I thought the scope would be nice without the illumintated reticle myself but after using it a bit I kind of like it. I put it on a model 7400 Remington in 30-06 for a night hog hunting rifle and the dot at minimum powere is real easy to see in a spotlight beam. I killed a 9 point whitetail the 2nd of January with this rifle and have to say I really like the scope. It would be nice if the tube was a bit longer to allow it to be mounted on long actions without using extension rings.