They ought to give you a pin or something for surviving all four days of Shot show. I woke up this morning and I really wasn’t sure if I would be able to walk. Everything from the knees down was just dreadful. I had to give in and take some Advil: Quite the improvement. They really should hand the stuff out at mile 12 of Shot along with the pin. So, I hereby admit to using performance-enhancing substances to produce such good articles, and it took me 14 years less than Lance to do so.
So, the first booth that I went to this year was Nightforce. I did this partly because I was excited to see the new product, and partly because I felt a little bad for giving them exactly no ink last year. First, lets talk about the 5-25x56 mm ffp Beast. The first line in the Beast brochure is: “Once in a great while, a product comes along that changes our attitudes, our perceptions, the very way we do things.” This kind of makes it sound like the Beast is as big as the Internet, the airplane, steam power, or perhaps birth control. It’s not that big. It’s great innovative feature, the throw lever, is basically the same thing Unertl had 30 years ago. Honestly, ‘innovative’ is not what I would call the Beast.
However, I would call the Beast well thought out and generally well executed. I also expect that it will continue the Nightforce tradition of being exceedingly rugged and dependable; two things that innovative products are not really known for.
Beast profile with size comparison to GRSC 1-6x:
Now for the features: Take a look at the photos to guide you. The button on top of the elevation turret that they call a “brake control” (and explain in hieroglyphics translated twice into Icelandic and then to English) is a turret lock plain and simple. Up, and the turret will rotate; down, it will not. To activate this lock, one must push down and turn the button. This is hard to do with the fingertips and should be performed with the palm of the right hand. I still found it a little awkward, but I expect one gets the hang of it. Better explained in the press release than the break control is the throw lever. I hear they skipped the Icelandic translation on this one. This little lever can be flipped to add .1mil to whatever you have just dialed at .2 mil increments. Alternately, you can leave it thrown and dial odd numbers of mils instead of even. Either way, this .2 mil click increment +.1 lever solves the problem of making the clicks far enough spaced to have a 20 mil+ (60 MOA actually) single turn without the clicks being hopelessly on top of one another and difficult to count individually or stop on the right one. It works quite well. I’m sure you guessed that the elevation turret has a zero stop, but I will put your mind at ease and confirm this. I will also mention that for MOA users this turret can be had with ½” clicks +1/4”.
The windage knob also has a lock on it. This is the red button on the side. This locks the windage at zero and must be pressed to move the windage from that point. However, on the scopes at the show, that damn button is so short and hard that if you can move it with your naturally positioned index finger, you are a stronger man than I. Nightforce was quick to assure me that this will not be a problem in the final version and is being addressed. The Beast is still a bit of a prototype. Windage clicks are .1 mil or 1/4 MOA and go 6 mils each way to a stop.
As for the illumination control, it is a single button, which, like all other single button controls makes it complicated because you have to know Morse code. The code for this one is that you click through the brightness settings with the reticle flashing at the top and bottom to indicate position. To turn off you hold for one second. To switch to Night vision mode you hold for 8 seconds. This illumination control is found on the side of the side focus parallax know which ranges from 50 yards (boo) out. Power change and diopter utilize the same layout all Nightforce users will be quite familiar with.
Now for my thoughts on this scope after handling it for a bit. First off, it looks great. In the past I have found most Nightforce glass to be rather uninspiring, but this glass looks good. I bugged them for a while on the source of the glass and heard several different stories. I heard that it was Japanese ED glass; I heard that it had Japanese, German, and American glass; and I also heard that all pieces were made from Kryptonite polished by elves. Maybe that is why I couldn’t get that little red button to push. I really don’t know what the glass is, but it looks very good. For those interested in extraneous details (and if you are reading this, you are), the Beast marks another milestone in Nightforce’s transition from a primarily foreign to a wholly American brand. It is assembled here and was designed using American and German engineers. I think that they did a rather good job of it, myself. Though I’m not sure it merits the Nobel Prize in physics. The Beast strikes me as very well thought out and executed. I think it will perform well for the long-range shooting crowd. I was told that the retail will be $3,400 and the availability date for civilians is not yet determined.
The Beast at 5x:
The Beast at 25x:
That was a lot of writing: now for something completely different. The 5-25x56 mm Atacr is basically an NXS that has 34 mm tube and better ED glass. The optics looked good to me even in the crappy light of the ballroom. I would have liked ffp, but what are you going to do. Price is $2,400.
