Front Focal Plane Nightforce ! 3-15X50 F1 FFP

Nightforce F1 3-15X50 Made in USA
At SHOT Show 2008 I was welcomed to the Nightforce booth by one of the most anticipated releases to the shooting world in quite some time, the introduction of the Nightforce Front Focal Plane riflescope or the NXS F1.

Nightforce has always been a constant in both the tactical world and on the competition circuit. Nightforce scopes top the very best in the Benchrest, F-Class as well they equip many of our Special Operations Soldiers’ weapons systems.

It was a long wait between that SHOT Show encounter and receiving the F1 in late October, 2008. But I have to say Nightforce didn’t disappoint. Immediately upon receiving the scope, while working a class at Rifles Only, I wasted no time mounting it on my Gladius from GA Precision. At the time, the Gladius was wearing a Nightforce 3.5-15X 50 Mil adjusted turrets with ZeroStop and MLR reticle, this just happened to be the exact configuration of the F1. The only difference, the reticle was now located in the Front Focal Plane as opposed the usual Second Focal Plane offerings; and the F1 is engraved “Made in USA” on top, where previous NXS series scopes were marked “Made in Japan”.

The Front Focal Plane Difference

Before I move any further, I want to lay out the differences between the Front Focal Plane, commonly referred to as First Focal Plane, and Second Focal Plane riflescope. Anyone who has used a Nightforce scope previous to the F1 knows, when you turned the power ring to adjust the magnification the reticle of a Nightforce scope stayed the same size, regardless of the magnification setting. For years, using a scope with the reticle in the Front Focal Plane was considered very European. For most companies fighting the urge to go in this direction it was said that American Shooters did not like the reticle changing size, because this is exactly what happens in a Front Focal Plane scope. However, the point is, the reticle appears to change size based on the magnification and relationship to the target. What this means is, the values of the reticle used – whether using a ballistic, Mil-Radian, or MOA type reticle – remain constant, regardless of the power setting.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with a second focal plane scope for 95% of the shooters out there; however, it does require you to adjust your training regiment accordingly to understand exactly what you are seeing. Most of us know that our reticles have a value, regardless of the unit of measurement, be it Milliradian or Minute of Angle, they all have an angular measurement assigned which is used to assist the shooter. With a Second Focal Plane scope, that value is only valid at the highest power setting in most scopes. Some manufacturers set that value to be valid at 10X. The manufacturer will usually mark the power ring, indicating this power setting for the shooter. With Nightforce scopes, specifically the 3.5-15X and 5.5-22X models, the value is set to the highest power. When ranging with your reticle, this becomes an issue when you move off the highest powers. A shooter using a 3.5-15X scope on 12X is no longer viewing a true value representation of the Mil-Dot Reticle – the values for that reticle is now something other than 1 Mil between the dots. With the proper preparation one can “map” the reticle and note the changes in their logbook for use when less than full power is practical. This mapping takes time and understanding, and very few people do this. Typically what happens is the shooter ends up using the scope incorrectly.

Enter the Front Focal Plane riflescope. This scope has the reticle positioned inside of the scope in such a way so that regardless of the magnification, the reticle is always in the correct relationship to the target; hence, making the reticle values valid at all powers. For a tactical shooter, especially one planning on taking their weapon to the fight, this is very important. The missions of the tactical shooter, especially in today’s conflicts, are very dynamic, requiring the shooter to engage targets at varying distances under adverse conditions. For the shooter set up in a Hide site, over watching a position, almost anything will work. However, when mixed-in with local populations, in urban or built up areas, the threat can come from any direction and/or distance; so the shooter must be dynamic. One of the best ways to accomplish this is to reduce the power of the scope and open up its field of view and to use the reticle to make rapid, snap engagements possible. The reticle has value, maintaining that value, regardless of the power, is a huge advantage – one I personally would not want to give up. One number, one value, across the full range of the magnification, it doesn’t get any simpler than that.

Turrets Matching the Reticle along with the Zero Stop Feature

Another plus in Nightforce’s favor, especially when comparing the F1 to other scopes in the same class, is the addition of the ZeroStop and turrets matching the reticles. Regardless if you use a Milliradian reticle, (currently the only option for the F1) or an MOA reticle (available in the future), it’s important to get a scope where the turrets and reticle match values (I.e. an MOA value reticle should incorporate an MOA value turret). Also introduced at the 2008 SHOT Show, Nightforce no longer limits the ZeroStop feature to Law Enforcement and Military purchases; now anyone can order this feature, and I highly recommend it. The best thing about the Nightforce ZeroStop is the ability for the individual shooter to set this position rather than simply making the zero stop in a fixed position. Why might this be important? Take for instance, the use of a suppressor on your rifle. In respect to my case, using my Harbinger rifle with Jet Suppressor, my point of impact, when attaching the can, is exactly ¾ of a minute low in the 6 O’clock position. By setting my ZeroStop to this location, I can use the 0 position for my unsuppressed 100 yard zero, and the ZeroStop position for my suppressed 100 yard zero.

