illuminated riflescopes ?

[shilo]

went out and took a deer the other evening. it was still legal shooting time, but dark, heavy clouds and drizzle. the deer were in a field feeding about 100 - 150yds away and even though i could see them plainly,  i was having a hard time seeing my crosshairs on it. the big doe i wanted to take fed to within 100yds of me and turned broadside slightly quartering towards me. i took her on the shoulder, in spite of a little difficultly being able to see the crosshairs on her. if i had been in the woods i wouldn't have been able shoot at that time because i wouldn't have been able to see the crosshairs even though it was still legal shooting time.  this has got me thinking about illuminated riflescopes. Anyone have any experience with one? What's your opinion of it or them? i need a short scope, less than 11.5" to fit on my ruger compact, otherwise the scope will look bigger than the gun. i'm thinking about: aimpoint 9000L with 2moa dot, trijicon 1-4x24, burris euro 30mm 1-4x24. any others i should consider? would really like to hear of other people's experience with illuminated scopes.

[shilo]

forgot to mention the scope i was using is a leupold vari x ll 2.5x20mm. like the size of this scope but the optics are terrible for a scope in this price range - all around the perimeter of the field of view is not sharp.

[Graybeard]

The reason for that is that tiny 20mm objective. Even tho it has a large exit pupil a 20mm objective just doesn't let enough light in.

There are basically three directions you can go to be sure you can see your crosshairs if you can see clearly enough to shoot. One of course is the direction you ask about which is an illuminated cross hair. They add a lot of bulk and weight to the scope and most systems put in too much light so they actually make it more difficult not easier to see the game and cross hair at same time. The system Mueller uses does not. His 2-7 might do for your needs.

The second option is to just use a fatter cross hair which will assure that if you can see the game you can also see the cross hair. To me this is the best option as it adds no bulk or weight to the scope.

Or you can take the third road which is sort of a hybrid of the two. The Bushnell Firefly has a means of illumination without bulk or weight and has a huge wide crosshair that for the most part is perfectly adequate on its own. But for daylight use I hate how really wide it is.

[Ahab]

Another option is the Mueller Eraticator. It has a sweet little adjustable intensity red dot and fine cross hairs. The scope I bought came with it and I thought I'd never use it. Boy was I wrong.