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Rifle Scopes NF’s Big Announcement on Aug 5th
- Thread starter DedicatedShooter
- Start date
This whole rollout isn't directed at us. This is for the box store hunting crowd, which is a much bigger market for NF.
I have a bunch of NF scopes, and they're great.
I have a bunch of NF scopes, and they're great.
agree. but i have to wonder how sales of these will compare to sales of a 1-8x with improved reticle / sales related to reticle swaps. the 1-8 is a great optic at price sans the giant damn center dot.
Pretty disappointing they still have yet to address a new retical for the 1-8x considering almost every review, comment, etc has a issue with this.
Everyone seems to forget, the precision rifle world is a tiny niche. Not every big announcement is big for us.
Hey slick, there’s more people out there using sfp than FFP.
Not everything revolves around your or my preferences. We need people buying all this stuff so companies can afford to make the optics out small niche uses.
UN - WATCHING this thread for lameness of announcement. Would rather clean my gutters....
TP....
TP....
Chill, It was a joke. NF is a great company. Will still buy their products.
This announcement sucks! Now I have to buy another NF.
I bet most of us in this thread own a NF too.
Ya gotta admit, it’s pretty entertaining to see everyone put in their wish to Santa, only to get crushed by the big announcement.
On a serious note, I imagine we’re a fairly large chunk of Nightforce’s market since most of their line is geared towards us. I’m not enamored with the NX8 line, regardless of focal plane.
SFPs have been second to come out in few models as of more recent years...
Remember how a lot of people here like to make fun of fudds that swear wood bolt guns are the only way to go or its wrong? What do we call the people that think the same about FFP? The world is full of double standards.
Being facetious, the people who say wood is the only way to go are extremely wrong; other materials are better in every way but “any quality requires lots of time invested and a very high material scrap rate, and the material comes directlyish from a tree”.
The people who say FFP is the only way to go are mostly correct; there are niche cases where SFP can work, and FFP can take more design to get right, but FFP is equally or more useful 100% of the time for all shooters. Whether there’s a well-designed FFP scope at the right budget is an entirely different question.
That said, a whole ton of people can be wrong about something and Nightforce sees there’s clearly a market for that, so props to them for recognizing it.
Yeah, that is just flat out wrong. lol Listen, the only SFP scope I own is a NF 2.5-10x24 because it only came in SFP. Doubt you will ever catch me willingly purchase another SFP optic.
Look at the complaints NF and other manufactures get when they create something like the 2.5-20 F1 with the shit reticle usability at low power. What do they have to do? Compromise with a big ass ugly dot (lookin at you NX8 1-8) and piss another side off. Every time SFP comes up here, its people who only take their rifle to a bench vs people who have stalked woods or actually use a variety of gear in a variety of situations. Not everyone is shooting 600+ yards or on a clock where wind holds matter. To say FFP is equal or more useful 100% of the time is straight ignorance.
I disagree. Unless I’m out on flat, treeless plains I prefer to hunt on the lowest magnification setting. On most FFP scopes this makes the reticle stupidly/annoyingly small and it sucks to try and center a camouflaged animal within it. Trying to do it at dusk and dawn with illumination is even stupider. A SFP scope on the other hand has a full reticle at any magnification, and it works perfectly illuminated in those critical minutes right at shooting time.
I don’t often get more than a 300 yard shot in the rolling, forested hills of Missouri unless I’m hunting a power line cut. SFP is a lot more pleasant to hunt with and makes a lot more sense.
If I’m hunting we’re I can take legit 500+ yard shots, then absolutely I want a FFP, and it is, indeed, 100% more useful.
Would if the eye box issue with the FFP is the same with the SFP. I would be interested to see a review on this. I’m in the market for a hunting scope.
Do you want to use your reticle for anything other than pointing the rifle?
I’m absolutely not saying that any FFP scope is going to be better than any SFP scope. There are a ton of FFP reticles (read: most of them) that are absolute shit at minimum power.
I’d feel very differently about the subject if it were impossible to have a good visible FFP reticle at minimum power, though. Reticle visibility at minimum power really only requires considering reticle visibility at minimum power when designing the reticle. Look at, for example, the March reticle ILya shows in this post:
DLO Reviews: FFP 1-8×24 scopes. March Shorty, GPOTAC, XTR II » OpticsThoughts
A brief of overview of several excellent FFP 1-8x riflescopes out there: March Shorty, GPOTAC, Burris XTR II, Hi-Lux CMR8
opticsthoughts.com
I don’t agree with all their design decisions, but the tapered outer bar design is pretty much the easiest solution to reticle visibility, and it works really well.
At the cost of a little bit of design work - and it really isn’t that hard to slap a couple tapered bars on the reticle, and there’s no reason tapering features can’t continue into the center of the reticle - you gain the ability to accurately hold for wind or elevation at any zoom your time, desire, and available light allow you to choose, double check distance, etc. If you don’t want to do so, that’s fine, you just have the option.
Has anyone found anything that an SFP can do that is impossible with FFP?