The F1 arrived to Sniper’s Hide as I requested, with the MLR Reticle, which is a milliradian, based reticle with .5 Mil Hash Marks. The F1 is also available with Nightforce’s standard Mil-Dot Reticle – which incorporates hollow dots instead of solid dots. The MLR uses hash marks instead of dots at the 1 Mil mark as well. It also has .250 mil hashes at the ends, which is especially useful in ranging.

Because the F1 is a front focal plane scope, the reticle will appear to get smaller as the magnification is turned down. While, this is a true statement the reticle is actually staying in perfect relationship to target. One of the reasons I like the 3.5-15X offering is the fact I don’t have to turn the reticle down very much. In cases of shooting moving targets at Rifles Only, I find up-close between 10X and 12X are about perfect. As well, when shooting the F1 with Night Vision, I also find you don’t have to go any lower than 10X.

I mentioned the turrets matching the reticle, and with my F1, it was ordered with Mil adjusted turrets, where one click of the turret equals 1/10th of a Mil. In respect to the turret system, the F1 is, again, exactly the same as the previous NXS models. The F1 in the Mil adjusted configuration has 5 Mils per turn, with roughly 17 mils available. It’s important to note here, most 308 rifles only require between 10 and 12 Mils of adjustment to reach 1000 yards. One of the finer points of the Nightforce F1 is that it doesn’t require an aggressive base like some of the other scopes in its class. I have mounted my Nightforce NXS USASF 3.5-15X on a flat base of a POF 308, and it maintains enough elevation to reach the maximum effective range of this rifle.

When the turrets and the reticle match in the front focal plane, regardless of the power, what you see is what you get. When shooting at 100 yards, you simply read the reticle to give you your adjustment, breaking up the space between the mils into 10th, so, if you require an adjustment of 7/10th up and 4/10th right, you simply dial that change on the turrets, and the strike will move directly to the desired point. This works regardless of the range, you can engage a target at 837.6 yards, 765.9 meters, whatever, if you see the impact hit 5/10th low and 8/10th left, you can either hold the change using the reticle or simply dial that change, and the next round will impact on target, providing you, the shooter, do your job. Yes, the mils have a linear value. However, with this system there is no need to assign a linear value to the scope. Inches are irrelevant to the issue. A Mil is a Mil, is a Mil! So use the mils and leave inches at home. Again, this works for yards, or meters, no distance is superior over the other as they both work the same with a milliradian scope.

Range Report

When the F1 arrived I was working down at Rifles Only, which is indeed fortunate for me; because at Rifles Only, I actually live on the range. Mounting the F1 on the Gladius was straight forward enough. It was mounted with a set of .885 Nightforce rings. The retail package of this scope will include a set of Nightforce UL 1.00 high, 30mm rings. As soon as it was mounted, I took the scope directly to what we call the “short range”, which is our 600+ yard square range. It was time for me to zero up the scope and test its turrets and reticle. At this time, I chose to zero the scope at 100 yards as opposed to meters. Why yards? Because, like I said a paragraph before, it doesn’t matter. The scope zeroed up with 3 rounds thanks to the matching turrets. I then proceeded to check the reticle and turret relationship. I did this by placing multiple targets downrange with a varying set of impact points on them. I then read the reticle in mils from a central aiming point to a target and dialed this adjustment. While maintaining the central point of aim, I fire a set of rounds checking to see where I impacted on target. I am not surprised to say the F1 worked flawlessly in all respects. The turrets are very positive with the 1/10th of a mil clicks spaced a good distance from each other. One of my favorite things about the Nightforce line of scopes is their consistency and repeatability, which we all know is the key to the successful employment of the precision rifle. And the F1 was living up to the Nightforce brand with each shot. Accuracy was dead-on for every shot fired; the scope reticle was exactly spaced with the proper subtention. Not only did the turrets return to zero each and every time, they matched the reticle perfectly.

After finishing up on the Rifles Only short range, I headed over to the tower to get my dope for the GAP Gladius, which is an 18” barreled 308 rifle built by George Gardner. The Gladius is hammer, it hits everything you point it at, in part, thanks to the guys at GA Precision, mostly due to its tight-bored Bartlein barrel. This makes shooting the F1 beyond simple.

Reaching out to 1000 yards was not a problem for the F1; it took me exactly 12 mils to reach 1000 yards using Cor Bon 175gr Match Ammunition. The clarity of the scope is excellent. I was able to spot my own impacts, both on and off the steel target at 1000 yards. This is an important factor to the tactical shooter, and the Nightforce glass is always of a very high quality. For most people, the optical quality is a subjective thing as no two people see scopes the same way. The F1 has very good edge to edge qualities, and there are no unusual aberrations. For me, the glass is exactly what it should be. Even moving the targets out at distance around the edges of the scope, I saw no distortions warping the picture. The parallax adjustment, or side focus, was also very well calibrated to remove the parallax and focus the scope at distance.

