My best advice is to try both. We often go into these decisions thinking we are going to pick the perfect one, but I can tell you that you won’t know until you try it. That is what I thought, and now 20 scopes or more later, I still keep selling and trying.
My personal preference is FFP for several reasons. I usually keep my scope fairly maxed, and I like a thicker reticle. I personally don’t think the reticle gets too big. I have shot with a S&B 50x FFP scope at 50yds 1/4” targets and it doesn’t come close to hiding the target. That being said, I do think the reticle can be unusable at lower mag, but I don’t buy FFP scopes where I can’t see with thenrane I am using. (pick the right tool for the job) I also like that I know the holdover regardless of the magnification. This can be important, because atmospheric conditions don’t always cooperate and you have to compensate by lowering magnification and don’t have to recalculate anything. Christmas tree style reticles are usually more prevalent in FFP scopes if that is what you like.
That being said, I do still like SFP scopes. They are much cheaper when trying to buy high magnification scopes. I like a 50x scope, and it is much cheaper to buy a SFP 50x scope than an FFP one. I usually don’t like the reticles as much because they are usually fairly thin. I don’t like fairly plain reticles though, and that is usually all you will find in SFP (plain for some holdoffs around 1MOA each).
if you are shooting fixed distances (think bench), a SFP scope may be better. If shooting many distances and needing to figure out on the fly, a FFP might be better.
Figure our how you will be shooting, what reticle you like (super important), how much zoom you want, how much you are willing to spend, and go from there.
