Scopes I've owned in the past have been Leupolds (a lot) and Sightron SIII (two), but I was looking for a new scope for a 308 (that would later become my STR308).
I'm always weary of anything that says "Tactical" because it usually isn't, but I know people who bought Weaver scopes (in the past and recently) and love them.
The packaging... it comes in a glossy black box that says "TACTICAL." I'd prefer a matte finish (something a little more inconspicuous and maybe some jute twine or burlap), but other than that it's a nice box.
It has a nice even matte finish with no markings other than a matte gray "Weaver" on the side parallax and white markings on the turrets.
The first thing that caught me off guard was the turrets. There a nice size and shape but you they're locked in place. You have to pull out on the turrets to start spinning data. It didn't mention anything about that on their website or any other website. It caught me off guard, but I think it's a nice feature.
^LOCKED^
^UNLOCKED^
If you have to slide the scales on your turrets, you simply leave them in the locked position and twist the top off, rezero, put the top back on, and you're done! I like the idea of not having 3 little screws that always seem to get lost.
LOOK MOM, NO TOOLS!!!
The turrets have soft clicks but there's more than enough enough resistance that you know when you've made an adjustment. There is not much of an audible click, but they are tacticle enough that it's not needed. I put on a pair of shooting gloves and could still feel the turrets "snap" into position with each click.
The side parallax works as it should. I don't pay much attention to the markings. I just keep spinning until I get a clear sight picture, but the knob itself is marked in close increments below 100 yards then jumps in 100 yard increments to 400 yards and then infinity. Not a big deal, but something I thought was a little strange.
The optics are bright and clear to the edges. It was in the middle of the day so I can't comment on its low light performance (not yet). I'll give it an edge on an SIII 3.5-10x44 and a Mark 4 10x40. It seems logical that a 50mm would be brighter than a 40mm or a 44mm but it also costs less than these two scopes (NcStar 6-24x50 that costs A LOT less and probably isn't 1% of the scope that my VX-III is).
Oh, and the scope has about a mile of eye relief (especially at 3x). I almost ran out of room on a Leupold Mark 4 one piece mount.
The FFP recticle is barely readable at 3x (but it would be easy to take quick 5 and 10 mil measurements as the stadia are fairly thick). At 15x the crosshair would cover a lot of a target, but it's just about perfect at 10-12x.
3x
10x
15x
They say the scope has 60 MOA of adjustment
*edit: this particular scope has 59.75 MOA of elevation adjustment. WHERE'S MY RECIEPT?!?! I'm not too concerned about windage; that's what hold overs are for, but I can look into the issue if someone wants to know.
For $700 I'm impressed so far, but time will tell the tale! It didn't come with any collateral equipment like a sunshade or flip-up caps, but I hate sunshades and factory flip-up caps are usually not worth keeping (it's not a big deal to me, but it might be to you).
![url]](http://[url="http://i641.photobucket.com/albums/uu134/slothlacrosse/0414001547.jpg"]http://i641.photobucket.com/albums/uu134/slothlacrosse/0414001547.jpg[/url])
I liked the 3-15x50 so much that I bought a 4-20x50 for my IBA 300WM
I'm always weary of anything that says "Tactical" because it usually isn't, but I know people who bought Weaver scopes (in the past and recently) and love them.
The packaging... it comes in a glossy black box that says "TACTICAL." I'd prefer a matte finish (something a little more inconspicuous and maybe some jute twine or burlap), but other than that it's a nice box.
It has a nice even matte finish with no markings other than a matte gray "Weaver" on the side parallax and white markings on the turrets.
The first thing that caught me off guard was the turrets. There a nice size and shape but you they're locked in place. You have to pull out on the turrets to start spinning data. It didn't mention anything about that on their website or any other website. It caught me off guard, but I think it's a nice feature.
^LOCKED^
^UNLOCKED^
If you have to slide the scales on your turrets, you simply leave them in the locked position and twist the top off, rezero, put the top back on, and you're done! I like the idea of not having 3 little screws that always seem to get lost.
LOOK MOM, NO TOOLS!!!
The turrets have soft clicks but there's more than enough enough resistance that you know when you've made an adjustment. There is not much of an audible click, but they are tacticle enough that it's not needed. I put on a pair of shooting gloves and could still feel the turrets "snap" into position with each click.
The side parallax works as it should. I don't pay much attention to the markings. I just keep spinning until I get a clear sight picture, but the knob itself is marked in close increments below 100 yards then jumps in 100 yard increments to 400 yards and then infinity. Not a big deal, but something I thought was a little strange.
The optics are bright and clear to the edges. It was in the middle of the day so I can't comment on its low light performance (not yet). I'll give it an edge on an SIII 3.5-10x44 and a Mark 4 10x40. It seems logical that a 50mm would be brighter than a 40mm or a 44mm but it also costs less than these two scopes (NcStar 6-24x50 that costs A LOT less and probably isn't 1% of the scope that my VX-III is).
Oh, and the scope has about a mile of eye relief (especially at 3x). I almost ran out of room on a Leupold Mark 4 one piece mount.
The FFP recticle is barely readable at 3x (but it would be easy to take quick 5 and 10 mil measurements as the stadia are fairly thick). At 15x the crosshair would cover a lot of a target, but it's just about perfect at 10-12x.
3x
10x
15x
They say the scope has 60 MOA of adjustment
*edit: this particular scope has 59.75 MOA of elevation adjustment. WHERE'S MY RECIEPT?!?! I'm not too concerned about windage; that's what hold overs are for, but I can look into the issue if someone wants to know.
For $700 I'm impressed so far, but time will tell the tale! It didn't come with any collateral equipment like a sunshade or flip-up caps, but I hate sunshades and factory flip-up caps are usually not worth keeping (it's not a big deal to me, but it might be to you).
I liked the 3-15x50 so much that I bought a 4-20x50 for my IBA 300WM
