Hello, I have enjoyed the knowledge on this forum for quite some time. I recently sold a Savage and picked up a CZ primarily due to magazine issues in the field while squirrel hunting. I am interested in SB to improve my offhand shooting in the field. I have shot IPSC and a few long range tactical shoots. I understand the importance of good glass, I don't understand the value of a dot. My mk4 is mill dot and all other scopes are without a dot. When I was in law enforcement I took some long range rifle training they taught us to focus on the reticle. does the dot give you more to focus on? Since I am not familiar with the dot and different sizes I am unsure what dot to get that will serve as a good field/comp scope. I am currently looking at a leupold.6-20x40 efr target scope this scope has a target dot.

I live in St.Joseph Michigan is anyone aware of a nearby SB competition or a store that will carry some Leupolds with different dot sizes?

Does a dot significantly help with offhand vs standard reticles?

Will the dot cover up squirrels making it difficult to make head shots?

I also can't tell what distance parallax can be adjusted on the Leupolds, squirrels are often close I need an ao that can pull in close.

Thanks in advance for your information.

Welcome to Steel Chickens. There are three places in Michigan that shoot NRA approved smallbore rifle silhouette matches.
They are at Dorr, Alma, and Ypsilianti. Also about three hours south at Danville ,In.
There may be others that are not approved or sanctioned by the NRA and you will just have to search around for these. Look at different gun clubs and look for silhouette info.
For info on the NRA approved matches look in the NRA Shooting Sports online magazine to the events pages and you will find contact info and dates for the matches.

Dots. I would venture to say most silhouette shooters use dots in the scopes. Size of 1/2 minute or 3/8 minute seem the most common. I believe the evolution to the dot started early on in the game when we tried using target scopes that had fine crosshairs or fine dots of 1/8 min. We had problems with these because the fine crosshair would get lost in the amimal, depending on color, or what ever background was behind the animal.
Also I believe that as you progress in the sport you will not focus on the dot but a point on the animal and bring the dot to it. You may want to contact Leupold to see if they will still put the larger dots in scopes and what they will charge. Also a couple other people do it also but may have some effect on the warranty. Dots also work well on tree rats that are hiding in all sorts of places.

The best thing to do is to go to a match or two or three and look at what the people are looking through befor you spend your money. The Leupold 6x20 efr is a good scope but I would sure think of the duplex vs the 1/8 min target dot if that is what they are using now. Chicken Shooter Supply, at the top of the page, usually has some scopes call them and they may be able to help.
Note: The dot size 1/2 minute of angle would cover about 1/2 inch at 100 yards and the 1/8 min dot would cover about 1/8 inch at 100 yards.

Thank you for the information, I have emailed chickens shooting supply. I will check out the region for other matches.