This was not the only time I pushed the Gladius out to distance with the F1. In fact, between October and December, 2008 it was used over and over shooting at minimum 1200 rounds of quality 308 ammunition; and each time it performed as instructed. It was so good that we called Nightforce up to order F1 scopes for the entire cadre of Rifles Only Staff to use on our personal rifles, it was that good.

At this point I want to mention a few things of interest, the F1 is not a big heavy scope. It’s not overly complicated. And in my opinion, is one of the few great cross over scopes. Too many tactical scopes require specialized parts to be used in conjunction with the optics, like 30 MOA canted bases and larger 34mm rings; and some scopes don’t allow for a left-handed operator to work his/her bolt on the rifle. The F1 performs its duties using 30mm rings and your standard bases. If you currently own any of the NXS series scopes, you can simply replace one with the F1 and drive on; there is not need to spend extra money; especially with the scope shipping with the appropriate rings.

A side note to this range report: when the Rifles Only staff received their F1 scopes, one of our most demanding and technical instructors “Lindy” made a point of testing his scope using his own exacting standards. Just to quote Lindy, here from the Sniper’s Hide website, he stated the following:

To add to what Frank said, I was out shooting one today, with the MLR reticle and 0.1 milliradian clicks.

I got the scope zeroed, and the zero stop set - I set the zero stop so that there is one click below the hundred yard zero, and the zero stop is very easy to set.

The eye relief on it is very generous, better than on my Leupold 6.5-20X50M1.

I checked the reticle to make sure the marks are correctly spaced, and they're exactly on the money as far as my ability to measure them goes, i.e., at exactly 100 yards, 10 mils covers exactly 36 inches to within a quarter of an inch.

Then I checked the vertical adjustments, and, again, they appear to be exactly on the money - 10 mils of adjustments covers exactly 36 inches at 100 yards plus or minus a quarter of an inch.

The parallax adjustment is very nice, with little if any backlash, and it will focus on targets very close. It wouldn't quite focus on a target at 25 yards, but it wasn't far off at that distance.

The elevation and windage clicks are very crisp, with plenty of room between them. With 5 mils of adjustments per turn, and the zero stop, there is little probability of getting a turn off.

Then I went out to the tower, and started shooting. I shot out to 600 yards, dialing my elevation at 100 yard increments to check the dope, and then dialing back down to a 100 yard zero and holding the same elevation using the reticle. No problems.

Then I shot out to 1000 yards, dialing the elevation. The glass is very clear, and the parallax adjustment very good. I had no problem spotting impacts at 1000 yards, though there wasn't a lot of mirage running today, with the temperature around 70.

Once that was done, I dialed back down to a 100 yard zero, and start doing holdover drills. My normal practice when shooting inside 700 yards is to hold over from a 100 yard zero, which will get me beyond 600 yards using only holdovers. Of course, you can put a longer zero on the gun, and shoot farther out using both holdovers and holdunders, but most of them time you need to shoot fast it will be at relatively short ranges, and using the 100 yard zero means you only have to hold over, so there's no chance you'll forget to hold under at ranges shorter than your zero range.

In short, I like the scope. The MLR reticle has tick marks at one milliradian intervals, and smaller tick marks halfway between. My preference would be for there to be a bit more of a difference between the mil marks and the half mil marks, because I do a lot of shooting using holdovers/holdunders, but that's a pretty minor nit on a very nice scope.

I suspect that Nightforce is going to sell a bunch of these.

This mirrors my opinion exactly.

Where are the complaints?

Before anyone thinks I am being soft on the F1, I want to list what I know and have heard as complaints with the NXS line; although personally I don’t agree with all of them. I’m going to list them here regardless, in the interest of full disclosure, and to help the shooter make the most informed decision possible.

The first and a most prevalent complaint against the NXS line of scopes is the fact the eyepiece turns with the magnification. For guys using Butler Creek scope caps, they constantly complain the power adjustment turns their scope cap into the rifle. I personally use the supplied NF bikini caps so I don’t have this problem but I see their point. Yes, the F1 maintains this Nightforce tradition, so if you had this complaint with Nightforce before, you’ll have it again. I don’t see it with the 3.5-15X line, as I don’t know anyone turning their adjustments down that much, but in a 5.5-22X, sure it’ll be there. (So, why is it like this? The answer is simple. It was designed for special forces and met the requirements to be able to operate under the most extreme temperatures and allow the shooter to maintain their lowest profile in the field. It’s very easy to grab a handful of the ocular and turn it to adjust the power ring. It is a super strong and ultra reliable design; and intended to take the abuse of professional field operators.)

