FFP reticle position

First or Front Focal plane reticle position was a predominant rifle scope design in the past. Today, such reticle arrangement can only be found in tactical scopes and in a few classical European hunting scopes. The main feature of FFP reticles is their subtensions do not change with the magnification change. That means reticle subtensions in such scopes can be used for distance estimations or bullet drop correction at any magnification setting. This is of paramount importance in tactical scenarios; thus, all real tactical scopes have FFP reticle placement. Usually, such scopes also have the clicks matched with reticle subtensions and are named MIL-MIL scopes. Another benefit of FFP reticles is the point of impact does not change with magnification change.

The reason the majority of new hunting scopes are not produced as FFP scopes, however, is the fact these reticles are thick on highest magnification and cover more target space than SFP reticles. With super-zoom scopes with zoom ratio of 6 times or more, this feature became even more noticeable, since FFP reticles in such scopes are thin on low magnification and thick on high magnification.

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