Here's a little review I wrote based on my experiences a few months ago. Thought y'all might enjoy.
Took the new Nightforce Competition 15-55x52 out to some countryside today (11/9/2013) to look at stuff. I was shocked. At 900 to 1000 yards, I can see power lines and clearly see the individual lines on max power. On min power at the same distance, I can see much more than I expected. Tomorrow, I'm going to get it out beside my other scopes and do a clarity comparison. I'm super impressed with it so far.
I was looking at a house and barn that were out by the power lines. around 900-1000 yards estimated. Had to turn the parallax almost all the way out to focus. It was out there. I could see well enough to look inside the windows. If there had been a man door facing me, I could have easily seen a doorknob. I don't think I could've quite made out the keyhole, but there were only garage doors facing me anyway. I was trying to locate a mailbox in the hopes of reading a name or address on the side of it but no such luck. If one had been present, and I had a more stable rest, I'm confident I could've read it. But I just had the scope in my hands, not mounted to a rifle, and kinda used a 2x4 as a makeshift monopod. But it was REALLY hard to hold still. I would buy another of these scopes in a heartbeat if budget allowed.
Scope comparison: 9/10/2013 I took out my 3 best scopes and did a side by side comparison looking at a bench rest target at 100 yards. Temperature was mid 30's to low 40's so no mirage. Overcast cloudy day so the brightness of the scope itself was really noticeable without any bright sunlight to enhance it. The three scopes were:
Burris Black Diamond 8-32x50 with 30mm tube
Leupold Competition fixed 36x45 (I think 45. Might be 42) with 1" tube
and of course the new Nightforce competition 15-55x52 with 30mm tube.
No shooting was done so no tests on tracking, return to zero, or any of that. Just an observation of clarity and brightness between the three.
Burris vs Leupold: The Leupold had the edge in magnification obviously which to my eyes made the target easier to be seen. But magnification aside, I honestly have to say they are tied dead even for clarity and brightness. The Burris has a larger objective and tube, but the Leupold makes up for it with better glass I guess. I could not distinguish a difference in brightness or crispness of the target between the two. The white target appeared to be bright white but had a sort of white halo around the perimeter. All black edges of the target rings and sighter boxes were nice and crisp. This was exactly the same for both scopes.
Burris and Leupold vs Nightforce: I turned the Nightforce down to 32x and 36x respectively for this comparison to keep it fair. The Nightforce was instantly noticeable as being brighter and clearer. The white halo was completely gone around the edge of the target. Nightforce was definitely better than the other two.
In my opinion, and for my uses, the Nightforce is the hands down winner. Not only is it clearer and brighter, but it can also keep increasing in magnification far past the other two and is just as bright and clear on max power as it is on min. People in other reviews have complained about the fussy eye relief on the Nightforce. It's roughly 3.5" of eye relief. Same as my other two within a quarter inch. They say it's touchy to maintain eye relief on max power. No shit. It's a 55x with a 52mm objective. That's the nature of the beast. Hold still. Problem solved! In case you don't realize the implications of what I just said, it means on a gun that you shoot free recoil, it's no big deal. On a gun that you shoot with a consistent cheek weld, it should also be no big deal. On a gun that you shoot standing off hand with zero support of any kind at a moving target.... It's a 55x! Nobody would do that. I guess I don't understand what they're whining about.
In summary, I'll make this analogy:
Have you ever hooked up a DVD player to an analog CRT TV in your bedroom? (Yeah, those "really old" ones with a picture tube) It actually has a really good picture! You sit there watching your movie thinking: "this is such a great picture I don't know why we ever upgraded from this. It's so clear, I'm not missing a thing. way better than that old grainy stuff we used to watch before these came along" Well, that is my Burris and Leupold scope.
Then you decide to get some popcorn. You walk through the living room where your wife/kids/whoever are watching a movie on the big screen HD plasma with a blu ray and 7.1 surround sound. There's a gun battle going on and you feel like you're in the middle of it. You tuck and roll behind the couch to take cover. Popcorn is forgotten. You think to yourself: "holy crap! This picture is so clear, I'm pretty sure I don't see things this clearly with my own eyes in real life. Now I remember why I upgraded. Duh." Yep, you guessed it. That's the Nightforce.
Will I be getting rid of my Burris and Leupy? No. They're still awesome scopes. The Nightforce is just a little better. Will I buy another Nightforce? I don't have any plans to at the moment, but if I ever build another rifle, I probably will.
The only thing I can do now is put it on the shelf until spring when it's warm enough to shoot without shivering. Then I can play around with setting the zero, doing box tests, returning to zero, seeing if the 1/8 moa clicks are REALLY 1/8 moa, etc. But with the reputation it has backing it, I anticipate no problems.
Ryan Hamilton
Update as of present date. I've got the Nightforce mounted and zeroed on my 6ppc. Originally I had planned to put it on the 308 I'm building but decided it would be better used on my best rifle. I've done a little shooting with it now and have noticed that when it's turned over 45x, the image darkens noticeably. It's not enough to cause any problems. Kinda like being outside on a really bright day and then putting on sunglasses. You can easily still see everything but it's definitely no longer as bright. It makes no difference to me but anyone shooting in low light would want to stay at 45x or below I'm guessing.
We got skunked on some bad weather this winter and I was pushed about a month behind schedule building my 308. I've been hitting it hard the last 2 months (just sprayed the clear on the stock last night) to get it ready for my prairie dog hunt in 2 weeks. I still haven't had time to really "test" the nightforce by doing box tests etc but it is performing exactly as it should. I'll spend the rest of the summer playing with it after the hunt.
