Rifle Scopes March-FX 5x-40x 56mm FFP thoughts

[dc45]

I have been shooting March's 5x-40X 56mm FFP on a .300 Win Mag (Savage 110BA) for a couple of months and have a couple of observations to share:

Optically I would rank this scope with the S&B’s & Premier’s, and a bit better than most of the Nightforce scopes I have experience with.

The .05 MIL adjustments are overkill for tactical competition. Probably just right for F-Class or LR benchrest, but just too many clicks for time critical tactical comps.

Adjustment repeatability has been perfect so far. Probably the biggest ‘glitch’ I have found is the click values are not as accurate as I would like. My dial-ups at 1200 & 1400 just weren’t working out and I was really scratching my head until I did a ‘tall target test’ @ 100 yards. 10 MILS gave me 38.2” instead of the 36.0” a true 10 MIL adjustment would show. Putting a correction factor of.95% into Shooter makes the MIL magic work perfectly, at least to 1400.

30-40X is too much magnication for me shooting ‘full house’ .300 Win Mag loads, which in my case is 230 grain Bergers @ 2925 fps. The rifle just bounces around too much for me to see my own bullet splash when the scope is dialed way up. When I dial down to the lower 20’s (given a decent shooting position) I can see my splash pretty much every time.

FWIW,

DC

 

[The_FNG]

Re: March-FX 5x-40x 56mm FFP thoughts

If the 3-24 had a 50mm objective, it would be damn near the perfect scope.

 

[sib1948]

Re: March-FX 5x-40x 56mm FFP thoughts

I have both scopes and shoot F class with the 3-24 on my 308 with good results. The 5-40 sits on my 388 Lapua and have not noticed significant tracking errors, but only shot to 830 yds so far. Just back down from 40 to 30 after checking hits and reading mirage. Size and price sure beats the other premium scopes and love the turrets and zero stop features. As I stretch it out more, I'll continue to moniter the tracking. Thanks

 

[steve123]

Re: March-FX 5x-40x 56mm FFP thoughts

March did good in that they made the reticle thinner than the 3-24 but screwed up and didn't put the 10 mil knobs/.1 mil per click on it.

 

[dc45]

Re: March-FX 5x-40x 56mm FFP thoughts

As far as I can tell, the tracking is perfectly repeatable. It is just each click is worth 5% more than asked for. I have seen a lot worse, especially on IOR's. But 95% dialing accuracy is a bit disappointing on a scope which costs more than $3,000.

 

[The_FNG]

Re: March-FX 5x-40x 56mm FFP thoughts

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: sib1948</div><div class="ubbcode-body">I have both scopes and shoot F class with the 3-24 on my 308 with good results. The 5-40 sits on my 388 Lapua and have not noticed significant tracking errors, but only shot to 830 yds so far. Just back down from 40 to 30 after checking hits and reading mirage. Size and price sure beats the other premium scopes and love the turrets and zero stop features. As I stretch it out more, I'll continue to moniter the tracking. Thanks </div></div>

Any chance of a pic through the scope at a f class target? I know the reticle is quite thick at 24x, does the floating dot cover much of your target at 1000y?

 

[EricF517]

Re: March-FX 5x-40x 56mm FFP thoughts

I have been thinking about one as well. Don't know if the funds will be around or not. What is the price point running on the 40?

 

[Flyingbullseye]

Re: March-FX 5x-40x 56mm FFP thoughts

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: EricF517</div><div class="ubbcode-body">What is the price point running on the 40? </div></div>

$3700 non illum, $4000 illuminated.

http://marchscopes.com/tactical-5-40-x-56-ffp.html

 

[EricF517]

Re: March-FX 5x-40x 56mm FFP thoughts

Well I guess at that price range I would just get the S&B 12-50 for $400 less. Thanks though Flyingbullseye.

 

[Freeze]

Re: March-FX 5x-40x 56mm FFP thoughts

Those are Aussie prices. In the US its $3200 for non-illuminated and $3400 for the illuminated last time I checked at Kelbly's.

