Between 4 options…

[Val84]

Hey guys, I’m trying to pick between the following 4 scopes for my SPR build. I’d like something not only capable, but super solid because I’m not that gentle on my gear. Please let me know which you’d run. If you have better options around the $1,500 range, please share.


Vortex Razor HD Gen II 3-18x50

Burris Xtreme Tactical XTR III 5.5-30x56

Steiner T6Xi 3-18x56

Leupold Mark 4HD 4.5-18x52

 

[chevy_man]

I'd take the Steiner.

However, not dropping your rifle on the scope repeatedly is a good place to start in the reliability. If you can't manage that, I'd be looking at vortex for their warranty. Everything breaks if you try hard enough.

 

[Val84]

Yeah, I don’t mean I’d drop it on the scope repeatedly. I just don’t baby my equipment. These companies claim to make tactical equipment for harsh environments, so I just expect them to survive use they would get from a deployed service member.

What makes you go with the Steiner? Is almost double the cost equivalent to the improved performance?

 

[ToddM]

The razor or the Steiner, the razor is a heavy pig though. I have not had the 3-18 steiner, but I have the Razor Gen 2 3-18 and 4-27, Steiner T6xi 5-30, XTR III and XTR Pro in 5-30, Razor 3 in 6-36, and a few PST 2's. The steiner turrets are more tactical, lower profile etc. where I'd say the XTR III/Pro/Razor are more PRS/competition orientated.

I'm not a fan of 18x, for me I'd much rather have the top end and give up a couple power down low, in an optic that's basically the same size/weight/cost. However, if you have to have 3x I get it. Also optically most of the 25x+ optics are going to be better at 15-18x than an 18x scope at max. Also to be very clear up front, there are much more important things about scopes than just optical performance, but the issue is you can't really test most of them easily, durability for one unless you start destroying them, even tracking is hard because it varies from sample to sample and manufacturers put pressure on anyone that tries to report tracking (There's a SH article somewhere that they had tracking results from their classes for optics, but they stopped doing it because of manufacturer pressure to not report it). So optics is the easy one to eval.

I can't say for the Steiner 3-18, but having used the T6xi 5-30, XTR Pro and III 5-30, side by side on the same days, the one thing I'd say about the burris/steiner scopes is color wise they seem pretty flat to me, almost washed out/hazy esp. at the top end of their magnification. Also they all have significant fall off in quality from about 22x-up, and suffer from pretty bad chromatic abberation at higher powers. Useable......absolutely, but the difference between 20x,25x,30x is much larger than I'm used to in other optics. I can't ever imagine wanting to run a XTR III at 30x. Even the XTR Pro and T6xi to me are noticeably worse at their max power than the Gen 2 razor is.

What really shocked me is I recently compared my XTR 3 to my old PST II 5-25x partly because I was thinking about swapping a couple out for XTR IIIs. At 15x and 20x they were basically equal, I'd give the nod to the XTR III, but the XTR III gains a ton of degradation, chromatic abberation etc. above 20x in fact I'd call them equal at 25x and that's at the PST II's max. I would not call that a good showing for the XTR III, considering how old the PST 2 is. The XTR Pro of course is a step up, but still falls off a lot after about 22x, but of course better than the PST 2, and the Steiner is a bit better yet, but even that at 25-30x is really washed out and the resolution drop is significant. Noticeably more than say my Razor gen 2's fall off from 20-25-27x, none of them are as good at max power as the middle of their range, but the Burris/Steiner's seem to fall off more than I'm used to. Also the clicks on the XTR III/Pro IMO are very weak, better on the Pro, but really mushy on the XTR III (partly because they use a very thick o-ring to seal the turret that creates a lot of resistance. I honestly would not give $1100 for an XTR III, it's maybe an $800 scope in 2025.

Street prices are not that far off really if you hunt around.....

Razor $1100
XTR 3 $1100
Steiner $1500
Mk4HD $1200

 

[264win]

If you don’t mind, or want a boat anchor on your rifle, the razor would be my choice.
I don’t like super heavy mid range scopes, so I have the mk4 hd. I am happy with it at its cost and weight level.

 

[Maurygold]

Razor or used mark 5hd

 

[db2000]

Consider a used Cronus if you like their features.

 

[TahoeDust]

May be able to find a used Zeiss S3 4-25 in you price range.

 

[Val84]

The razor or the Steiner, the razor is a heavy pig though. I have not had the 3-18 steiner, but I have the Razor Gen 2 3-18 and 4-27, Steiner T6xi 5-30, XTR III and XTR Pro in 5-30, Razor 3 in 6-36, and a few PST 2's. The steiner turrets are more tactical, lower profile etc. where I'd say the XTR III/Pro/Razor are more PRS/competition orientated.

