I recently purchased two S&B 5-25x with P4F MOA/MOA setup and was extremely impressed. Prior to this i only owned NF scopes and although great the S&B is better in all aspects. Of course this comes at 2x the price and the S&B is not 200% better than the NF. You just have to figure out on your own if the improvements all around are worth 2x the price. For me the answer is yes.
My best friend and business partner was looking for a scope for his 308 and didnt want to drop $3500 on a scope and wanted great glass, FFP and MOA/MOA setup and be under $2k. Dont we all? lol I suggested the IOR 6-24x to him. I called Scott at Libertyoptics and he squared me away with one and with the current promotion of a free IOR 10x binocular it was a win/win. The scope arrived in a timely fashion as always from Scott and came with rings and the free binos. Needless to say i am quite impressed by the binos themselves.
So about the scope itself.
The scope feels quite beefy. I mean if this was using a QD mount and you ran out of ammo, you can detach it and start swinging as a battery ram. It is that beefy feeling in the hand. The finish has a rougher finish and not as refined as the S&B. The turrets have a nice feel to them and have 25MOA per revolution. All i can say is the tactile feel of the turrets are different than S&B but nothing to complain about. Just different. The parallax is works great but the range is quite shorter and you achieve focus pretty quickly and out of focus just as quickly. To me at least it is a little easier because with the S&B you can be in focus and still turn the knob quite a bit and still appears to be in focus. With S&B you have to turn the knob quite a bit until you realize that it is not in focus anymore. Hope that makes sense.
The digital illumination works great and only the center dot lights up. It is nice that if you forget it will auto shut off.
The glass is superb in my opinion. I first looked through it mounted on my buddy's rifle and looking at our targets at 850 yards and nearby trees etc and was quite shocked on how good the glass looked. My rifle with the S&B were still in the Pelican case. I took out my rifle and sat them side by side and kept going back and forth and i will be lying if i can say i can see a difference. The only way that i could even tell them apart was because the reticle was different. The IOR is that good. I am not an optic expert but my vision is 20/20 and we both felt the same about the clarity.
The reticle on the IOR is quite good. I absolutely love the floating center dot. It makes making precision groups a lot easier. The reticle is definitely thicker than the P4F and is more like the P4. But it was not thick enough to bother me and it actually made picking up the X-tree windage markings and elevations easeir to pick up.
I did a basic tracking test with the scope and it tracked perfect. I did not drop the scope from the 4th story and did not run it over with truck lol. So i did not do any of those tests. The only thing i cant comment is about the durability etc. However, Scott has reassured me that any issues and Val at IOR is quick to send you a brand new scope. I hope my buddy never has to use it but it is reassuring.
Needless to say i am quite impressed with the IOR. I used to own a Vortex Razor 5-20x and the glass is significantly better than the Razor and i think the IOR is a top contender for a scope in that mag range and FFP feature. If i had reviewed this scope before purchasing the 2nd S&B, i may have actually purchased an IOR for myself.
My best friend and business partner was looking for a scope for his 308 and didnt want to drop $3500 on a scope and wanted great glass, FFP and MOA/MOA setup and be under $2k. Dont we all? lol I suggested the IOR 6-24x to him. I called Scott at Libertyoptics and he squared me away with one and with the current promotion of a free IOR 10x binocular it was a win/win. The scope arrived in a timely fashion as always from Scott and came with rings and the free binos. Needless to say i am quite impressed by the binos themselves.
So about the scope itself.
The scope feels quite beefy. I mean if this was using a QD mount and you ran out of ammo, you can detach it and start swinging as a battery ram. It is that beefy feeling in the hand. The finish has a rougher finish and not as refined as the S&B. The turrets have a nice feel to them and have 25MOA per revolution. All i can say is the tactile feel of the turrets are different than S&B but nothing to complain about. Just different. The parallax is works great but the range is quite shorter and you achieve focus pretty quickly and out of focus just as quickly. To me at least it is a little easier because with the S&B you can be in focus and still turn the knob quite a bit and still appears to be in focus. With S&B you have to turn the knob quite a bit until you realize that it is not in focus anymore. Hope that makes sense.
The digital illumination works great and only the center dot lights up. It is nice that if you forget it will auto shut off.
The glass is superb in my opinion. I first looked through it mounted on my buddy's rifle and looking at our targets at 850 yards and nearby trees etc and was quite shocked on how good the glass looked. My rifle with the S&B were still in the Pelican case. I took out my rifle and sat them side by side and kept going back and forth and i will be lying if i can say i can see a difference. The only way that i could even tell them apart was because the reticle was different. The IOR is that good. I am not an optic expert but my vision is 20/20 and we both felt the same about the clarity.
The reticle on the IOR is quite good. I absolutely love the floating center dot. It makes making precision groups a lot easier. The reticle is definitely thicker than the P4F and is more like the P4. But it was not thick enough to bother me and it actually made picking up the X-tree windage markings and elevations easeir to pick up.
I did a basic tracking test with the scope and it tracked perfect. I did not drop the scope from the 4th story and did not run it over with truck lol. So i did not do any of those tests. The only thing i cant comment is about the durability etc. However, Scott has reassured me that any issues and Val at IOR is quick to send you a brand new scope. I hope my buddy never has to use it but it is reassuring.
Needless to say i am quite impressed with the IOR. I used to own a Vortex Razor 5-20x and the glass is significantly better than the Razor and i think the IOR is a top contender for a scope in that mag range and FFP feature. If i had reviewed this scope before purchasing the 2nd S&B, i may have actually purchased an IOR for myself.
