Crimson Trace 3 and 5 series scope first impression

Jump to latest Follow Reply
qball

qball

Member
Apr 13, 2020
8,144
3,889
CA, United States
UPS finally showed up with the scopes from midway with only minutes of day light left. Opened the boxes like little kid at Christmas I busted them out of boxes to try. got them thanks to Odoyle’s posting of the deal and threatening me to call me stupid if I missed out on the deal.




Here is my first impression:

- build quality seems excellent and they aren’t as heavy as I thought they would be which is a plus
- Turrets are HUGE! They feel super precise, 0 line on the turrets line up with 0 mark on the tube perfectly

- Turrets have 10 mils per revolution, even in the 30mm series 3 scope which is very nice

- Turrets don’t have loud click like my element but that’s is not a big deal for me. They feel awesome and the clicks feel distinctive BUT it is NOT locking and doesn’t take much force to turn so probably easy to bump without knowing which is something to keep in mind or watch out for

- turrets only have 20 mils or 2 revolutions total which is rather shocking to me because the marketing material says the series 5 scopes have 120 mils of adjustment, NOT 20! Very weird!

- looking through the scope for the first time I was not blown away. Maybe it’s because of the low light condition and I had high expectations but the glass isn’t blowing me away

- the 34mm series 5 scope doesn’t appear to be brighter than the 30mm series 3 scope which is a bit disappointing to me because the scope is huge 

- the series 5 scope has a zoom range of 3-24 or 8x ratio so the reticle seems a little big at full zoom and hardly visible at 3x

- the series 3 scope has the same reticle and at full zoom the reticle is the same size 

- I actually am taking a liking to the reticle 

- the eye box feels very small like my helix, it’s not a deal breaker for me because tight eye box forces correct eye/parallax alignment 

will look through the scopes more carefully tomorrow when there is more light. 




758FC50E-BA55-4390-8D70-61CFDB4BDF4C.1612580849.jpeg

 
Guys, the main benefit of a 34mm tube over a 30mm tube is more room for elevation travel, not increasing light gathering capabilities.

Those are great scopes for the money! I love the large turrets on the 5 series. I like the reticle too, although I don’t like the sizing like you mentioned. Certainly not a deal breaker for the price. It is a great buy. Please share more details after you run them through their paces. Enjoy.

Have a great weekend guys!

Stoti
 
Upvote 0
Nice. Look forward to your further review. BTW 3-24 is 8X magnification. Surprised the 34mm is not brighter.Enjoy the scopes.
Click to expand...


doh! You are right, it’s even more than I though! The 3 x is literally only good for scanning for target because the reticle is basically useless at 3x. It certainly isn’t a close range hunting scope that’s given therefore they should of made the reticle a little finer because no one in their right mind would shoot below 12 or half of max zoom anyways with FFP.
 
Upvote 0
Guys, the main benefit of a 34mm tube over a 30mm tube is more room for elevation travel, not increasing light gathering capabilities.

Those are great scopes for the money! I love the large turrets on the 5 series. I like the reticle too, although I don’t like the sizing like you mentioned. Certainly not a deal breaker for the price. It is a great buy. Please share more details after you run them through their paces. Enjoy.

Have a great weekend guys!

Stoti
Click to expand...


with larger (not by a huge margin) objective lens in theory it should gather a little more light. What’s interesting is my barra H50 with smaller objective lens seems just a hair brighter. Go figure! 


I also thought the benefit of 34mm scope is more elevation travel but I only get 20 mils or 2 revolutions of travel. Am I missing something or need to unlock something? 


 
Upvote 0

Here is my first impression:


- looking through the scope for the first time I was not blown away. Maybe it’s because of the low light condition and I had high expectations but the glass isn’t blowing me away

 - the 34mm series 5 scope doesn’t appear to be brighter than the 30mm series 3 scope which is a bit disappointing to me because the scope is huge 




758FC50E-BA55-4390-8D70-61CFDB4BDF4C.1612580849.jpeg
Click to expand...

My observations agree with yours.

I just got a 3 series 4x20x50. Regarding your observation above, it is all about the size of the exit pupil in this particular situation. Your dilated pupil is probably between 4 and 8mm in diameter. An exit pupil which exceeds 8mm is going to be delivering more light than your pupil can pass. In this case, you can assume same quality glass. You estimate exit pupil size by dividing the magnification into the objective lens diameter (or so I've been told). That means the 4x20x50 will have a 2.5mm exit pupil at 20 power and the 5 series being a 3x24x56 is going to have about the same size exit pupil at 24 power. To compare them you will want to set the magnification to about 12x which for the Series 3 should give you something like 4.2mm exit pupil and about 4.7mm exit pupil for the Series 5. Take that out at dusk and compare the two, you'll probably be able to see a difference then. The best optic I ever had for low light work was a 6x56 Bisley. With an exit pupil that was 9.3mm there was no way I could use all the light it delivered, even after hours of allowing my eyes to adjust to the darkness.

https://www.oldspooks.com/agstuff/Targets/calibration/USAF1951.pdf

I envy you. I hope you like that Series 5 as much as I am liking the Series 3 I just got.
 
