First focal plane vs Second

Depends on application. From a pure sniping standpoint FFP is a waste of money because you are shooting at Max magnification. My US Optics SN-3 1.8-10 is FFP, but all of my shooting with my M40A3 in a tactical application is at 10x, so the fact its FFP is useless.
For Airguns and rimfires I have found SFP more useful. Why? You can index your scope on how much area your hash marks cover at a given magnification. This doesn’t bode well for small pests, but if you need huge amounts of holdover you back the power ring down and still have a really usable reticle – not something that looks like a Shrinky Dink project.

IMHO and professional experience FFP is not worth the extra dough.

If it helps you sleep at night or gives you the feeling your scope is better, good for you.
Spend the money on good, solid MOA base and rings. Those will set you back $300.

Learning your particular SFP details cannot be read somewhere – you have to get out, rangefind, measure grids on targets and shoot.

That’s my opinion on the matter.
🙂

Vortex’s warranty and at the time, lowest priced FFP, was the best deal available. Vortex warranty replaced/satisfied all who had legitimate problems. Vortex’s warranty was what originally caught my attention.

I wanted a Vortex Viper PST, but after waiting over a year for ’em to come available and then waiting another few months to work out the bugs in generation one, generation two took just too long to wait. Plus the 50yd minimum focus was a deal breaker.

In the mean time Bushnell marketed the 3-12×44 FFP, mil mil, 10yd minimum focus, Elite 4200 http://www.natchezss.com/product.cfm?contentID=productDetail&prodID=BH423124F so I bought one. I intended to upgrade to the Vortex Viper PST later, but…..the economy busted, I was laid off and so on, I kept the Bushnell and it has performed flawless so far.

X2! I have a change bucket started in the hopes of some day getting that SWFA FFP!

I never considered it a matter of preference but simply a matter of “pocket depth”.

My first and only choice for Variable power scopes is FFP, because the reticle is calibrated for any magnification. Which means that your holdover/under points never change or reticle range finding is not calibrated exactly to one magnification setting, such as 10X only, use whatever magnification. Aim and shoot, just like a fixed power scopes, which are neither FFP or SFP, because you can’t change the magnification. 😉

Interesting link, http://www.primalrights.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1522 .