Illuminated reticle pros and cons?

[UBFRAGD]

One of my x-mas presents has got to be a scope for my Rem700P in 308. Been eyeing this one for a while--Leupold VX-L 6.5-20x56mm LR. It's a little more than I wanted to spend but I don't want to outgrow my scope too quickly. The intended function of the rifle in question is target shooting primarily 100-600yrds, occasionally longer if my skills can handle it, and occasional varminting 100-300yrds.

So I was with a group of 4 guys who hunt and seem to have a pretty decent knowledge of guns and I mentioned the scope and how I wanted the illuminated mil-dot reticle as one of the options. Everybody broke into laughter. The next three minutes they discussed how useless an illuminated reticle was. I was caught by surprise. Wouldn't the illuminated reticle lengthen the amount of plinking I could do as I took advantage of being at the "range" as the sun went down? Wouldn't it be an enhancement for the scope and not a hindrance? Wouldn't it be an advantage if civilization collapsed and things were going bump in the night? It does add $170 to the already steep price...

BTW my original idea for a scope was a Leupold VX-3 3-9x40 with fine duplex.......

Any thoughts? I'll probably be posting a bazillion questions since this is my first tactical rifle build--you are warned!

Later!

[Scout106]

I have Leupold VX-III Illuminated Circle-Dot 1.5-5x on my African dangerous game rifles. The illuminated reticle can't be beat on Cape Buffalo at dusk or when hunting anything in the forest/jungle. I am also a big fan of the circle-dot reticle for rapid sight acquisition, which can be important when hunting dangerous game.

[maxicon]

Generally, there are 2 types of illuminated reticles - low-light illumination, and daytime illumination.

The low-light illumination is most common, and washes out in brighter light. It's often used when the environment is fairly dark, like hunting at dawn or dusk, in shadowy areas, or against dark backgrounds. The idea is that you don't need the illumination when the light is bright, but you can lose the reticle against dark backgrounds.

Daytime illumination is (or should be) visible at all times. It's often used for tactical apps like CQB, where you want a fast pickup in unpredictable lighting with no confusion. The idea is to always have an bright, fast reticle, regardless of lighting, like if you're coming into a dark area from the bright outside looking for dark targets.

Typically, daytime illumination on magnified scopes is fairly expensive.

[5968]

If you want an illuminated reticle, get it. I hunt along with just about everyone in my family. The only reasons I can think of why they were against an illuminated reticle for a hunting rifle is they have a tendency to get "bumped" around and it is just one more thing that could break. In most states you can't legally shoot after it starts to get dark, so it really wouldn't be need, or maybe they were just jealous because you are buying what they really want.