Upvote 0

Here is my first impression:


- looking through the scope for the first time I was not blown away. Maybe it’s because of the low light condition and I had high expectations but the glass isn’t blowing me away

 - the 34mm series 5 scope doesn’t appear to be brighter than the 30mm series 3 scope which is a bit disappointing to me because the scope is huge 




758FC50E-BA55-4390-8D70-61CFDB4BDF4C.1612580849.jpeg
Click to expand...

My observations agree with yours.

I just got a 3 series 4x20x50. Regarding your observation above, it is all about the size of the exit pupil in this particular situation. Your dilated pupil is probably between 4 and 8mm in diameter. An exit pupil which exceeds 8mm is going to be delivering more light than your pupil can pass. In this case, you can assume same quality glass. You estimate exit pupil size by dividing the magnification into the objective lens diameter (or so I've been told). That means the 4x20x50 will have a 2.5mm exit pupil at 20 power and the 5 series being a 3x24x56 is going to have about the same size exit pupil at 24 power. To compare them you will want to set the magnification to about 12x which for the Series 3 should give you something like 4.2mm exit pupil and about 4.7mm exit pupil for the Series 5. Take that out at dusk and compare the two, you'll probably be able to see a difference then. The best optic I ever had for low light work was a 6x56 Bisley. With an exit pupil that was 9.3mm there was no way I could use all the light it delivered.

https://www.oldspooks.com/agstuff/Targets/calibration/USAF1951.pdf

I envy you. I hope you like that Series 5 as much as I am liking the Series 3 I just got.
Click to expand...




thanks for the math on the exit pupil, need to read it more and digest it better but I love true science and real facts!!! Math can’t lie!!! 
 
Upvote 0
50mm vs. 56mm, there should be a little benefit. A larger objective will always gather more light. I was talking solely about the tube diameter since he said,”the 34mm series 5 scope doesn’t appear to be brighter than the 30mm series 3 scope which is a bit disappointing to me because the scope is huge”.

We were just talking about this the other day on AGN...Exit pupil is simply the objective divided by magnification. But like was said above, the eye can only take in so much light so it’s always best to compare the light gathering abilities at dusk when your pupil is dilated. It’s not real scientific but can be awfully telling to hold your scope’s eye piece up to a piece of white paper at twilight. A great scope will look like you’re shining a flashlight at the paper while a mediocre scope will just shine “some” light on the paper. When your eye is dilated at dusk and you look through a quality optic it will look twice as bright or more looking through the scope than what your eye can see looking off in the distance. 

Qball, you adjusted the turrets from top to bottom and it only makes two revolutions? That doesn’t make any sense at all? From the optical center, it should be 6 revolutions up and 6 down if it’s 120mil. However, that’s a lot of elevation, a scope with 120mil of adjustment is a lot. Could be, 20MIL but that certainly isn’t enough either.

You got me wondering what’s up?

Stoti
 
Upvote 0
Guys, the main benefit of a 34mm tube over a 30mm tube is more room for elevation travel, not increasing light gathering capabilities.

Those are great scopes for the money! I love the large turrets on the 5 series. I like the reticle too, although I don’t like the sizing like you mentioned. Certainly not a deal breaker for the price. It is a great buy. Please share more details after you run them through their paces. Enjoy.

Have a great weekend guys!

Stoti
Click to expand...


with larger (not by a huge margin) objective lens in theory it should gather a little more light. What’s interesting is my barra H50 with smaller objective lens seems just a hair brighter. Go figure! 


I also thought the benefit of 34mm scope is more elevation travel but I only get 20 mils or 2 revolutions of travel. Am I missing something or need to unlock something? 

Click to expand...

I believe 20 mil equates to roughly 70 MOA of elevation. Likely the catch all along, not exactly long range capable. It seems like a good deal for the glass and build quality, though.
 
Upvote 0
I like the zero stop idea but I bet it’s a 20mil scope or both? I bet that’s it. 20mil doesn’t seem like a whole lot compared to some but 120mil is way too much, that’s sooo much elevation! I bet 20mil or so is right and 120mil was a typo on the Midway site, 20-30mil seems about normal. Bet you’re right Nathan...Gotta be more like 20-30mil or something like that.

Stoti


 
Upvote 0
I like the zero stop idea but I bet it’s a 20mil scope or both? I bet that’s it. 20mil doesn’t seem like a whole lot compared to some but 120mil is way too much, that’s sooo much elevation! I bet 20mil or so is right and 120mil was a typo on the Midway site, 20-30mil seems about normal. Bet you’re right Nathan...Gotta be more like 20-30mil or something like that.

Stoti

Click to expand...





