Roger,
I'm glad I found you. Because with your owning the two different reticles in question, you can probably tell what is the best compromise to suit my needs.
I have two new Black Diamond 8x-32x side-focus in both the fine plex and Bal mil-dot to choose from. 99% of the time that I do ever get to spend shooting my 16 lb custom 22x47L varmint rifle will be for target shooting. However, I built this rifle with the intent of shooting PD out at 400-700 yards someday if I get the chance. I really don't want to have to change scopes on my rifle just to do PD hunting some day.
Though I have very little field experience, I prefer to use hold-over for long shots, rather then dial-in. But, I'm affraid that with the fine plex reticle, I will have no really good means to estimate elevation or windage on long distance shots, as there is no reference marks on the fine plex as there is on the bal-mil-dot.
I would imagine that after a while of shooting at the PD's out at 400-500 yards, you start to know just where to hold the mil dot in relation to the dog. But, would I be just as successful trying to shoot dogs that distance with a fine-plex without reference points? This is why I was hoping that the center crosshairs of the ballistic mil-dot reticle is fine enough to use for the 100 yard target shooting. I'm hoping it will serve dual purposes well enough. (??) Naturally, I will have the power turned up to 32x for target shooting at 100 yards, and pobably more like 20X magnification out at PD's at 400-600+ yards.
If you can tell me that I would be just as successfull at judging hold-over using a fine plex reticle, then I'd be happy to choose it, as I will spend more time shooting paper with it anyway.