Took the new Nightforce Competition 15-55x52 out to some countryside today (11/9/2013) to look at stuff. I was shocked. At 900 to 1000 yards, I can see power lines and clearly see the individual lines on max power. On min power at the same distance, I can see much more than I expected. Tomorrow, I'm going to get it out beside my other scopes and do a clarity comparison. I'm super impressed with it so far.
I was looking at a house and barn that were out by the power lines. around 900-1000 yards estimated. Had to turn the parallax almost all the way out to focus. It was out there. I could see well enough to look inside the windows. If there had been a man door facing me, I could have easily seen a doorknob. I don't think I could've quite made out the keyhole, but there were only garage doors facing me anyway. I was trying to locate a mailbox in the hopes of reading a name or address on the side of it but no such luck. If one had been present, and I had a more stable rest, I'm confident I could've read it. But I just had the scope in my hands, not mounted to a rifle, and kinda used a 2x4 as a makeshift monopod. But it was REALLY hard to hold still. I would buy another of these scopes in a heartbeat if budget allowed.
Scope comparison: 9/10/2013 I took out my 3 best scopes and did a side by side comparison looking at a bench rest target at 100 yards. Temperature was mid 30's to low 40's so no mirage. Overcast cloudy day so the brightness of the scope itself was really noticeable without any bright sunlight to enhance it. The three scopes were:
Burris Black Diamond 8-32x50 with 30mm tube
Leupold Competition fixed 36x45 (I think 45. Might be 42) with 1" tube
and of course the new Nightforce competition 15-55x52 with 30mm tube.
No shooting was done so no tests on tracking, return to zero, or any of that. Just an observation of clarity and brightness between the three.
Burris vs Leupold: The Leupold had the edge in magnification obviously which to my eyes made the target easier to be seen. But magnification aside, I honestly have to say they are tied dead even for clarity and brightness. The Burris has a larger objective and tube, but the Leupold makes up for it with better glass I guess. I could not distinguish a difference in brightness or crispness of the target between the two. The white target appeared to be bright white but had a sort of white halo around the perimeter. All black edges of the target rings and sighter boxes were nice and crisp. This was exactly the same for both scopes.
Burris and Leupold vs Nightforce: I turned the Nightforce down to 32x and 36x respectively for this comparison to keep it fair. The Nightforce was instantly noticeable as being brighter and clearer. The white halo was completely gone around the edge of the target. Nightforce was definitely better than the other two.
In my opinion, and for my uses, the Nightforce is the hands down winner. Not only is it clearer and brighter, but it can also keep increasing in magnification far past the other two and is just as bright and clear on max power as it is on min. People in other reviews have complained about the fussy eye relief on the Nightforce. It's roughly 3.5" of eye relief. Same as my other two within a quarter inch. They say it's touchy to maintain eye relief on max power. No shit. It's a 55x with a 52mm objective. That's the nature of the beast. Hold still. Problem solved! In case you don't realize the implications of what I just said, it means on a gun that you shoot free recoil, it's no big deal. On a gun that you shoot with a consistent cheek weld, it should also be no big deal. On a gun that you shoot standing off hand with zero support of any kind at a moving target.... It's a 55x! Nobody would do that. I guess I don't understand what they're whining about.
In summary, I'll make this analogy:
Have you ever hooked up a DVD player to an analog CRT TV in your bedroom? (Yeah, those "really old" ones with a picture tube) It actually has a really good picture! You sit there watching your movie thinking: "this is such a great picture I don't know why we ever upgraded from this. It's so clear, I'm not missing a thing. way better than that old grainy stuff we used to watch before these came along" Well, that is my Burris and Leupold scope.
Then you decide to get some popcorn. You walk through the living room where your wife/kids/whoever are watching a movie on the big screen HD plasma with a blu ray and 7.1 surround sound. There's a gun battle going on and you feel like you're in the middle of it. You tuck and roll behind the couch to take cover. Popcorn is forgotten. You think to yourself: "holy crap! This picture is so clear, I'm pretty sure I don't see things this clearly with my own eyes in real life. Now I remember why I upgraded. Duh." Yep, you guessed it. That's the Nightforce.
Will I be getting rid of my Burris and Leupy? No. They're still awesome scopes. The Nightforce is just a little better. Will I buy another Nightforce? I don't have any plans to at the moment, but if I ever build another rifle, I probably will.
The only thing I can do now is put it on the shelf until spring when it's warm enough to shoot without shivering. Then I can play around with setting the zero, doing box tests, returning to zero, seeing if the 1/8 moa clicks are REALLY 1/8 moa, etc. But with the reputation it has backing it, I anticipate no problems.
Ryan Hamilton
Update as of present date. I've got the Nightforce mounted and zeroed on my 6ppc. Originally I had planned to put it on the 308 I'm building but decided it would be better used on my best rifle. I've done a little shooting with it now and have noticed that when it's turned over 45x, the image darkens noticeably. It's not enough to cause any problems. Kinda like being outside on a really bright day and then putting on sunglasses. You can easily still see everything but it's definitely no longer as bright. It makes no difference to me but anyone shooting in low light would want to stay at 45x or below I'm guessing.
We got skunked on some bad weather this winter and I was pushed about a month behind schedule building my 308. I've been hitting it hard the last 2 months (just sprayed the clear on the stock last night) to get it ready for my prairie dog hunt in 2 weeks. I still haven't had time to really "test" the nightforce by doing box tests etc but it is performing exactly as it should. I'll spend the rest of the summer playing with it after the hunt.
