My old friend, an avid silhouette shooter, is very ill with cancer and other things, yet continues on at the shooting range as best he can. Had him out last night to our Monday afternoon .22 benchrest match, he struggled quite a bit, had great difficulty seeing his crosshairs and dot in his scope, he said the dot just kept disappearing, he wound up DNF for the match. I think he has eyesight problems, but the scope itself is part of the problem.

He is using a Weaver 36X scope with the fine crosshair and the 1/8 minute dot, same as mine, and the crosshairs are VERY fine and the dot is indeed tiny. The dot IS hard to see against the background of the black target, as is the intersection of the crosshairs.

My friend is determined to send the scope off to some outfit that will install a larger dot for him, but that is fairly expensive. We got to wondering if he maybe sells the Weaver and buys another brand of scope if it might not work out better for him in the long run.

Does anyone have experience with some other brand of good target scope, 36X or so, that has a little larger crosshairs and dot? All advice and opinions welcome and appreciated. Thanks.

The issue will be that he's looking for a reticle not typically found in higher magnification scopes. Generally higher magnifying scopes are intended for benchrest and have very, very small reticles for precision shooting. I don't think there are higher mag scopes with larger reticles.

Changing the reticle really isn't that bad. http://targetshooteroptics.com/Services_and_Prices.html prices start at $110 and I doubt you could sell the Weaver and buy a new scope without investing more than that.

I would consider trying out using a scope booster as well. The booster will do two things. First it will boost magnification of the scope entirely which probably won't be a bad idea if eye sight is weakening. Secondly, since it mounts on eye piece of the scope, it magnifies the reticle too. This ought to be a pretty large improvement though I think it is more costly than the reticle change, but at least doesn't come with a waiting period without a scope and can be sold if not enjoyed. https://www.bulzeyepro.com/

The weaver 36X eye relief is critical, small movements will cause problems. I would suggest he try a 24X with a 1/8 minute dot or even 1/4. Maybe not as precise but better than the setup he has.

Get a Bushnell Elite 4200 in 8-32 with a duplex reticle. Easy enough to see,fine enough to aim, great glass, and it won't break the bank. You can find them used easy enough, or place a WTB add and oue will pop up. ($400ish)

HI ALL ,

I agree with PAT ... BUSHNELL 8-32X DUPLEX !

The DUPLEX will solve the problem ...
better than a larger dot ...
ENJOY !

GSL