There is a big market for SFP scopes. While more of the shooting public in the US has been getting more educated about the advantages of FFP, a LOT of casual shooters buy nice scopes and only use them to shoot at 100 and 200 yards from the bench. It is not just precision crowd vs hunting crowd.
While I am no fan of NX8 scopes overall, this is a good move on Nightforce's part. If the scopes were developed with both FFP and SFP in mind from the beginning, this is a low investment way to sell a lot more scopes.
Best I can tell, NX8 line is supposed to replace NXS over time, so I suspect they will flesh it out a bit more over the next year or two.
ILya
While I am no fan of NX8 scopes overall, this is a good move on Nightforce's part. If the scopes were developed with both FFP and SFP in mind from the beginning, this is a low investment way to sell a lot more scopes.
Best I can tell, NX8 line is supposed to replace NXS over time, so I suspect they will flesh it out a bit more over the next year or two.
ILya
No. You can shoot close with a FFP, but it’s not 100% more useful. If I can only have one scope there’s no question it’s FFP. The reticles I prefer for competition are just some of the worst for hunting. They are terrible on low power. I never use them at the very bottom of power and to be honest that is too much to start with. I really want 3x, and I want 56mm, because I want maximum light gathering for when the biggest animals are out. I have a bunch of scopes on pencil barrel rifles like this because it’s a winning setup.
Years ago when I got my first FFP turret scope I was so excited to take it out hunting. Within that first morning I understood the limitations, and why it wasn’t always better. It shines at long distance, but it has limitations.
I’ve hunted with FFP reticles for years. Always at a minimum of 6x to be able to pick up on the reticle in the timber we hunt. I recently have moved back to SFP ( NF 2.5-10x 42 & 2.5-10x 33) but will not use a SFP scope above 10x.
Big Meh. Was hoping they would fix the odd looking too short front tube on the 2.5-20 and/or make the 4-32 - or something close to it - under the 2k PRS prod MSRP to compete with the Bushnell XRS II as I'd rather have a NF than the XRS II.
Negative. Leave that scope alone. Ffp, that mag range and the “odd looking too short tube” make it an ideal night time predator scope with a clip on in front.
I like the mag range and FFP, just wish the front tube had more room. Doesn't look like an inch would cause any issue with your setup.
Ah. I thought u were talking about the objective tube. All these ultra shorts don’t leave much room for error with the short main tubes.
I may not be using the right terminology but the shorter than normal main tube section between the objective bell and the center turret section. It looks odd compared to the longer main tube section on the ocular side (purely a preference) but also makes it hard to adjust eye relief. That doesn't look like an issue as you have a continuous rail on your AR but on a shorter rail on a bolt action there could be little to no room for adjustment especially with wider rings like Spuhrs. Anyway, they didn't touch it so you're good and I'll just keep buying other scopes
I will add - kinda odd the SFP versions are longer and heavier than the FFP, Hunting applications are obviously looking for lighter.
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I like Nightforce.
However, I have no use for an SFP scope, even for hunting ... and the 8x zoom ratio just seems to introduce too many issues and/or compromises.
Oh wait, everyone has said that already!
C'mon Nightforce, you know what we need. For the most part, it's there, and there aren't that may other options when it comes to reliability.
But a couple of easy tweaks on a few things could put you guys back at the head of the pack again ...
However, I have no use for an SFP scope, even for hunting ... and the 8x zoom ratio just seems to introduce too many issues and/or compromises.
Oh wait, everyone has said that already!
C'mon Nightforce, you know what we need. For the most part, it's there, and there aren't that may other options when it comes to reliability.
But a couple of easy tweaks on a few things could put you guys back at the head of the pack again ...
I know you think you know everything..............but
For a significant number of rifle uses, that is all that is needed. If you can't understand which situations are better suited to a SFP scope, then YOU are the ignorant one.
If someone can't figure out how to use a SFP reticle beyond pointing the rifle, they must think military shooters before 2010 were gods. lol Basic training goes a long way.
I am curious when NF is going to take a step back and look at the 6x erector sets. Maybe that's the next advancement for the ATACR lineup? The 2.5-20 was originally tempting but some of the reported trade offs can't replace the 4-16 ATACR. I might finally give Leupold another shot with their 3-18, or back to Kahles.
I am curious when NF is going to take a step back and look at the 6x erector sets. Maybe that's the next advancement for the ATACR lineup? The 2.5-20 was originally tempting but some of the reported trade offs can't replace the 4-16 ATACR. I might finally give Leupold another shot with their 3-18, or back to Kahles.
I shoot prs with a sfp scope. Far targets I shoot on max power (20x) and close targets and movers I keep it on 10x and double the reticle. This doesn't bother me and the tiny reticles in ffp scopes are hard for me to see unless the mag is cranked up. I also shoot moa so my opinion doesn't matter.
I have the original SFP ATACR with MORT reticle on a Barrett M82A1. Perfect scope for that application IMHO. By admitting that, I'll probably be banned or "marked for death" here LOL.
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