Rifle Scopes Looking for help choosing optic with top occular-side performance

[darth_ritis]

Given a budget of $2K-4K and parameters of:

• variable magnification: 5-ish to 21+
• tree-style reticle
• generous eye box
• bright sight picture at max magnification (exit pupil)

What would you buy?

The eye box and brightness are a big deal for me. I would go postal if I blow that kind of cash and am constantly hunting to line up to the reticle in a dark sight picture.

What comes to mind is:

• Tangent Theta TT525P with Gen2XR
• Nightforce BEAST with TReMoR2 reticle
• Vortex Razor HD Gen II 4.5-27x56 with ERB-2C reticle
• S&B 5-25x56 PM II/LP/MTC/LT with H37 reticle

I thought the Steiner would be in my list, but don't think I'm a fan of that MSR reticle.

 

[Rob01]

What would you buy?

[*]Vortex Razor HD Gen II 4.5-27x56 with ERB-2C reticle

Plan on buying one when they are available.

 

[918v]

All of them are going to be the same brightness at top magnification cuz the objective size is the same in relation to the power, basically not so bright. If you want bright at 20x+ you'll need a Zeiss 72mm.

 

[darth_ritis]

All of them are going to be the same brightness at top magnification cuz the objective size is the same in relation to the power, basically not so bright. If you want bright at 20x+ you'll need a Zeiss 72mm.

That's probably generally true, but not 100% true - different scopes with different glass & optical formulas can have different amounts of light transmission even if the magnification and objective size are the same.

 

[918v]

Maybe if we're talking Zeiss vs Nikon but not among the scopes he's considering.

 

[darth_ritis]

Good point. Perhaps I crafted my post poorly, since most of those scopes aren't out yet.

How do the current versions of those scopes compare for 'eye box' comfort and brightness? Surely the current Razor HD, S&B 5-25, Nightforce ATACR and Premier Heritage have been compared by someone out there. I think there is merit in a thread discussing these specific aspects of top-tier scopes, as there are plenty of threads discussing warranties and turret clicks and zero stops etc.

 

[918v]

The SB has superb high mag resolution. It is simply amazing. The eyebox is good. But it tunnels badly below 7x. Honestly, they should put a block in the zoom cam and rename it 8-25x56mm. They would have pissed off a lot less people.

The ATACR tunnels as well but not as badly. And the reticle is in the second focal plane and set on 25x, so you have to use it at max magnification or do math in your head. The eyebox is worse than SB but better than Leupold Mark4.

The TT is prolly the pick of the litter. It is as good as the SB but without tunneling.

Do some research on Vortex. It has a lot of fans but buying one is like buying a $60,000 Cadillac, then spending half your free time at the dealer fixing stuff under warranty, then wishing you had bought a Mercedes. Look at the company as a whole and then determine if you're gonna trust them with $3000 of your hard earned money... Are they worthy of top tier status?

 

[Rob01]

Do some research on Vortex. It has a lot of fans but buying one is like buying a $60,000 Cadillac, then spending half your free time at the dealer fixing stuff under warranty, then wishing you had bought a Mercedes. Look at the company as a whole and then determine if you're gonna trust them with $3000 of your hard earned money... Are they worthy of top tier status?

That's a total exaggeration. Half the time? Hardly. The PST line are ones that seem to go back for warranty work but even then half is a huge stretch. The current Razors have no more problems than any other scope in that price range but you get the piece of mind in knowing if you did have a problem then it will get taken care of. The new Razors are also being built stronger than the original Razors so putting out the money is money well spent. The 4.5-27 will be around $2500 also.

 

[OptedOut]

We changed out from using the S&Bs to the IOR 4-28x50 40mm RECON (on our big guns) two years ago and they have been outstanding. The four bolt rifles we are taking to Sochi to use on over watch are IORs. Our lite guns wear Elcan's.