I have had a 280 AI that I have needed a scope for and my son drew an elk tag so I finally am getting around to getting this gun squared away. I must admit spending that much money on nightforce just makes me want to vomit. So basically I have been looking for every other type of scope that was less money that would still get the job done. job being capable of accurately making shots on big game to 800 yards. This with the aid of a wind meter that measures density altitude and with the applied ballistics smart phone app. Also calibrating my load to what the app says it should be which means actually shooting and verifying results. I have had flawless luck with nightforce on other guns
I first bought a SWFA 3-15, SFP scope, I found the reticle tuff to see. I also didn't like big honking turrets sticking out although nightforce has them too, they have seemed to stay put for me. I ended up returning the SWFA SS scope which was a nightmare BTW. they have terrible customer service.
I noticed vortex had come out with a new version of its PST the 3-15x44 SFP with EBR 4 reticle seemed exactly what I was looking for. The zero stop, is excellent on it. the turrets have 24 mins of MOA per turn. The clicks feel awesome and the reticle is awesome too. perfect long range scope I am thinking. I decided it was exactly what I was wanting but vortex lets be honest despite having great customer services, How about not needing it? So I decided to chance it. I mean afterall the vortex pst gen 2 is half the money of a nightforce. I have always wanted to test my own optics. Its difficult to do with actually shooting your gun. I think there are conclusions you can make both shooting the gun AND figuring out a way to static mount the scope. I picked up a piece of pic rail. cut some angle iron. and with c clamps fastened this to a park pavilion pole.. I also made a target that has lines on it that are straight with lines on it that are exactly 5 MOA apart. not 5 inches but 5 moa. I actually measured the distance to 100 yards using an actually long tape measure. no laser RF! actual distance. then I put a screw at the top of the middle line and hung a string with weight down below. I can adjust the target with the hammer so the string is perfectly up and down. that way I know my lines are perfectly vertical. I adjust the clamps and rings so the reticle is true to the lines and the reticle is lined up with the target. the c clamps accomodate this quite easily. give me 5 minutes and I can have a scope setup and adjusted right on target.
what I found was pretty interesting. The first gen pst Gen 2 tracked perfectly elevation wise with the markings on the reticle and the markings on the line. 5 minutes is 5 MOA! 25 MOA is well 25 MOA! The ticks on the reticle also match as well. However there was one problem as you get close to 15-20 moa of up elevation in this case down erector movement you also see the reticle shift right!!!! Its pretty much a linear amount of right travel starting at the beginning but only really noticable when you get beyond 10 MOA. I mentioned first, I took the first scope I bought back and returned it and tested another. Almost exact same result. with 25 MOA of adjustment the reticle will shift about 7/8 MOA, with the second scope I saw about 3/4 moa shift. When I went to adjust the scope to the line at the bottom then back up reticle would shift and be to the left of the line at the top RTZ. SOOOOO the 2 samples of gen 2 scopes I tested both exhibit right reticle travel with down adjustment of the reticle. I was pretty disappointed to say the least. I thought dammit another nightforce has to get bought. but wait there is a silver lining. Laying in bed one morning I got to thinking about this. This level of error on the scope would just about EXACTLY account for spin drift at long range!!!! if you have a right twist barrel your going to see at least half a minute to 1000 yards of spin drift to the right. Right reticle movement inside the scope would actually negate this. I don't think vortex built in this feature, but they unknowingly might be showing a benefit to it. Anyways I still traded back in the PST gen 2 for another nightforce. which passed my test with flying colors and did seem to have or very easily have all its parallax able to be dialed out while the PST gen 2 seemed difficult to dial it all out during the test . Vortex I know you read these forums DUDE people are going to test this shit! you can't release stuff that is supposed to be sold and marketed as being for this purpose and people not know. Its amazing more people don't test optics to see what it actually does and its amazing that I can't find anything on the entire internet where someone tested a scope in the manner I just did. below are pics of how I did this.
I first bought a SWFA 3-15, SFP scope, I found the reticle tuff to see. I also didn't like big honking turrets sticking out although nightforce has them too, they have seemed to stay put for me. I ended up returning the SWFA SS scope which was a nightmare BTW. they have terrible customer service.
I noticed vortex had come out with a new version of its PST the 3-15x44 SFP with EBR 4 reticle seemed exactly what I was looking for. The zero stop, is excellent on it. the turrets have 24 mins of MOA per turn. The clicks feel awesome and the reticle is awesome too. perfect long range scope I am thinking. I decided it was exactly what I was wanting but vortex lets be honest despite having great customer services, How about not needing it? So I decided to chance it. I mean afterall the vortex pst gen 2 is half the money of a nightforce. I have always wanted to test my own optics. Its difficult to do with actually shooting your gun. I think there are conclusions you can make both shooting the gun AND figuring out a way to static mount the scope. I picked up a piece of pic rail. cut some angle iron. and with c clamps fastened this to a park pavilion pole.. I also made a target that has lines on it that are straight with lines on it that are exactly 5 MOA apart. not 5 inches but 5 moa. I actually measured the distance to 100 yards using an actually long tape measure. no laser RF! actual distance. then I put a screw at the top of the middle line and hung a string with weight down below. I can adjust the target with the hammer so the string is perfectly up and down. that way I know my lines are perfectly vertical. I adjust the clamps and rings so the reticle is true to the lines and the reticle is lined up with the target. the c clamps accomodate this quite easily. give me 5 minutes and I can have a scope setup and adjusted right on target.
what I found was pretty interesting. The first gen pst Gen 2 tracked perfectly elevation wise with the markings on the reticle and the markings on the line. 5 minutes is 5 MOA! 25 MOA is well 25 MOA! The ticks on the reticle also match as well. However there was one problem as you get close to 15-20 moa of up elevation in this case down erector movement you also see the reticle shift right!!!! Its pretty much a linear amount of right travel starting at the beginning but only really noticable when you get beyond 10 MOA. I mentioned first, I took the first scope I bought back and returned it and tested another. Almost exact same result. with 25 MOA of adjustment the reticle will shift about 7/8 MOA, with the second scope I saw about 3/4 moa shift. When I went to adjust the scope to the line at the bottom then back up reticle would shift and be to the left of the line at the top RTZ. SOOOOO the 2 samples of gen 2 scopes I tested both exhibit right reticle travel with down adjustment of the reticle. I was pretty disappointed to say the least. I thought dammit another nightforce has to get bought. but wait there is a silver lining. Laying in bed one morning I got to thinking about this. This level of error on the scope would just about EXACTLY account for spin drift at long range!!!! if you have a right twist barrel your going to see at least half a minute to 1000 yards of spin drift to the right. Right reticle movement inside the scope would actually negate this. I don't think vortex built in this feature, but they unknowingly might be showing a benefit to it. Anyways I still traded back in the PST gen 2 for another nightforce. which passed my test with flying colors and did seem to have or very easily have all its parallax able to be dialed out while the PST gen 2 seemed difficult to dial it all out during the test . Vortex I know you read these forums DUDE people are going to test this shit! you can't release stuff that is supposed to be sold and marketed as being for this purpose and people not know. Its amazing more people don't test optics to see what it actually does and its amazing that I can't find anything on the entire internet where someone tested a scope in the manner I just did. below are pics of how I did this.
