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Nightforce Atacr 4-20 x50

For the same weight, the mechanism will be simpler and more robust if the ocular rotates with the mag ring.
I would happily have it weigh a half ounce more and not have to put up with my flip cap spinning with the mag ring.
 
What good does it do? For the life of me, I can’t figure out why this is a good thing.
So you are saying you have no reason to dislike it other than its different? I like being able to grab the whole ocular with gloves on. I don't like cattails because my dumbass manages to snag them on everything somehow and rotate away from where I want to be.

I can tell ya with certainty that having your magnification where you expect is much more important than having your scope cap where you expect it.
 
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So you are saying you have no reason to dislike it other than its different? I like being able to grab the whole ocular with gloves on. I don't like cattails because my dumbass manages to snag them on everything somehow and rotate away from where I want to be.
As I stated above, I don’t like it because the flip cap turns with it.
I assume by cat tail, you mean throw lever. I’ve never had a problem using one. Never had an issue not using one, either. Perhaps I’m just lucky.
I guess this is why we have options. I’ll be returning the NF because of the spinning ocular and going with something different. I’m glad you enjoy it.
 
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So you are saying you have no reason to dislike it other than its different? I like being able to grab the whole ocular with gloves on. I don't like cattails because my dumbass manages to snag them on everything somehow and rotate away from where I want to be.

I can tell ya with certainty that having your magnification where you expect is much more important than having your scope cap where you expect it.
In reply to your edit:

Right, that’s pretty obvious re: knowing where your magnification is.
Sorry if my lack of tolerance for the spinning ocular has upset you. I’m certainly not the only one who doesn’t like it, and it’s enough for me to return it. Again, there are other options out there.
 
In reply to your edit:

Right, that’s pretty obvious re: knowing where your magnification is.
Sorry if my lack of tolerance for the spinning ocular has upset you. I’m certainly not the only one who doesn’t like it, and it’s enough for me to return it. Again, there are other options out there.
Oh its all good. Not upset but curious. lol Everyone gets so upset that they have to return an optic or rule it out as an option when it nails all of their other required specs just because their caps rotate away from perfect OCD vertical. I don’t like the feature to where I would want it on another optic, but it also doesn’t hinder anyone in anyway. I would personally prefer to use caps other than Tenebraex scope caps, but other things matter to me more than caps...especially when the caps it comes with rotate too...

At least now you can get a ZCO, as that is what I would get over this NF option any day.
 
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Oh its all good. Not upset but curious. lol Everyone gets so upset that they have to return an optic or rule it out as an option when it nails all of their other required specs just because their caps rotate away from perfect OCD vertical. I don’t like the feature to where I would want it on another optic, but it also doesn’t hinder anyone in anyway. I would personally prefer to use caps other than Tenebraex scope caps, but other things matter to me more than caps...especially when the caps it comes with rotate too...

At least now you can get a ZCO, as that is what I would get over this NF option any day.
It doesn’t bother me at all to return this scope. While this scope may check a lot of boxes for me, it isn’t the only one out there that will do it and there’s no reason to put up with something I don’t like. If ZCO offered moa, I’d try one, but as it is, I’ll probably just put a Tangent on this gun and be done with it.
 
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I like it, my brother showed up with some cool stuff over Easter weekend. Thats the new Nightforce 4x20 MilXT ATACR, on the new Vudoo 360 lug 22, in a prototype AICS AT-X chassis.


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The issue isn't going up in price the issue is releasing a very similar scope in the same price range as your competitors especially when those competitors are typically regarded as being the best in the industry and even if your product is just as good which it seems most here doubt it will be.

I want them to fill a segment of the market that has been undeserved.
The NX8 line was SOOOO close but the reported issues make me hesitant to try it when a 2000$ scope is still over 100 hours of overtime for me to aquire... not worth the risk IMO

But if they could release the 2.5-20 at a higher price but without the optical performance issues and still keep it under 30oz I would be on that quicker than my dog when she gets a whiff of cheese even if they sold for the exact same amount as a ZCO.


The NX8 4-32 doesn't suffer as much from optical issues near as the shorter one does. Running it at 12-22-ish mag is really nice! (which is what 95% are going to shoot at anyway) Then you still have good high mag ability for shooting paper when you don't care about the eyebox , ect. as much. You get that in a fairly light package. Tough to beat for under $2k. I don't want to get the atacr vs nx8 crap going here but I did want to point that out. I love my NX8 4-32.
 
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^^^^ same as Joeyg
Just ordered one this week, first shipment into Aus due late August.

Please post some pics "through the scope" guys and thoughts of parallax/DOF.

