MSR2 illuminated area is kept very small for best possible twilight / dark performance btw.
Larger lit structures always reduce practical visibility - unless adjustment range goes down to very, very dim. They rarely do, almost never.
This is particularly important with Steiner M5x (5-25) and M7x series, which are excellent twilight stalking scopes- even compared to very best German twilight hunting scopes. This seem to me missed by almost all users in USA. Apparently twilight hunting is illegal in all states?
Larger lit structures always reduce practical visibility - unless adjustment range goes down to very, very dim. They rarely do, almost never.
This is particularly important with Steiner M5x (5-25) and M7x series, which are excellent twilight stalking scopes- even compared to very best German twilight hunting scopes. This seem to me missed by almost all users in USA. Apparently twilight hunting is illegal in all states?
JayJay, I hear what you're saying, would love to find "the one scope to rule them all", but you're going to find pros and cons for most everything. When you're talking about "daylight bright" what are your expectations? Are you thinking RDS or LPVO bright or something that is going to assist in certain situations, if the latter then I think you'll be able to find something that works. Asking a 7x magnification FFP optic to be usable at the bottom mag is asking a lot so I'm not surprised the Steiner M7Xi was a bit disappointing. The Kahles and Minox are very bright compared to other optics, here are a couple screenshots showing how the Kahles compared to the Schmidt (which is not daylight bright in my opinion) but gives you an idea between the two, something else of not is that only the center cross section of the Schmidt MSR2 reticle illuminates and at 3x it is extremely tiny - some shooters like the entire reticle to light up while others don't, personal preference really. As you can see the Kahles is considerable brighter than the Schmidt, these were taking within a minute of each other and during bright daylight conditions but the BBQ in the background is in shadow. I'm not sure how the Steiner compares to Kahles or others, but from early reviews sounds like the illumination might be comparable, but until I see them side by side it would be hard to tell.
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