Leupold scope questions

[cowpolks]

Hello, I am considering saving my money and geting a Leupold 8.5-25x50 VX-III with the varmint hunter reticle and have a couple of questions. Will the varmint hunter reticle work good with a .223 as Leupold says to use with cartridges similiar to a 22-250 and I am not familiar with the 22-250?? What do I get with a Leupold compared to a Bushnell 4200 elite?? Is the Leupold 8.5-25x50 VX-III scope over kill for a Savage 10FP-LE2A in .223 rem.

[Graybeard]

The .223 with a 40 grain pill pushed to the limits pretty much equals the .22-250 with a 50 grain. But put a 50 in both and the .22-250 is flatter for sure.

I've toyed with the idea of picking up one of the new Leupold's just for that reticle and the side focus feature. In a dog town it really would be nice.

But I think your magnification range is way off base. Way too much. After just a few shots the barrel will give off so much heat mirage you can't use those higher powers and unless the day is quite cool you can't effectively use them either. The 6.5-20 makes more sense and really the 4.5-14 pretty much is all you'll need. That's the one I was thinking of getting for use on prairie dogs. I'd rather see it top at 16X as I find it seldom that more than that is needed and often no more is even use able.