OK, I know everybody is anxious to here about these, so here are my initial thoughts. Both good and bad.
<span style="font-weight: bold"><span style="text-decoration: underline">First the good:</span></span>
<span style="font-weight: bold">Size/weight:</span> Very nice, especially for a hunting rig or any other rifle where the 30+ oz tactical scopes are not desirable.
<span style="font-weight: bold">Reticle:</span> Outstanding reticle, it should do pretty much anything you'd want to do with such a scope.
<span style="font-weight: bold">Illumination:</span> The knob is nice and stiff, unlikely to get turned on accidentally. The brightness is very good for this type of scope. What you worry about with a scope in this price range where so much of the reticle illuminates is that even on its lowest setting the illumination will be too bright and wash out your view of the target in low light.
Not a problem with this illumination. The lower settings are so low you won't likely ever use them unless you're using NV. You can crank it up just until you can see the reticle without any problems washing out the target.
It isn't daytime visible, but I generally don't expect or want that in a scope of this power range. It is bright enough on 10 that it can be seen in gloomy-to dusk conditions even on 4X, which really helps reticle visibility in those conditions so it should work fine for brush hunting as the light fades (it'd be a bit too thin for that without the illumination in my opinion).
<span style="font-weight: bold">Turrets: </span> Very nice looking, have a quality feel and sound. The zero stop works well to keep you from getting lost on the dial.
<span style="font-weight: bold">Tracking Repeatability:</span> The tracking has been very repeatable in testing, always going back to the same spot. The reticle moves smoothly with no hesitations or hangups or other evidence of sticking.
<span style="font-weight: bold"><span style="text-decoration: underline">The Bad:</span></span>
<span style="font-weight: bold">Turrets:</span> While they do have a quality feel, it's much the same quality feel of my 6.5-20 Viper or you'd expect on a BR scope with covered turrets. The PST's turrets are too easy to turn for uncovered turrets. To hunt with these I'd at least tape up the windage and would feel better taping up the elevation--which sort of goes against the whole reason to have them in the first place. It's a good thing it has a zero stop, because you'll be checking it often.
I may try finding fatter O-rings or something in the future to stiffen them up. Hopefully something workable can be figured out.
<span style="font-weight: bold">Glass: </span> Yes, I was a bit disappointed with the glass. Maybe my expectations were not realistic knowing the price range of the scope, but I was hoping for better. It's not bad, there are no big flaws, it's just not as clear and sharp as I had hoped on the higher powers. I'd say it's roughly the same as the 6.5-20X50 Viper, which I think is quite good for a $400 scope, but I was hoping for a bit better with this one.
Don't get me wrong, it's perfectly usable and looks quite good on the lower powers, but if you've been spoiled by top level glass, this is a noticeable downgrade.
Of course, in a scope like this, especially at this price range, there are more important things than glass quality, which brings me to:
<span style="font-weight: bold">Tracking Accuracy: </span> While the tracking is repeatable, my particular scope has a couple problems with its accuracy. Hopefully I got a bum one and other units are not like this, I know Vortex can do better because my 6.5-20 does not suffer from these problems. Nevertheless, this scope has them--which is why I meticulously measure every scope I buy.
Problem #1: The reticle is canted by roughly 1.2 degrees with respect to erector movement. It's not enough to be obvious to the eye, but it's enough to cause problems. This means for every 10 mils you click up, you need to click to the right two clicks in order to keep from dialing windage you didn't want. This may not be an issue for some who don't shoot long range or who will primarily use the reticle for holdover but it's not acceptable to me on a tactical scope. I know it's well within specs of some manufacturers (such as Leupold) but I expect more from Vortex. My cheaper 6.5-20 Viper has no measurable cant to the reticle. Hopefully this particular scope is an aberration and not representative of the other PST's out there.
Problem #2: The click value is about 3% off. 97 clicks moves 10 Mils, even by measure of its own reticle--which seems to be sized accurately (within 1%)--as well as the collimator. I know historically many scopes have perpetually been even farther off than that, and I know that even some pretty expensive tactical scopes still have a +/- 2% tolerance, but it's hard for me to be happy with a scope that is that far off. With the good ballistic programs we have these days it's easy to compensate for, but having to do so by such a large amount does not make me happy with a scope. Again, the cheaper 6.5-20 Viper measures within 1% so a PST with this large an error just isn't right.
I plan to return the scope for the last two problems as they're not acceptable to me, especially both problems combined. Hopefully I got a bad apple and others aren't like this. There's nothing intrinsic to the design that should make them all the same as mine in these aspects, so hopefully they aren't.
The glass and turret stiffness may be disappointments, but they don't keep the scope from being functional which is what's most important. Obviously, especially in this price range, one can't expect the perfection and stunning glass one does on a $2000 or $3000 scope so functioning correctly and getting the job done is what's most important. I do think these scopes can do that if the last two problems with my particular unit are not present.