I'm not a fan of 18x, for me I'd much rather have the top end and give up a couple power down low, in an optic that's basically the same size/weight/cost. However, if you have to have 3x I get it. Also optically most of the 25x+ optics are going to be better at 15-18x than an 18x scope at max. Also to be very clear up front, there are much more important things about scopes than just optical performance, but the issue is you can't really test most of them easily, durability for one unless you start destroying them, even tracking is hard because it varies from sample to sample and manufacturers put pressure on anyone that tries to report tracking (There's a SH article somewhere that they had tracking results from their classes for optics, but they stopped doing it because of manufacturer pressure to not report it). So optics is the easy one to eval.

I can't say for the Steiner 3-18, but having used the T6xi 5-30, XTR Pro and III 5-30, side by side on the same days, the one thing I'd say about the burris/steiner scopes is color wise they seem pretty flat to me, almost washed out/hazy esp. at the top end of their magnification. Also they all have significant fall off in quality from about 22x-up, and suffer from pretty bad chromatic abberation at higher powers. Useable......absolutely, but the difference between 20x,25x,30x is much larger than I'm used to in other optics. I can't ever imagine wanting to run a XTR III at 30x. Even the XTR Pro and T6xi to me are noticeably worse at their max power than the Gen 2 razor is.

What really shocked me is I recently compared my XTR 3 to my old PST II 5-25x partly because I was thinking about swapping a couple out for XTR IIIs. At 15x and 20x they were basically equal, I'd give the nod to the XTR III, but the XTR III gains a ton of degradation, chromatic abberation etc. above 20x in fact I'd call them equal at 25x and that's at the PST II's max. I would not call that a good showing for the XTR III, considering how old the PST 2 is. The XTR Pro of course is a step up, but still falls off a lot after about 22x, but of course better than the PST 2, and the Steiner is a bit better yet, but even that at 25-30x is really washed out and the resolution drop is significant. Noticeably more than say my Razor gen 2's fall off from 20-25-27x, none of them are as good at max power as the middle of their range, but the Burris/Steiner's seem to fall off more than I'm used to. Also the clicks on the XTR III/Pro IMO are very weak, better on the Pro, but really mushy on the XTR III (partly because they use a very thick o-ring to seal the turret that creates a lot of resistance. I honestly would not give $1100 for an XTR III, it's maybe an $800 scope in 2025.

Street prices are not that far off really if you hunt around.....

Razor $1100
XTR 3 $1100
Steiner $1500
Mk4HD $1200

Dang… You kinda threw a curveball there. I didn’t really think about the fact that an 18 max scope won’t perform well at max. Considering I’d like to reach out to 700-ish yards, I may be too low in magnification. Now I don’t know where to look due to my budget. I’m looking to spend roughly around $1,500 - $1,800. FFP, Mil, and Illumination sound like the best options for a legitimate battle rifle scope. Any recommendations with higher magnification?

 

[CK1.0]

Razor Gen2 4.5-27. Heavy pig, yes, bombproof with Vortex warranty if you need it.

It may be be a step behind these days compared to top-tier newer shit, but they’re built like tanks and still look better than most at ~15-20x where most end up using them 90% of the time.

 

[ToddM]

It will still perform well, but every optic even the alpha ones are going to degrade some at max mag. So typically if you have two optics say the Razor Gen 2 in 3-18 and 4.5-27 the 4.5-27 is going to be better optically at 18x. There are always exceptions but it's pretty rare and usually means something is amiss in the adjustment/alignment of the higher power optic. In some cases that comes with downsides, larger size, more weight, more expense, but between 3-18x and 5-25x or 5-30x optics that's not usually the case (of the same brand), however there are some pretty compact 3-18x now like the Leupold 5HD, so sometimes a 3-18 can save you size/weight.

18x is plenty to just get you out to 700 yards, for example a lot of PRS competitors shooting at say "battle" sized targets out to 1000, often are not turning their scopes up past 12-15x. Higher power is not always desirable, mirage looks worse, and often higher power is used by those trying to hit very tiny things at much shorter yardages, not large plates at long ones. There is also the advantage of a much larger area you can view at 2-3x than 5-6x, which is the reason the lower power scopes are probably popular often for a wide range of uses. So I don't think 3-18s are bad options for your use case. A lot of optics in that range today are designed around competition with complex reticles and large knobs, where at least in my mind the more "battle" options would have lower profile knobs (like the T6xi) but as long as it's durable those things are smaller issues.

If you don't mind the weight, the Razor Gen 2 in 3-18 or 4.5-27 is a good option, both should be able to be found used in the price range you are. The Steiner T6xi is a good option, you can probably snag a Leupold 5HD for that used, the NF line is well known to perhaps not be the best optically (in lower lines) but ridiculously durable which for your use case is probably more important than pure optics. So you have the 2.5-20 NX8 and 5.5-22 NXS that would both be great durable options.

 

[stevieb92]

Of those 4, Razor Gen 2 would be my choice.