 

[Flyingbullseye]

Re: March-FX 5x-40x 56mm FFP thoughts

You are right Freeze, didn't even notice that. The only thing I can see in either scope and wonder why March did what they did is a 42mm objective rather a 50mm on the 3-24 and .05mil clicks on the higher end model. Outside that those would be darn near perfect scopes, especially for the price.

 

[Freeze]

Re: March-FX 5x-40x 56mm FFP thoughts

No worries. I have the 5-40 and love it but as well wish for the .1 adjustments. And also agree that the 3-24 would be awesome in a 50mm objective. Either way I still love their scopes. If I harass enough who knows what can happen.

 

[macfly]

Where are you guys buying these?

 

[VJJPunisher]

Kmart

 

[KWilson]

Where are you guys buying these?

Kelbly's if you're in the US: Kelbly Rifles

 

[macfly]

Thanks for thehelpful and useful post. Hadnt seen anywhere else on theweb otherthan kelbys. Interesting its not more widely sold

 

[Shortcut]

That's actually very good. Selling through other retailers would only increase the prices with at least 10-15% on the scopes. It seems like March follows the same pattern all over the world where there is one dealer in each country. A good way of keeping things competitive, I guess.

 

[KWilson]

Thanks for thehelpful and useful post. Hadnt seen anywhere else on theweb otherthan kelbys. Interesting its not more widely sold

March is a very small tight-nit group, their scopes are largely assembled by hand and they only churn out about 1200 per year, across all of their models (my understanding which I am happy to be corrected on). As a result, they are only sold through a very small, select group of dealers.

 

[turbo54]

FYI everyone:

The 3-24x50 is out, or at least will be very soon, it's even listed on Kelbly's website.

A .1mrad/click 10mrad/revolution version of the 5-40x56 is forthcoming.

I hope Kelbly's does another March (the month) March (the scope) sale again this year.
[MENTION=42641]The_FNG[/MENTION]

I have the 3-24x42 with FML-1 reticle. The floating dot subtends .1mrad (just under 3/8 moa). I've used mine to shoot at F class targets and actually really like how the white ring around the X ring encircles the floating dot, with just a *touch* of black paper between floating dot and white ring.

However, I wouldn't consider this model an ideal F class optic.

 

[Irokcrawl]

Hopefully I will be demoing a few versions on Monday and comparing them to my S&B pmii 5-25x56, stiener 5-25x56, and my xrs. I really hope they work out well for what I do and hoping the 1/10mil 5-40 comes sooner than later. The 3-24x56 is also an option. I really wished they offered the MSR reticle though. I would gladly pay extra as always for it.

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[Irokcrawl]

I have a 5-40x56 mil illuminated setup on top of my setup now for demo. I shot roughly 300 rounds from 100-725 (range max) myesterday. I loved everything about it except the 0.05mil clicks. I had the ability to compare it to a stiener 5-25x56 MSR, S&B pmii 5-25x56, xrs ms a few hensoldts. It's definitely not hensoldt clarity but imo better than the S&B, Stiener and xrs in optical clarity on the same magnification, it did get a little fuzzy at full 40x but I was also shooting directly into the sun for the most part and didn't have a sun shade on it which did make it difficult at times. That is from my eyes and only my opinion and Im far from an expert but have used S&B's for the last 7 years or so. The turrets have great clicks, stupid simple zero stop and the ability to focus down to a very short distance with the 10meter parallax setting. It's light as hell and very compact for the magnification range. I found myself screwing up when dialing since I was so far between each mil but that's something that I was getting better with as the day went on. Overall I think it's a great optic for the money. I don't know how it will hold up in the long run but tracking was dead on from my test. The 3-24x42 was also very nice and I had zero issues with the eye box on either when quickly trying to get into an odd positions. I shot with the gun at a 90* angle to 725 with zero problems instantly being in the box. Bottom line is if it was 1/10 mil clicks I would throw the money down now for one. Those are soon to come however and I think I will pick up the new 3-24x56 and the 5-40x56 once it's in 1/10 mil clicks.

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[Shortcut]

Spot on man! It matches perfectly my opinions about the March scopes. Tremendous scopes which cannot be compared with anything else out there. Eyebox has never been an issue for me either and the rest of the package is unbeatable.