Rifle Scopes Steiner MX5i and T5xi Value

[Guyotrd]

"I just purchased both a Steiner 5-25x56 M5Xi MSR2 for 2270 and also a Steiner T5Xi 5-25x56mm SCR-MOA Reticle for 1435 online with the idea to pick one and send the other back - I have read a ton on-line and as no one has both in stock near me I wanted opinions as to whether the 835 US is worth the delta (black friday at Optics Planet)

I understand ALL the differences that can be written on-line , that one is Mil and the other MOA, the reticles are different, that you generally get what you pay for in a free market, that Steiner says on their website "The M series will feature a higher grade of premium hand picked German glass, and is built to withstand the rigors of military duty" and that the US charges more duty on the imported model

I will use them on my first long range gun a Bergara HMR-14 in 6.5 CM with the idea to upgrade the rifle if I like the hobby - this scope I want to be my last purchase on glass. My other use will be to use on my annual ELK hunt as an option to my SAKO 300wsm with NF NXS 3x15 on my yearly ELK hunts. I practice quite a bit and the 300WSM is less than pleasurable.

As the MXI is back ordered for 1 month I will not be able to compare until they are both present. My questions are as follows and I greatly appreciate any help from those that are more experienced in hunting long range and tactical.

Will the MSR2 have better visibility at the lowest power of 5 , Steiner made some mod here on the gen 2 of this reticle that I did not understand. low power is important to me as any big game hunters know in FFP.

How much better is the glass - I am not shooting movies here but the animals seem to come out right before sunrise and after sunset here in Colorado?

How much more Rugged is the M in practical terms. After 5 years of crawling around on rocks at 10k feet in freezing cold my NF looks like it has been used by one of our respected military members in actual combat. Although hopefully my life will never depend on the scope like it could for our great warriors.

I can afford the difference (barely) , but I have no desire to burn money, have two kids in college and would use the extra cash to upgrade the rifle.

THANK YOU for any help

 

[scocoabeach]

Hi Guy, welcome to the forum. Optics Planet has very _SLOW_ shipping and isn't a dealer many of us like to deal with here. Can I recommend you contact Doug at Cameraland. He is one of the vendors who supports these forums and I'm sure he can take care of you not only with as good or better price than Optics Planet but much better customer service and shipping times as well.

While I haven't looked through a M5Xi I did purchase a T5Xi from Doug and he gave me an outstanding deal. Since the scope comes with a lifetime warranty you might be better served by going with it and saving some money versus the M series.

You might also want to consider the MIL version versus the MOA for the T5Xi, as there is a shift of more shooters going to the MIL system versus MOA, but that is largely personal preference. I like the Mil SCR reticle in the T5Xi.

I'm not a hunter so I can't help you with those questions. As far as I know they both carry a lifetime warranty and either scope can break so I'm not sure how much of a difference the value in durability is and it would probably be hard for most people here to quantify as an invididuals sample sizes will usually be low.

Hopefully some others will comment on your questions. Good luck with your decision.

 

[Sako man]

Mil M5Xi, I have owned three Steiner M5Xi, one 16x the other two 25x, on all the glass was excellent. Steiner is a great company to work with for warranty work. The M5 will have better glass if you are worried about that, as well as a better reputation for tracking. The first generation of T5X's had a very rocky start, now that may have fixed all those bugs but the M5's are known to be more stout overall.

Mil because it's easier to calculate from base ten vs. MOA which is 1/4 minute angles.

One last thing to say, if you want to save money there's always great deals here from members selling their used Steiners, another way to save money if you are worried about that.

 

[hic28]

Simple. Go with the M series and don’t look back. They usually go used on the px for 1800-2100.

 

[just browsing]

+1 for the Military series.

 

[Laseredge]

http://www.libertyoptics.com/contents/en-us/d8.html
Steiner M’s on sale NOW! Act fast, place in cart to see the price.

 

[gr8fuldoug]

It would be my pleasure to work with you. When you have some time give us a call

 

[Tunnuh]

I'd definitely call the Hide dealers. I've done business with Doug and give his name out to everyone that likes my Cronus now. OP isn't the best at anything.

 

[Dank27]

I have 2 T5 XI and I love them both. Track well, accurate and clear out to 1200 but I did shoot my buddies M series and its freaking nice.

Cant go wrong either way.

 

[Roo_man]

M series...

 

[patriot07]

I had a T5xi and didn't care for it at all. Thinking the M5xi is a pretty big upgrade. I'd either go M5xi or something other than the T5xi if I was going cheaper.

 

[Long Range 338]

I've got both and like both. The T5 is more compact and for the money is a great scope. The M5 is bulletproof and a better scope but larger and offers better reticles IMHO. If you can stand to pack around the M5 you'll be happy, if you are counting your pennies the T5 won't let you down either...
My vote, keep both!

 

[Sako man]

I've got both and like both. The T5 is more compact and for the money is a great scope. The M5 is bulletproof and a better scope but larger and offers better reticles IMHO. If you can stand to pack around the M5 you'll be happy, if you are counting your pennies the T5 won't let you down either...
My vote, keep both!

That's actually good to know, I wanted to so like that optic when it fist came out but it had issues. Sounds like things are worked out.

 

[Guyotrd]

I finally got the MX5i and Tx5i from OP and spent about two hours looking through them side by side. I wanted to see a difference but they simply looked identical as to glass quality. I tried all powers but spent the most time looking at a farm, tractor and white horse about 410yds away. The M series seemed to have a slightly different sight picture but perhaps this is due to a small difference in FOV at that yardage. It was just different not better.

I tested in direct sunlight, afternoon and after sunset. I could not see any chromatic aberrations in either scope and the edge to edge clarity looked identical.

My 21 years old son - who did not spend hours and hours reading this site or any others and had no idea of the price of either looked for about 5 minutes through both and told me the T5Xi was the better of the two.

While the MSR2 reticle was very interesting the SCR MOA in the T5xi seemed more practical as I will not be targeting objects the size of people. As all my other scopes are MOA that will be easier for me.

I really wanted to see a 1100 dollar difference in the Military but could not see any difference in the glass even if they were the same price. I thought the turrets were much better on the T series, especially if you are packing the rifle or carrying it in a horse scabbard. After focusing on image quality for many years I have come to realize that the accuracy of the clicks are far more important - and I trust this will be the same on both scopes. After trying to adjust impact on my Zeiss Conquest 3x9 - I realized that budget scopes are a waste of money unless you are going to use holdover and never touch it once it is zeroed.

The M5Xi are supposed to be hand picked glass - either they have improved the non-hand picked in the TX5i or the hand picking yielded no gain to my eyes. Perhaps if the technician is having a bad day you will get no benefit - or manufacturing has improved to a point to mitigate this feature.

I was contacted by Liberty Optics here after they were both on order and the gentlemen was extremely helpful - I will buy my next scope from him.

I also talked to the commercial Steiner Rep who stated that the M series was tested and durable to Military spec but the T would be very close and have no issues. I also asked about the M7xi coming out in the future and it should be better in all regards to the M5xi

As I understand government contracting, I imagine since the M series is probably in contracts around the world and adding a new model requires some expense and effort, I imagine the M5xi series will be around for quite a bit. The only downside I saw on either scope was the parallax being at 50 as the minimum - since this will also be used for hunting as well as long range - that is a small downside although the image at 5 power and 20 yds was not too bad.