<span style="font-weight: bold"><span style="text-decoration: underline">First the good:</span></span>
<span style="font-weight: bold">Size/weight:</span> Very nice, especially for a hunting rig or any other rifle where the 30+ oz tactical scopes are not desirable.
<span style="font-weight: bold">Reticle:</span> Outstanding reticle, it should do pretty much anything you'd want to do with such a scope.
<span style="font-weight: bold">Illumination:</span> The knob is nice and stiff, unlikely to get turned on accidentally. The brightness is very good for this type of scope. What you worry about with a scope in this price range where so much of the reticle illuminates is that even on its lowest setting the illumination will be too bright and wash out your view of the target in low light.
Not a problem with this illumination. The lower settings are so low you won't likely ever use them unless you're using NV. You can crank it up just until you can see the reticle without any problems washing out the target.
It isn't daytime visible, but I generally don't expect or want that in a scope of this power range. It is bright enough on 10 that it can be seen in gloomy-to dusk conditions even on 4X, which really helps reticle visibility in those conditions so it should work fine for brush hunting as the light fades (it'd be a bit too thin for that without the illumination in my opinion).
<span style="font-weight: bold">Turrets: </span> Very nice looking, have a quality feel and sound. The zero stop works well to keep you from getting lost on the dial.
<span style="font-weight: bold">Tracking Repeatability:</span> The tracking has been very repeatable in testing, always going back to the same spot. The reticle moves smoothly with no hesitations or hangups or other evidence of sticking.
<span style="font-weight: bold"><span style="text-decoration: underline">The Bad:</span></span>
<span style="font-weight: bold">Turrets:</span> While they do have a quality feel, it's much the same quality feel of my 6.5-20 Viper or you'd expect on a BR scope with covered turrets. The PST's turrets are too easy to turn for uncovered turrets. To hunt with these I'd at least tape up the windage and would feel better taping up the elevation--which sort of goes against the whole reason to have them in the first place. It's a good thing it has a zero stop, because you'll be checking it often.
I may try finding fatter O-rings or something in the future to stiffen them up. Hopefully something workable can be figured out.
<span style="font-weight: bold">Glass: </span> Yes, I was a bit disappointed with the glass. Maybe my expectations were not realistic knowing the price range of the scope, but I was hoping for better. It's not bad, there are no big flaws, it's just not as clear and sharp as I had hoped on the higher powers. I'd say it's roughly the same as the 6.5-20X50 Viper, which I think is quite good for a $400 scope, but I was hoping for a bit better with this one.
Don't get me wrong, it's perfectly usable and looks quite good on the lower powers, but if you've been spoiled by top level glass, this is a noticeable downgrade.
Of course, in a scope like this, especially at this price range, there are more important things than glass quality, which brings me to:
<span style="font-weight: bold">Tracking Accuracy: </span> While the tracking is repeatable, my particular scope has a couple problems with its accuracy. Hopefully I got a bum one and other units are not like this, I know Vortex can do better because my 6.5-20 does not suffer from these problems. Nevertheless, this scope has them--which is why I meticulously measure every scope I buy.
Problem #1: The reticle is canted by roughly 1.2 degrees with respect to erector movement. It's not enough to be obvious to the eye, but it's enough to cause problems. This means for every 10 mils you click up, you need to click to the right two clicks in order to keep from dialing windage you didn't want. This may not be an issue for some who don't shoot long range or who will primarily use the reticle for holdover but it's not acceptable to me on a tactical scope. I know it's well within specs of some manufacturers (such as Leupold) but I expect more from Vortex. My cheaper 6.5-20 Viper has no measurable cant to the reticle. Hopefully this particular scope is an aberration and not representative of the other PST's out there.
Problem #2: The click value is about 3% off. 97 clicks moves 10 Mils, even by measure of its own reticle--which seems to be sized accurately (within 1%)--as well as the collimator. I know historically many scopes have perpetually been even farther off than that, and I know that even some pretty expensive tactical scopes still have a +/- 2% tolerance, but it's hard for me to be happy with a scope that is that far off. With the good ballistic programs we have these days it's easy to compensate for, but having to do so by such a large amount does not make me happy with a scope. Again, the cheaper 6.5-20 Viper measures within 1% so a PST with this large an error just isn't right.
I plan to return the scope for the last two problems as they're not acceptable to me, especially both problems combined. Hopefully I got a bad apple and others aren't like this. There's nothing intrinsic to the design that should make them all the same as mine in these aspects, so hopefully they aren't.
The glass and turret stiffness may be disappointments, but they don't keep the scope from being functional which is what's most important. Obviously, especially in this price range, one can't expect the perfection and stunning glass one does on a $2000 or $3000 scope so functioning correctly and getting the job done is what's most important. I do think these scopes can do that if the last two problems with my particular unit are not present.