So I messed around in the turret and I think I figured out why after I took the cap off. Inside there is a zero stop and also the cap is fixed onto the turret post via 3 screws so depends on where in the elevation range the actual turret is the downward elevation travel will be limited. after I took off the cap and put it back on and I now have just over 3 revolutions or 30 mils. If I adjust the turret further down(or up depends on how you look at it) I bet I can get even more up travel than that, the turret/post has a slot for a flat head screw driver. usually scopes are shipped at optical center and this one obviously isn't anywhere near the optical center if the 120 mils of internal elevation adjustment is true, interesting design for sure but also makes sense given the amount of adjustment the system can provide. Most scopes' turret design taps out at 3-4 revolution which is no where near enough at mile plus, this thing can dial up to 12 revolutions from edge to edge in theory and I see how their design can achieve it. 



I'm actually very impressed with this design, no information could be found on the net so they missed out on marketing opportunity for their clever turret design. Granted this is my first high end precision long range scope so I don't if other scopes have similar turret design. 
 
Upvote 0
30-35 MILS is quite a bit. I think most long range scopes have between 20-30MIL or thereabout with a few scopes a little more than that. I have a Nightforce scope with 26MILS, a Delta with 32MILS, a Vortex with 55MOA and a Athlon with 50MOA. So whatever your scope turns out to be exactly, whether it’s 30MIL- 35MIL or whatever, that sound’s right. I’m glad you figured it out. Now go out and enjoy!

Doesn’t it say exactly what the elevation travel is on the box or manual?

Have a great weekend qball.

Stoti
 
Upvote 0
qball,

I just looked online, everywhere I could think of to see if I could find the amount of elevation travel. I had a hard time finding anything, couldn’t even find anything on the Crimson Trace website because it’s a discontinued model.

I finally did find a review that looks accurate but who knows? This guy says there is 32MIL of elevation travel and 20MIL of windage which does sound about right. 

Here is a link if you want to check it out. 

https://www.outdoorhub.com/reviews/2019/03/04/the-crimson-trace-ctl-3-24x56/

Stoti
 
Upvote 0
Q- STOP comparing it to the fantastic dirt cheap Barras. That doesn't count! The Crimson Trace are only a little more than half off by comparisin plus you got FFP and Illumination with the CS scopes and free batteries 4life.



https://youtu.be/Yopeb_D8brI





https://youtu.be/LCmMUo9da4k



Don't try to power a light bulb with a potato.

Click to expand...




You do have a point, the barra is a freak of nature and really should not be used as normal comparison. 
 
Upvote 0
Ok here is my initial (non-scope snob) optical impression, my side to side comparison with my barra H50, element helix, CT 3 and 5. All comparison done looking at the same section of the tree branch at 50 yards at 15x zoom because my Barra only goes up to 15x.


- CT series 5 has best optical quality hands down! EVERY noticeable clarity and contrast advantage. All scopes can see various levels of details on the branch but with the series 5 the details really popped. Wasn’t for the series 5 scope I probably would not have noticed certain small chips on the bark which in turn I used as baseline

- CT series 3 has second place along with Barra. I think the 3 has slight advantage in details/clarity but the H50 has much bigger eyebox, brighter and over all easier on the eyes. I can see the small chips but not as clear as series 5. For airgun I think the series 3 has distinct advantage with FFP, much better reticle and good turrets. This is a keeper at this price for sure and buy them before they are all gone gone. Best deal in the bunch hands down! Series 5 is undoubtedly better but being cheap I’m not sure it’s 2x the price better. For what most of us the for series 3 is an amazing deal. 



- barra H50 is freak of nature with crazy brightness and clarity that is about on par with series 3. Obviously being SFP with thick hunting reticle put it in the same approximate value category. I would buy it again for 60 yards or closer hunting in a heart beat, it’s just a pleasure to look through it and so comfortable to get behind the scope. If you want to be able to take quick shots in low light condition it’s insanely good. My 1720T has a H30 and it’s stupid good for my yard. If I ever get a wild boar rifle this thing will be the top of list, simply phenomenal! Just not great for long airgun shots but that’s not what it is designed for. 



- element helix: my favorite airgun hunting scope still! Optically it’s no where near what CT and Barra is at. BUT because of the clever reticle and amazingly accurate turrets the scope is a phenomenally capable and flexible tailored specifically or airgun hunting! Especially at the sale price of 300 bucks it simply can’t be beat, the turrets alone are worth 300 dollars. Keeping this for my impact for hunting season unless I’m only only taking long shots. Amazing job by Matt and Ted!!!



in conclusion I think I’m going to keep all the scopes I tried today. Will try to shoot with the CT next week and see how that goes. In case I haven’t said it enough times, if you are looking for a longer range airgun scope on a budget BUY the CT3 pronto!!! There simply isn’t a better scope for your money in my honest limited opinion! 




edit: one last thing, listen to the great YOda!!! Wasn’t for him I would have bought many many other disappointing scopes and returned or sold them.....I still did that a few times! LOL 
 
Upvote 0
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom
Back
Home
Forums
Resources
Menu