I sold my March 3-24x42 to a hide member.
I needed to free up some $$$, and I figured I'd replace it with a Bushnell ET 3-12 or SWFA 3-15, something like that under $1k.
When I started looking around, I found some deals from Hide advertisers.
Eurooptics has some Steiners marked down to $1300 and $1400, Tactical 3-12x50 and 3-12x56 models. Great scopes but long (15 inches) and heavy (35 ounces), something I'm trying to avoid on this rifle. I use this rifle to shoot paper and steel out to 600 yards, and possibly for hunting. Also, I have 30 mm Seekins rings I wanted to reuse.
Samplelist has some good candidates, as they always do. I saw a Zeiss Diavari FL 4-16x50 for $1k off street price. That's $1600 for a scope that is selling for $2600 new. A few weeks ago I looked through someone's Zeiss Conquest 3-15 and I was impressed by the eyebox and FOV, as well as the resolution. $1600 was more than I wanted to spend, but I did some research, and the Diavai FL looks to be pretty close to the Hensoldt 4-16x56 in construction and reports of the optical quality are very favorable.
It's less than 13" long and weighs less than 25 ounces. It's got a target elevation turret with mil graduations but a capped windage turret. It's got a duplex reticle in the SFP. This scope is available with a mildot reticle I couldn't find one at the demo price. I figured I'd take a chance on something different and ordered it.
An hour later I get a call from my credit card company that there's some odd charges on my CC. Sure enough some a-hole is charging $hit to my CC, so they shut it down. I then get an email from SWFA that the card's been declined. I cancel the order to assess the damage.
2 hours later I am on the Hide and click on an ad from CameraLand NY. I check their specials and they have the same Diavari demo for the same price, and I know they ship for free. I call and requested a SH discount, and got a few more $ knocked off the scope. What a bargain! I broke out the "emergency" credit card and got it ordered.
A day later, it lands on my doorstep. We don't need no steenkeeng next day air shipping!
As I suspected, the glass is fantastic. Bright and clear, superb resolution, and I couldn't produce any CA; the fluorite objective is doing its job. The zero stop arrangement limits the elevation on the mil turret to less than a full turn, but in 5 minutes, I had the restricting pin removed, and it can easily be reinstalled if I need warranty service or change my mind. Looks like I'll have about 14 mils of elevation from my 100 yard zero, but one fly in that ointment is the turret has 7.2 mils per turn... could make for some confusion when I'm in the 2nd turn, but I'll likely never need it.
The eyebox is fantastic, large and forgiving. The FOV seems huge because the scope body almost disappears when looking through it, but my Steiner 5-25x56 has a similar FOV when dialed down to 16x. The Steiner FOV looks much smaller because of the wide black ring from the scope body characteristic of the view through the Steiner.
I compared the optics of the Steiner and Zeiss side by side in the waning light of dusk tonight and it was a tie. They're both very good.
To top it all off, a leftover switchview lever (originally for a Bushnell DMR) fit the Zeiss perfectly.
I'm sighting it in tomorrow.
Joe
I needed to free up some $$$, and I figured I'd replace it with a Bushnell ET 3-12 or SWFA 3-15, something like that under $1k.
When I started looking around, I found some deals from Hide advertisers.
Eurooptics has some Steiners marked down to $1300 and $1400, Tactical 3-12x50 and 3-12x56 models. Great scopes but long (15 inches) and heavy (35 ounces), something I'm trying to avoid on this rifle. I use this rifle to shoot paper and steel out to 600 yards, and possibly for hunting. Also, I have 30 mm Seekins rings I wanted to reuse.
Samplelist has some good candidates, as they always do. I saw a Zeiss Diavari FL 4-16x50 for $1k off street price. That's $1600 for a scope that is selling for $2600 new. A few weeks ago I looked through someone's Zeiss Conquest 3-15 and I was impressed by the eyebox and FOV, as well as the resolution. $1600 was more than I wanted to spend, but I did some research, and the Diavai FL looks to be pretty close to the Hensoldt 4-16x56 in construction and reports of the optical quality are very favorable.
It's less than 13" long and weighs less than 25 ounces. It's got a target elevation turret with mil graduations but a capped windage turret. It's got a duplex reticle in the SFP. This scope is available with a mildot reticle I couldn't find one at the demo price. I figured I'd take a chance on something different and ordered it.
An hour later I get a call from my credit card company that there's some odd charges on my CC. Sure enough some a-hole is charging $hit to my CC, so they shut it down. I then get an email from SWFA that the card's been declined. I cancel the order to assess the damage.
2 hours later I am on the Hide and click on an ad from CameraLand NY. I check their specials and they have the same Diavari demo for the same price, and I know they ship for free. I call and requested a SH discount, and got a few more $ knocked off the scope. What a bargain! I broke out the "emergency" credit card and got it ordered.
A day later, it lands on my doorstep. We don't need no steenkeeng next day air shipping!
As I suspected, the glass is fantastic. Bright and clear, superb resolution, and I couldn't produce any CA; the fluorite objective is doing its job. The zero stop arrangement limits the elevation on the mil turret to less than a full turn, but in 5 minutes, I had the restricting pin removed, and it can easily be reinstalled if I need warranty service or change my mind. Looks like I'll have about 14 mils of elevation from my 100 yard zero, but one fly in that ointment is the turret has 7.2 mils per turn... could make for some confusion when I'm in the 2nd turn, but I'll likely never need it.
The eyebox is fantastic, large and forgiving. The FOV seems huge because the scope body almost disappears when looking through it, but my Steiner 5-25x56 has a similar FOV when dialed down to 16x. The Steiner FOV looks much smaller because of the wide black ring from the scope body characteristic of the view through the Steiner.
I compared the optics of the Steiner and Zeiss side by side in the waning light of dusk tonight and it was a tie. They're both very good.
To top it all off, a leftover switchview lever (originally for a Bushnell DMR) fit the Zeiss perfectly.
I'm sighting it in tomorrow.
Joe