The Illumination: It’s the same again as the previous models, you have to adjust it from the inside, and once it’s engaged you only have one option, either on or off, once its set. Again, okay, how often are you shooting with it to need to adjust it that much? If I need it, I pop it on. If I don’t, it’s off. I rarely go looking for illumination, and I shoot on a range where I have access 24/7. In fact, I can count on one hand how many times I needed illumination over the last year. I think some people just feel they are getting more with an illumination controlled by a rheostat. (The NXS illumination design keeps the NXS waterproof to 60 feet) Wouldn’t you rather have that integrity v/s external rheostat controls???

How small does the reticle get? And can you still see the hash marks at low power? The reticle gets small, that is a draw back to the Front Focal scope – from all manufacturers. But its works at 8X, and that is about as low as I would go and still need the hash marks. Mil ranging should be done at max power, and shooting at night doesn’t require you to go to 3.5X. I have spoken to Nightforce about it as I do have scopes in the Front Focal Plane where I can see the mils at powers lower than the F1, but it’s definitely not a deal breaker, in fact it pretty minor in opinion. (This is a tradeoff of when you have finer subtention reticles) It’s not unusable, and with the straight Mil-Dot version, there is less of an issue regarding this topic, than with the MLR version, so consider that when choosing a reticle.

Last, we hear about the number of turns required to dial your given elevation; especially at distance. While it does take multiple turns to reach 1000 yards, in my case with the Gladius, 12 Mils, this is two full turns and then 2 more mils. Yes, I too would be one to like more elevation per turn. But I see this as a training issue and not a scope issue. Because Nightforce offers their turrets with the ZeroStop feature, it should be much harder for people to get lost on their revolutions as they have in the past. And yes, I see it all the time, shooters being a turn off. The idea is to use a post shot check list after each and every shot, or in the worst case, after each yard line or strings of fire. (Training, training, training is the key) Resetting the range or elevation, as well as the windage, is imperative. We teach this at every precision rifle class, reset your turrets and you won’t get lost. It would be nice to have more revolutions per turn; but for now I am fine with the 5 mils per turn as that gets me pretty far out there. Nightforce does offer a single turn MOA adjusted turret. It adjusts in 1.0 MOA increments giving the shooter 60 MOA per turn. But for me, I use mils, so I am pretty much out of luck. On the positive side, the NF adjustments are spaced wide apart and are very positive, so it’s a trade off of sorts.

That’s it, the entire of list of complaints complied; and as you can see, they are minor at best.

My conclusion, the Nightforce F1

In conclusion, the Nightforce was definitely worth the wait. We found the scope to be very user friendly; especially if you are coming from a previous NXS series scope. The turrets are positive, accurate and repeatable; as well the addition of the ZeroStop feature is a huge plus. The reticle works to match the turrets and is accurate across the magnification range. The scope is neither large, nor over bearing and doesn’t require specialized bases or rings to operate. In fact, the scope is an excellent cross-over optic. I can see it at home on a competition rifle, hunting rifle or dedicated tactical rig. I give the Nightforce F1 very high marks in both design and repeatability.

In the past, I have stated, and I will again here, dollar for dollar Nightforce makes the best scope on the market today. Are there scopes with slightly better optics, or more custom features, or greater adjustment per single revolution? Of course there are. But for what you get for your hard earned money, it is almost impossible to beat the quality and consistency of the Nightforce line of scopes. The F1 does retail for more money than the second focal plane line of NXS scopes, $2,410.00 with rings is the suggested listing, with a street price of around $2,300.00, but that still puts it at a great value for the money when considering the choices available. There is nothing out there in a custom line that Nightforce doesn’t offer. And once the F1 line is in full swing, it too will have all the same options as any other brand of Front Focal Plane scope out there. For me, I want accuracy in the adjustments, clarity in the optics, and a lifetime worth of durability. Nightforce has a lifetime warranty. But I don’t want to know how good their customer service is, and Nightforce meets this criteria. I have been asked over and over to compare the F1 directly to other brands of scopes, and in each case the person asking is really just asking me to affirm their decision, “did they get the best scope they could have”. Well, I can’t answer that, because if it makes you feel good, and does the job you ask it to, then it sounds to me like you made the right choice. I will say, there are a lot of choices in scopes out there. And for me I do a lot of hard shooting. If it can be broke, I tend to break it, and to date, Nightforce has never let me down, and the ones I have seen come up with an issue are far and few between, but when they do, Nightforce goes above and beyond to fix it. Important factors for a lot of people, so with that, let me say, the F1 is currently on my go-to rifle as well I have a second F1 living at Rifles Only on my work rifle. In my opinion that’s about best endorsement anyone can for in an optic.