I would also be interested in mount info and photos of barrel clearance if anyone is installing one on a 20MOA rail(I use Terminus Zeus) with say a 20MOA(6Mil) Spuhr mount - especially with large contour (MTU, Proof Competition) barrels.
Thanks
 
It has it's place but it's not an upgrade to nor does it replace the 4-16 if that's what you're wondering. I needed something for a Mk20 and NF gave me the option to modify an existing order for this literally the morning it was released but on closer comparison (on paper anyway) it seems they're really different animals. Happy with the 4-16.

If it was just for shooting paper or maybe for a .22 for the high mag guys (it has lots of elevation and very low parallax IIRC) it'd be ideal.

That's my .02 anyway.
 
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^^^^ same as Joeyg
Just ordered one this week, first shipment into Aus due late August.

Please post some pics "through the scope" guys and thoughts of parallax/DOF.

I would also be interested in mount info and photos of barrel clearance if anyone is installing one on a 20MOA rail(I use Terminus Zeus) with say a 20MOA(6Mil) Spuhr mount - especially with large contour (MTU, Proof Competition) barrels.
Thanks
Mine will be on a 20moa base and 1.1” badger rings. Barrel is a MTU Bartlein. I’ll let you know on clearance, but the nx8 4-32x50 on a 1.1” Spuhr had plenty of clearance. I could of went 1” with that scope anyway.
 
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I like mine except the parallax is a little off compared to my other ATACRs. Typically i set it to 100 for 100 yards or close to it, but mine is around 250 to get a clear picture. We will see how it is once I’m able to get passed 300 yards. That’s my only complaint though.
 
I like mine except the parallax is a little off compared to my other ATACRs. Typically i set it to 100 for 100 yards or close to it, but mine is around 250 to get a clear picture. We will see how it is once I’m able to get passed 300 yards. That’s my only complaint though.
I might say your diopter could use tweaking.
 
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I like mine except the parallax is a little off compared to my other ATACRs. Typically i set it to 100 for 100 yards or close to it, but mine is around 250 to get a clear picture. We will see how it is once I’m able to get passed 300 yards. That’s my only complaint though.
I have had one for a month now and it is exactly like yours. The parallax knob is set somewhere around 250 to 300 to get a good 100 yard image. It is set at about 100 yards on the knob when I zero at 35 yards with my .22. When shooting at distance the parallax is very forgiving. I can pretty much just leave it at 400 yards and it is clear and parallax free from 200 yards to 700 yards it seems like.
 
Personally the more than $600 offset guaranteed me comfy eyebox at all magnification.
Are you saying the eyebox on the NF 4-20 is better than ZCO 4-20, at least in your experience? The NF is a larger (longer) scope and longer focal length scopes do tend to have better eyebox, parallax and DOF, but the ZCO was pretty amazing for an ultra short design. What causes me hesitation with the NF is the tunneling and limited FOV at the low end.
 
I know nothing about the ZCO other than dimensions. Personally I struggled in the past with shorter scopes. I guess it depends on use. Personally I won’t be on 4x enough for it to matter. Call it a 5-20.
 
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Are you saying the eyebox on the NF 4-20 is better than ZCO 4-20, at least in your experience? The NF is a larger (longer) scope and longer focal length scopes do tend to have better eyebox, parallax and DOF, but the ZCO was pretty amazing for an ultra short design. What causes me hesitation with the NF is the tunneling and limited FOV at the low end.
the 4-20 tunnels?
 
Man I wish mine would show up, I have had several ZCOs and really want to see how this NF stacks up.
 
Still not seeing why ya wouldn’t spend $600 more and have Zero Compromises
Keep in mind that it's not like they just went shopping for scopes and picked this one willy nilly.

The contract was likely awarded based on ability to meet performance thresholds and ability to deliver rather than on price/unit.

The whole process prolly cycled through starting with RFPs and then drawing up guidelines for a complete package/system that companies could compete within. ZC and anybody else could have competed for the contract if they wanted to jump in and commit the resources. For all I know maybe they did compete.



./
 
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Well, this likely explains why Nightforce made the 4-20x in the first place.

I am sure it will do well.

ILya
That was my thought too, my guess is those who are making these decisions (USSOCOM) have no idea what tunneling is, they simply look at the magnification spec and say "that sounds great". That being said, with this announcement I'm sure there's going to be a rush on buying the 4-20, they had a few month backlog before but I'm guessing it will be much longer now.
 
That was my thought too, my guess is those who are making these decisions (USSOCOM) have no idea what tunneling is, they simply look at the magnification spec and say "that sounds great". That being said, with this announcement I'm sure there's going to be a rush on buying the 4-20, they had a few month backlog before but I'm guessing it will be much longer now.

