Anyone use an Illuminated Recticle?
Anyone heard of the brand Barska?
They have a several models.
I know that some mfgs such as Leupold, Burris, and BSA have battery operated Illuminated Recticles. Others like Bushnell FireFly use glow in the dark recticles.

Despite my love for Nikon and Leupold, I was considering buying a Barska to put on my .223 that my wife will start using - Just in case she drops it & breaks it. I was thinking on one with a "IR Target Dot" or "IR Mil-Dot"

Go to www.opticsale.com and try searching for these for "illuminated Recticle" , "Barska IR Target Dot" , "Barska IR Mil-Dot", "Barska VarmiNt", "Barska Excavator"

There are many different scopes most with the Recticle on the "2nd focal plane", but that site also has some on the "first focal plane".
Check out the picts where when you zoom in the recticle also gets larger!

Too many choices!!
I'll probably go with the "illuminated target dot".

Most of the time you get what you pay for. The glass will not be as good as the ones you listed, but it might be fine for what she needs. I have the Leupold Mark 4 with ill and love it... but you are right... if you are worried about your wife dropping it, then I would try what you are looking for.

-Greg

You might look at the Mueller line. They seem to be of really decent quality and are fairly reasonable compared to some of the one's you've listed. There is a guy on Ebay that is supposedly the largest dealer in the country.

Barska's are cheaper scopes (Russian, I believe) and may work OK for you or they may not - it's a crapshoot.

I have a couple of pairs of Barska binoculars that are pretty good for the money. Not great, but good.

I had a new-in-package Barska scope, but sold it before I could try it out. (Nothing against the scope; I had just accumulated a lot of stuff and needed to thin out some items.)

The claim is that Barska makes optics for a lot of other lower-end companies, like Tasco and Simmons. I don't know that's if that is true today, was true, was never true, or whatever.

NCStar (another Chinese manufacturer) used to have pretty much cornered the market on inexpensive illuminated-reticle scopes, but they've faded away, I think--probably some reorganization of the Commie slave-labor market that was putting them together or something.

+1 on the Mueller. The best feature of their reticle is that it has brightness adjustments that can dim the reticle to almost nothing. Most illuminated reticles I've seen seem to be too bright. If you don't need a lot of magnification you might even try some of the red dot scopes. I have an Eotech (zero magnification) that is VERY rugged-the military and law enforcement use them as well! I've taken a coyote at almost 300yds, and it's great for anything in between with it's tiny 1moa dot.

Bushnell is nice,comes with a lifetime warranty,4 different illum rects and for around 100$ not a bank breaker but stay away from BSA.

I have owned both an NCSTAR scope with IR and I have a Barska Ridgeline with IR. Over the two I would suggest Barska. I think their scopes would hold up pretty well on a 223. The optics are definitely clear enough for the price, and I never had an issue with the Barska losing zero. The Ridgeline has green and red illumination with brightness settings for each. For an inexpensive scope they work. For this price range, if I had it to do again, I would probably look at the Bushnell series IR scopes first.

Lots of good info.
Thank You Gentlemen!
I've got some more research to do on Bushnell and Mueller.

I've got a Burris Signature Ballistic Plex illuminated reticle - best price I found was at bear basin, with free burris signature rings. A little pricey, but great optics.