The Atacr at 5x:
Lastly, we have the new Nightforce 15-55x52 mm Competition model. This is for the F-class and bench rest folks. It is lighter than the comparable NF offerings before it, is higher power, has better (now ED) glass, and is side focus. They will sell many of these at $2,300. The plan is to make a series of these and I think that you can kiss off the old bench rest line in the future.
So, the first booth that I went to this year was Nightforce. I did this partly because I was excited to see the new product, and partly because I felt a little bad for giving them exactly no ink last year. First, lets talk about the 5-25x56 mm ffp Beast. The first line in the Beast brochure is: “Once in a great while, a product comes along that changes our attitudes, our perceptions, the very way we do things.” This kind of makes it sound like the Beast is as big as the Internet, the airplane, steam power, or perhaps birth control. It’s not that big. It’s great innovative feature, the throw lever, is basically the same thing Unertl had 30 years ago. Honestly, ‘innovative’ is not what I would call the Beast.
However, I would call the Beast well thought out and generally well executed. I also expect that it will continue the Nightforce tradition of being exceedingly rugged and dependable; two things that innovative products are not really known for.
Beast profile with size comparison to GRSC 1-6x:
Now for the features: Take a look at the photos to guide you. The button on top of the elevation turret that they call a “brake control” (and explain in hieroglyphics translated twice into Icelandic and then to English) is a turret lock plain and simple. Up, and the turret will rotate; down, it will not. To activate this lock, one must push down and turn the button. This is hard to do with the fingertips and should be performed with the palm of the right hand. I still found it a little awkward, but I expect one gets the hang of it. Better explained in the press release than the break control is the throw lever. I hear they skipped the Icelandic translation on this one. This little lever can be flipped to add .1mil to whatever you have just dialed at .2 mil increments. Alternately, you can leave it thrown and dial odd numbers of mils instead of even. Either way, this .2 mil click increment +.1 lever solves the problem of making the clicks far enough spaced to have a 20 mil+ (60 MOA actually) single turn without the clicks being hopelessly on top of one another and difficult to count individually or stop on the right one. It works quite well. I’m sure you guessed that the elevation turret has a zero stop, but I will put your mind at ease and confirm this. I will also mention that for MOA users this turret can be had with ½” clicks +1/4”.
The windage knob also has a lock on it. This is the red button on the side. This locks the windage at zero and must be pressed to move the windage from that point. However, on the scopes at the show, that damn button is so short and hard that if you can move it with your naturally positioned index finger, you are a stronger man than I. Nightforce was quick to assure me that this will not be a problem in the final version and is being addressed. The Beast is still a bit of a prototype. Windage clicks are .1 mil or 1/4 MOA and go 6 mils each way to a stop.
As for the illumination control, it is a single button, which, like all other single button controls makes it complicated because you have to know Morse code. The code for this one is that you click through the brightness settings with the reticle flashing at the top and bottom to indicate position. To turn off you hold for one second. To switch to Night vision mode you hold for 8 seconds. This illumination control is found on the side of the side focus parallax know which ranges from 50 yards (boo) out. Power change and diopter utilize the same layout all Nightforce users will be quite familiar with.
Now for my thoughts on this scope after handling it for a bit. First off, it looks great. In the past I have found most Nightforce glass to be rather uninspiring, but this glass looks good. I bugged them for a while on the source of the glass and heard several different stories. I heard that it was Japanese ED glass; I heard that it had Japanese, German, and American glass; and I also heard that all pieces were made from Kryptonite polished by elves. Maybe that is why I couldn’t get that little red button to push. I really don’t know what the glass is, but it looks very good. For those interested in extraneous details (and if you are reading this, you are), the Beast marks another milestone in Nightforce’s transition from a primarily foreign to a wholly American brand. It is assembled here and was designed using American and German engineers. I think that they did a rather good job of it, myself. Though I’m not sure it merits the Nobel Prize in physics. The Beast strikes me as very well thought out and executed. I think it will perform well for the long-range shooting crowd. I was told that the retail will be $3,400 and the availability date for civilians is not yet determined.
The Beast at 5x:
The Beast at 25x:
That was a lot of writing: now for something completely different. The 5-25x56 mm Atacr is basically an NXS that has 34 mm tube and better ED glass. The optics looked good to me even in the crappy light of the ballroom. I would have liked ffp, but what are you going to do. Price is $2,400.
The Atacr at 5x:
Lastly, we have the new Nightforce 15-55x52 mm Competition model. This is for the F-class and bench rest folks. It is lighter than the comparable NF offerings before it, is higher power, has better (now ED) glass, and is side focus. They will sell many of these at $2,300. The plan is to make a series of these and I think that you can kiss off the old bench rest line in the future.
