This was my post on a different thread.
BTW, I have a MSR2 reticle.
"How disappointed should I be?
I purchased my first M7xi in December of 2021 from Optics Planet. I paid $2,774 delivered. I mounted the scope and headed to my shooting spot. There were two things that I immediately noticed. The CAs were absolutely horrible, and the scope could not focus at my 100 yard target. It wouldn’t focus no matter how much I played with the parallax knob and eyepiece. A buddy of mine that I regularly shoot with got behind the scope and he said the same thing. As far as the CAs goes, I had heard that the first runs of these scopes had pretty bad CAs, and Steiner had made improvements to future manufactured M7xi scopes. Was this scope part of the early batch? Before sending the scope back to Optics Planet I took a picture of the serial number. I did this because I had requested an exchange from Optics Planet, and I wanted to make sure they didn’t send me the same scope back. The serial number read 109231xxxx. (By the way, the second M7xi scope’s serial number reads 201081xxxx.)
I sent the first scope back to Optics Planet and received a new M7xi (factory seal on the box from Steiner was undisturbed). I inspected and then mounted the scope on my MPA rifle. The CA’s were still present, but no where as bad as the first scope. Some owners say that if you are right behind the scope, then the CAs tend to disappear. They say CAs are only present when slightly moving your head from side to side. Mine exhibits CAs regardless of my head position behind the scope. The IQ, while better than my first M7xi, is still not as clear as I think it should be, especially at higher magnification. The IQ does clean up a little after focusing the eyepiece after adjusting the parallax knob. The scope does tunnel slightly while adjusting from 4x to 5x, but does not tunnel after that.
I purchased an Athlon Cronus BTR (gen 1) 4.5-29x56 about a year ago. I paid $1,250 delivered for the scope. The scope is manufactured at the LOW factory in Japan. I test this new M7xi scope against the Cronus today.
IQ: The Cronus has a clearer image over the M7xi, especially going above 20x.
CA: The Cronus has about 3-4x less CAs than the M7xi. The M7xi was fairly prevalent while I had to really search for any CAs with the Cronus.
Tunneling: There was no tunneling with the Cronus while tunneling existed from 4x to 5x with the M7xi.
Turrets: Turrets were far more positive on the M7xi while the Cronus was less “clicky’ and felt a tad mushy.
Sa far, I much prefer the Cronus regarding CAs and IQ. I just turned 50 and I’ve been shooting since I was 11. Anyway, I had been fantasizing about a tier 1 scope for years and finally have had the funds to make the purchase. Part of me now feels that I’ve made a mistake buying this scope. I’m a bit underwhelmed. Please someone tell me I’m wrong, so I won’t feel so bad/guilty with this purchase."