticle at all power settings. Hunters rarely prefer FFP for this reason, and go with SFP. For pure target shooting in good light, you need a very fine reticle, and focal plane does not matter so much. All my scopes under 14x are second focal plane. Even tactical scopes up to 10x or so do better with SFP reticles, because you never have reason do distance ranging at any power below maximum. This is not so with higher power scopes, where you may, for instance, need to dial back from 25x to a lower power, say 15x to see through mirage, and still be able to estimate range accurately and establish a reticle based hold over. |
| Thank you for all the information so everyone, I'm looking into a low power scope 1-4x or 1-6x, currently considering a SFP scope with either AR-BDR or one with BCQ reticle, and will primarily use it at a range of 100+ yards. If I'm understanding what I've read than a SFP scope should work fine for my purpose. |
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Quoted:
Thank you for all the information so everyone, I'm looking into a low power scope 1-4x or 1-6x, currently considering a SFP scope with either AR-BDR or one with BCQ reticle, and will primarily use it at a range of 100+ yards. If I'm understanding what I've read than a SFP scope should work fine for my purpose. Yes. But not familiar with those particular reticles. Please school me about them. If they are caliber and round specific rather than MOA/MOA or MRAD/MRAD matching reticle to turrets, that could hamper usefulness. |
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