We have a brand new Cabela's near Highlands Ranch here in Colorado, stopped by yesterday on my way home. They have some decent tactical scopes, one of them was the Nightforce ATACR which was getting a lot of interest. We can debate the issues with looking through scopes inside of stores and I generally don't try to make judgements based on looking at the far wall of the store, you really need a good mount and be able to hold it steady, use it in different lighting situations, yada yada yada. That disclaimer being said, I must admit that I was not impressed with the optics (now given real life situation on the range/in the field I might have a different opinion), in fact, the NF 3.5-15 I looked through seemed to be a bit brighter and the Swaro 5-25 had the most impressive glass for the cheesy inside the store reviews... why oh why does Swarovski not make a tactical line! Let me clarify what I mean by "not impressed", I'm not saying that your $300 NC Star could compare, what I mean is that for a $2000+ scope I was expecting better optical performance, I think there are better optics in this price range, but again, this is only my opinion based on an in store evaluation.
I don't know about the Steiner but 2G5MK makes an excellent point with the FFP vs. SFP issue. I'm not going to bash SFP because I love my Zeiss Rapid Z 800 on my 308, but I'm becoming a convert to FFP reticles. Yes, at low magnification the FFP may be a struggle but still somewhat usable depending on the reticle itself; however, I find the SFP reticles limited when trying to make quick decisions.
I cannot comment on the Steiner so others will have to do so, but I can vouch for Scott at Liberty Optics, he is first rate!
