Thought I would pick up on this thread instead of starting a new one as it already has good info in it.
As several people said, these scopes have caught my eye a few times, and after seeing Steve’s comments and getting a recommendation from another friend, I went back and read the reviews… again, to remember why they caught my eye in the first place a while back. I like nice scopes, but I also like trying low and mid range scopes to possibly save money and get a good scope. There are a lot of very good reviews on them, so with the current sales, I thought I should try one befor buying my next $1500 scope. At less than half price of my current considerations, $700 looks tempting enough.
Every review I found said the same thing about the optical quality… well above its price range. That is good, because his price range usually leaves some to be desired. Not bad scopes, but scopes like the Athlon Ares, Vortex PSTII, etc. Scopes that are good for the price.
I always prefer FFP, but have had several high mag SFP scopes in a row, so it was good to get back to FFP. I really want a 30x as well, so again… fits the bill.
I received it this week and was able to quickly sight it in and shoot for about an hour. So far, I am digging it!
Out of the box…
- Cheap cardboard box, but I am ok with that, because I hate paying more for packaging. Saves everyone money!
- No sun shade or scope caps (bikini included) , but many scopes in this range don’t. Not a deal breaker, but these are the things I wish would be included. Can’t find the Sun shade in stock anywhere at all, but turns out that the Athlon ETR shade supposedly fits.
- I like the knurling on the knobs. Not harsh but big allowing for a good grip. The mag ring has a built in hump that I like as well, so I may not use the included screw in assist knob for it.
- I love a big beefy scope and this fits that bill! I kinda like the blue ring around it as well.
Using the scope…
- Turrets - People always ask about turrets.
- They have an oddity as many have said. Why locking on elevation instead of windage? I bet that gets swapped in the next generation! I keep trying to turn the elevation without unlocking it and I keep trying to unlock the windage!
- No idea while they went “mostly toolless” on the elevation, but then have the coin screw slot on the windage. Again… another change sure to come.
- I personally like the clicks. They aren’t so firm that it is hard to move, and they aren’t mushy so you can’t tell when they click. I think it is a good firmness that is right in the middle. They tracked exactly as I expected up/down left/right and were spot on.
- Reticle - I went with the tree MIL reticle that Ilya designed. I am very happy with this reticle.
- I prefer Mil, because 10s just make more sense and are easier to keep track of when counting clicks.
- The reticle is thick, and I love it!!! I always prefer a thicker reticle, as it makes it so easy to see.
- Not overly busy and I like the 0.2 markings. I usually prefer a plainer reticle (no tree), but didn’t really want the mil dots.
- Limited illumination. This is ok for me. Just the center dot and surrounding cross.
- Optical quality is nice. I was shooting from 4-5pm in the woods, so low light performance is important to me. This scope was doing great even at 5 when the sun was almost down. I’ll know more with more testing on this, so more to come.
Seems like there was more I wanted to say, but this has turned into a long post, so I hope it helped if you made it that far!