Do 1-4s gather enough light?

I do a lot of walking around at night hunting for pigs, varmints and whatnot and I use a green light that attaches to the top of my scope. My 4x16x50 and 3x9x40 scopes I can see fine out to 150 maybe even further. My question is would a 1x4 or 1x6 gather enough light to work efficiently out to 100-150? Anyone have experience with this?

Your pupil will open somewhere between 5 and 7mm depending on your age. Divide the front aperture of the scope by the magnification. If you had a 4x scope and the aperture was 32mm, you'd have an exit pupil value of 8 (32 / 4), meaning you'd have to have an 8mm pupil to accept all of the light that was passed through the scope. If you're under 30 then you're like to have pupil dilation at the larger end of the scale, if you're over 60 then you're going to be at the low end, otherwise you should be somewhere in the middle.

If the exit pupil value of your scope is greater than or equal to the size of your pupil, the scope will pass all the available light possible within the limitations of the scope / glass quality. Note that the value of the exit pupil will vary with variable scopes as the power changes. Note again, that glass and scope construction quality varies greatly, and that higher quality will usually imply a better transfer of light.

Does this make sense?

I follow what you are saying but I am hoping someone chimes in and says if they have had any luck using one in the way I want to.

Yes they will. I have the Burris Tac30 and use a Surefire Polytac or my Elusive Wildlife 250. Both provide plenty of light, but both are pretty tight patterns so it can be a little hard to line up the light beam and the optics. I've found that in top of my optic isn't ideal for this scope, so I've been mounting as close to the top of the rifle closest to the muzzle I can

Ive been mounting on top of my other scopes but I can see where it could be an issue with the 1x4. Anyway you could show me a pic of where you mount the light exactly?

***Not my rifle***

This light is the Inforce WMLx, got one in order. This is where it will be mounted

Is that the same place you put the EW 250? I have a killzone 250. Would it get in the way of the scope?

No, the EW 250 is at the 10 o'clock position

Does anybody know the specs of this gun, like what handgaurd to allow for the suppressor and what length barrel before suppressor ?

I like my 1-6 and 1-4 for night varmint hunting inside of 150 or so yards. If I were shooting smaller targets at longer ranges I might opt for 3-9 but would have to have a fairly bright light for me to feel comfortable.

They will work for as far as your spotlight will work.

Yes. I have the Vortex Strike Eagle 1-6x and use it with a XLR 250 kill light and it will gather as far as the light will go. I use it with the illuminated reticle on the lowest setting (1) and the red/green contrast is perfect for night shooting.

yeah,it you have a light.. then no problem

Yes, any good quality 1 X 4 will allow you to see just fine, provided you have a good light on your target.

Of more importance…IMO is your reticle choice. All of the scopes I have for night hunting (or low-light) have illuminated reticles, but I don’t often use that feature since they also have a thick portion of the crosshair which shows up fine. Any reticle with a fine crosshair ‘can’ be hard to see under certain conditions.



120 yds. 4.5 power. German #4 reticle (daytime)

agreed