So I bought a Remington Model Six in 30-06, (pump action)
for Virginia deer, and maybe a black bear if one comes along.
Which scope manufacturer is providing units that gather the
most light during low light minutes, just as the sun is start-
ing to make morning light, and also when the sun is fading,
as evening turns to darkness?
Which variable power level range for forest hunting, and pos-
sibly for open field shooting opportunities?
Do you all favor Swarovski, or Schmidt Bender, or another for
quality?
Would you say YES to a lighted reticle?
Which reticle design?
Thanks everyone!

Of the scopes available new now, I'd settle for a small Leupold variable or, if you can find one, a fixed 2.5x.

I prefer 50-year-old European scopes where the reticle moves out of centre if not mounted properly, but something tells me you are not in the right place for that adventure.

The usual duplex reticle is fine but most of my scopes have the old German #1, which has three heavy pickets. I don't think Leupold sells that.

Illumination is a decadence I detest but it may have some use against the dark hide of a black bear.

3-9x40 trijicon. Or, Leupold vx6 patrol (https://www.leupold.com/patrol-6hd-1-6x24-illum-firedot-duplex-riflescope)

You can do better with top-quality Euro glass I am sure, but you will pay for it.

Based on your description of the type of shooting you will put your Model Six pump to, closer range, forest and poor light conditions, the scope below sounds as though it will fit the bill perfectly. Down to 3X in the forest, 30mm tube and 50mm objective for best light transmission and lighted reticule for poor light conditions and dark coated animals.

Leupold VX Freedom 3-9x50 30mm tube illuminated Firedot Twilight Hunter #177228

Thank you all for sharing your opinions on scopes. I've heard
folks say that Leupold has the strongest warranty a person can
realistically hope for, and that's an aspect that certainly has
value.
Again, I appreciate you all jumping in!

In regard to light gathering, Jack, I think it tends to be overplayed.

Unless you are young and myopic, your eyes probably can't benefit from an exit pupil bigger that six or seven mm, so a small variable with no objective bell will be good enough in states where hunting after dark is illegal.

The benefit from these small scopes is that they are short and can be mounted low where they are less subject to the bumps that lose your zero.

I once did a comparison once between three of the scopes I had at hand in order to see how much difference larger objectives and tubes make to performance at low light. Specifically picked to span the range from small to large.

They were a Leupold VX-1 2-7 x 32
A Leupold VX-III 4.5-14 x 40 (on a 30mm tube)
a Nighforce 5.5-22 x 56 with illuminated reticle.

I have an open area in front of my house, on the other side of which (about 160 yards away) is a mobile phone tower. Attached to the fence of this is an industrial sign indicating what PPE people are supposed to wear. The test was basically just trying to see how early in the morning I could see these signs clearly enough to consider taking a shot.

I first did the test with all the scopes set to 6 power (in the middle of the shared magnification range), and the total difference, from first to last was just three minutes. The difference between the 56mm objective of the Nightforce and the 40mm objective of the bigger Leupold was just 30 seconds. Keep in mind the difference between objective area between the three scopes is 188%, and the difference in weight is just over 300%.

The next day I re-did the test but with the scope magnification set higher in order to maximize each scope's theoretical maximum exit pupil.
That gained me an extra 4 minutes. But the point of best performance on the big scopes was around 12 x magnification, and in my opinion that's too much to be useful in reasonably dense environments.

I just don't think it's worth carrying the extra weight, and the extra bulk, in order to gain 8 minutes of shooting light.

However, I will say that the illuminated reticle does definitely help against darker targets and is in my opinion worth while. Especially since if that mechanism fails you still have the normal black crosshair. However, I use it so seldom that I normally have it taped up with electrical tape to ensure that it doesn't get turned on accidentally. I think in shooting that scope for a quarter of a century, I have actually needed it to take a shot just once.

You all are very helpful, and I am happy that I
chose to run this question past you all.