Seeing well enough to shoot is not necessarily the same as seeing well enough to be totally sure of what you are shooting at. Again, I could have shot that buck, but I had no confidence that I’d be happy with the results.

I also have no certainty that any optics would have helped. I had a dark-bodied animal against yellow grass, but the grass made the antlers invisible in the fading light. I couldn’t see the crosshairs on the body well, but the shot was close enough that I felt I could center them on the shoulder anyway--if I could tell how big a buck I was shooting at.

With a different background or greater distance, however, losing the black crosshairs against dark hide can be a deal-breaker. That’s what lighted reticles are all about. I’ve used battery-powered lighted reticles for leopard and black bear, both classic low-light situations.

Recently I’ve done a lot of hunting with Trijicon’s tritium-tipped post and newer tritium-centered reticle. These are essentially lighted reticles without batteries. I like them for close, fast work because the eye is naturally drawn to the bold center, and in low light it’s quick and easy to establish an aiming point.

Of course, a lighted reticle doesn’t help you see what you’re shooting at, so I take it all back. Heavy optics with oversize objectives designed for maximum light gathering do indeed have their places--and not just outside the U.S.

I don’t want to carry the biggest scopes or the heaviest binoculars up a sheep mountain because I’m probably going to have head back down that mountain ahead of last light. But we have quite a lot of hunting that might push the limit, including almost all whitetail deer hunting.

You have to see an animal properly before you can shoot it, and there are days when brighter optics might make a difference.