First Focal Plane v. Second Focal Plane

Buckle up, because we’ve been waiting a long time to bring you this deep dive into a topic near and dear to our hearts. Find out the big differences between first and second focal plane riflescopes, and get some tips on which one is perfect for you.

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[alexmook]

It is amazing how much you can understand when someone has the ability explain so well....this video is priceless!

[YouLookinAtMe-Bro]

That is by FAR the best explanation of the differences between 1st and 2nd focal planes.
Thank you so much for the time that you spent to do this for us.
Much appreciated! 👍

[donsmith]

I've always been an iron sights guy, but my aging eyes have forced me into the optics world and I would always get flustered trying to figure this out between these two types of scopes. This has been the BEST explanation I've seen by far, I now know which one I want. Thank you.

[rfpalmer]

That is probably the best explanation of first and second focal planes I've ever heard.

[tonyturner]

Perfectly spoken!! Just a comment to the “double duty” you spoke of towards the end- I know I’m going to rifle some feathers with this but here it goes… IN MY OPINION, if you have enough coin to sink into a rifle that you will be using for PRS matches; you have enough money to set up a separate, hunting-dedicated rig.

[SilverTreasures]

Having the image of the scope zoom in and out helped my brain as you explained it. Whoever had the idea to keep the image up constantly understands the human brain.

[myfire]

I stay away from the FFP scopes for exactly the reason you stated about the reticle being too small on low power. As far as the hold over on an SFP, I just go to the range to figure out which hash marks work at what ranges, and at what power. IMO you really only need 2 powers to figure out. Full Power is easy..it's already there, so I would concentrate on the lowest power, and somewhere in the middle. Great vid.

[gregcox]

Best explanation I’ve ever heard on this topic!!!

[pitbull]

This is finally an explanation that isn’t too complicated to understand. Many years in the shooting community and never fully understood the difference until now. Still don’t know ALL of the differences and pros/cons but this definitely cleared most of the confusion up. Thanks.

[GunGuy]

Thank you for this. Now I know why my BDC never worked right. Had no clue it had to be highest power. Very good video, I learned a lot.

[robertqueberg]

Thank you very much for presenting this subject in a clear manner. You were neutral on each reticle type, and did not talk down to your viewers. Not once did you say; “ This is what I use, you will really like it.” You did well in presenting the advantages and disadvantages, as well as the best applications for each scope type.

[coltscs]

Im a visual learner. While the explanation was great, the example scope on the side was a great help

[Blue-kqno]

What a great instructor. Good Job, Vortex.

[jimforgrave]

Don't know what it is about this guy....but I like him! Vortex found a good rep

[gene]

Great video, best explanation on the differences between FFP and SFP I've seen. I was a great shooter until age started taking away my vision. Glad scopes can compensate for poor eye sight and allow me to continue enjoying long range shooting.

[catdadreloaded]

This is in my opinion the very best video explaining the difference between SFP and FFP. I always show my friends this video so they can get an understanding. And this time I'm here because I want a SFP for hunting. Max range I'd take a shot is 600 yards and that's the absolute Max I could if I wanted. My last year's hunt was just as you said, not ideal with a FFP. I learned a ton from that season and now I want a 4-16x50 SFP with an illuminated reticle. I think this is the best setup for hunting. You really only need to shoot up to 300 yards or less and the center of the reticle is perfect to handle that. 4 power zoom for up close shots and 16 for 300+. 50mm objective lens is an excellent size for night time shooting and with an illuminated reticle on a low setting is just the perfect setup. Now if only Vortex made this 🤔

[proteus]

Great video, very simply explained. I have to say, I have been shooting for years, and never used the scales. I just know how each gun shoots and how high I need to aim for drop. But I never have had any real training, just been shooting since a kid .

[rayzar]

This is the best unbiased honest explanation of both SFP vs FFP I've watched. Im in the need for a new scope for a new setup. Im a hunter and do a bit of F open when I can't hunt. I hunt in close with occasional long shots and anywhere from 600-1000 yards competition in prone. SFP will be perfect for my needs. Appreciate this video very much

[norcal]

I have watched several videos discussing the differences between FFP & SFP. This is by far the most comprehensive and informative I have seen. Thank you for this video.

[kasparsvaverins]

Great explanation with great visualization animation!
I have something to add about 2nd plane not being able to use a reticle to make holdovers. It's not quite an accurate statement, you can use it, just that it gets a bit more tricky. Keep in mind what I'm about to write comes from a man who has pretty much only used 1st plane and is not a native English speaker. If you see a mistake regarding technical language or principles of optics let me know.

In 2nd plane optics, you'll find on the magnification scale one of the numbers is marked with a square (or other marking) around it. That tells you the magnification at which the scale is exactly correct. In this example, we use the MIL system and optic with 3-24 magnification. In this example optic has the number 8 marked. Since we know that 10 clicks are 1 MIL (in most cases) and our example rifle at 500m needs 40 click correction we also know that at the 8x magnification, we can use 4.0 MIL holdover and we will hit the target.

Now about the tricky part using other magnifications. You can still use the scale on your reticle, but you'll need to ''translate'' it to correspond with your known click values. For example, now we are still shooting 500m and our gun still has a known click value of 40 clicks at this distance, but we are using 16x (twice as big) magnification. Now our reticle is still the same size, but proportionally to the target, it is twice as big (at 8x Magnification, for example, the target appeared at 5 MIL size, now it appears as 10 MIL size) meaning MIL value has decreased by half (when magnification is twice as big), which also means now if we want to shoot using holdover, instead of 4.0 MIL we need to aim at 8.0 MIL holdover and we will hit the target.
Same for 24x magnification- it's 3x larger than 8x meaning we need to use 3x bigger holdover than at 8x. In our current example 4.0 MILx 3=12 MIL holdover.

The same principle goes for using half the magnification 4x, now we would need half the MIL holdover to hit the target- 2 MIL.

It's somewhat simple to translate it when magnification is round numbers bigger or smaller than the default correct magnification.
It gets tricky using another magnification size for example 11x in our case. 11x is 1.375 times bigger than 8x magnification, which would mean in our example we would need to aim 5.5 MIL holdover (4.0x1.375= 5.5), but is that the kind of math you want to do?

Plus you can still use the scale to make corrections after a missed shot regardless of magnification. Let's say you missed the 500m target and it went 3 MIL to the right, but you are using a random 11x magnification, do you now need to translate it to the correct value? Yes and No. If you want to correct the next shot with clicks then you need to make that calculation, but why would you? You can use that 3 MIL miss as a reference and hold 3 MIL left using the same magnification.