They were probably looking for a particular FOV range and whether it tunnels or not was not one of the parameters. Given the program, it is going for, I am not at all convinced they care about that in the slightest.

Since we have plenty of track record on other ATACR scopes, we can fairly confidently assume that the 4-20x50 is pretty good as well. I do not know who else was going for the program, if anyone, but given that the larger ATACR was chosen for the P-VPS, the choice of the 4-20x50 for the R-VPS is not surprising.

ILya
 
They were probably looking for a particular FOV range and whether it tunnels or not was not one of the parameters. Given the program, it is going for, I am not at all convinced they care about that in the slightest.

Since we have plenty of track record on other ATACR scopes, we can fairly confidently assume that the 4-20x50 is pretty good as well. I do not know who else was going for the program, if anyone, but given that the larger ATACR was chosen for the P-VPS, the choice of the 4-20x50 for the R-VPS is not surprising.

ILya
Maybe you can help me understand why certain scopes tunnel and others do not. Is there some hidden advantage to this design I may be overlooking?
 
I tried to order one of these from CS back in February, they told me it would likely be July or August before it would arrive. And that was 4 months ago.
I know the feeling, I have been waiting a hair longer than that, but oh well. I have other stuff and if they don't show up soon I'm just going to buy 2-3 of the Mk5HD 3.6-18 to go on these rifles.
 
I tried to order one of these from CS back in February, they told me it would likely be July or August before it would arrive. And that was 4 months ago.
My guess is Nightforce was chasing this contract all along, may be what drove the design to begin with. I've been pleading for more 4-20 designs from manufacturer's, Burris (XTR II) and Tract Toric delivered on the budget end and ZCO delivered on the alpha side but there seems to be a lack of middle tier options unless you consider 3-18ish range.
 
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My guess is Nightforce was chasing this contract all along, may be what drove the design to begin with. I've been pleading for more 4-20 designs from manufacturer's, Burris (XTR II) and Tract Toric delivered on the budget end and ZCO delivered on the alpha side but there seems to be a lack of middle tier options unless you consider 3-18ish range.
Don't be modest. We all know industry insiders refer to you and The DLO as the "go to source" with the finger on the pulse of the markets ... 😁
 
My guess is Nightforce was chasing this contract all along, may be what drove the design to begin with. I've been pleading for more 4-20 designs from manufacturer's, Burris (XTR II) and Tract Toric delivered on the budget end and ZCO delivered on the alpha side but there seems to be a lack of middle tier options unless you consider 3-18ish range.

Yea, I ended up snagging a used zco for about $100 more than NF 4-20 price and couldn't be happier. What I want to see is a 4-20, 30mm tube, sub 25 ounces, with good glass, mil, ffp, locking turrets. Basically if Vortex made a 4-20 AMG. would be a perfect hunting scope. The new LHT is very close, but want ffp and better reticle. literally just want the amg in a lower mag range.
 
My guess is Nightforce was chasing this contract all along, may be what drove the design to begin with. I've been pleading for more 4-20 designs from manufacturer's, Burris (XTR II) and Tract Toric delivered on the budget end and ZCO delivered on the alpha side but there seems to be a lack of middle tier options unless you consider 3-18ish range.
I like the 4-20 range too. Do you have time behind a S&B 3-20x50 PMII? I'm talking about the regular model, not the U-S. If a guy could score a gently used example for @ $2.2K, would it be worth consideration? Do you know if it tunnels at low mag like other PMII models? Seems like this S&B might be the goldilocks scope I'm looking for.
 
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I like the 4-20 range too. Do you have time behind a S&B 3-20x50 PMII? I'm talking about the regular model, not the U-S. If a guy could score a gently used example for @ $2.2K, would it be worth consideration? Do you know if it tunnels at low mag like other PMII models? Seems like this S&B might be the goldilocks scope I'm looking for.
PM2 3-20 does not tunnel. Very easy to get behind. Excellent pop and clarity.
 
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Don't be modest. We all know industry insiders refer to you and The DLO as the "go to source" with the finger on the pulse of the markets ... 😁
You give me more credit than is due. ;) I don't want to speak for ILya but for me in particular I've burned a few bridges with my "honest" reviews, those reviews I think they do care about :censored:, but as for anyone actually listening to my recommendations, most of the time it falls on deaf ears - I'm just an annoying buzz in the distance :LOL: . I post here on the Hide and sometimes on ILya's platforms, but that's it, I'm not a social media guy and 2020 with cancel culture proved why, so it is likely that I fly under the radar for most manufacturer's out there. As for having a "finger on the pulse of the market" I suppose I may be "in the know" a little more than some through my various contacts and such, but most of the time I'm finding out about new products at the same time you are, there are some exceptions, but those are the "exceptions and not the rule".