Now here is someone I can relate to. I was about to post that evidently everyone on here has a way better job than I do. Keep on keeping on brother.
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Optics
- Thread starter Clem Bronkoski
- Start date
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memtb
Well-Known Member
American optics have looked very bad for the past 4 years…..but improved dramatically yesterday! 
memtb
memtb
Alex Wheeler
Well-Known Member
I do like good glass in my binos or spotters but am not too picky in my scopes. Its just not needed. But I do put holding zero, dialing accurately and dialing the correct amount and being able to dial out parallax at all distances at a priority. I have not found a scope that would do those things at a lower price point. I have not tested them all. But have had some of the ones you would have hoped would have been good on the scope checker and they failed. About the cheapest I'll spend my money on is an NXS. And no Im not made of money. I just choose to have a couple really good rifles vs 10 average ones.
comfisherman
Well-Known Member
American optics have looked very bad for the past 4 years…..but improved dramatically yesterday!
Nothing says "our scopes hold zero" like a quick zero reset dial on the gen 2 vx 6hd....
New 2-10 reticle will work for me.... but 2600 for a 2-10 that came out chunky and with a 30mm objective and needs me to find some shop some custom 35mm rings....
I understand how the China factory direct market has so much traction. Nothing domestic or even semi domestic (burris, leupold, nightforce or even amg vortex) throws out products I'm looking for. But Athlon and maven hit the specs pretty darn close.
Alex, you already upset the entire industry once with recoil zero retention. Maybe you can do it again with drop/impact retention.
Alex Wheeler
Well-Known Member
That would be a little tougher to do. Because you have isolate the scope to do the test. With the scope checkers we used the mount is taken out of it because its one piece, and if it moved on the action it wouldnt matter since we are not shooting groups. So the only thing we had to worry about moving were the rings. Once we verified they were not moving by having a bunch of scopes that never shifted we were confident any shift was the scope. With a drop test it would be very hard to isolate the scope that way. Every drop would be different and you wouldnt know if the shift happened in what scope. The frozen scope we used for the control scope might have shifted? The testing we did was a controlled environment, same recoil every time. Id have to think up a different test. I think an actual drop will always bring into question if the rings or mount moved. Even a shift of the action in the bedding can cause poi shift. So its impossible to blame the poi shift 100% on the scope. I think mounting them in the checker and comping up with a of hitting the scope in a controlled manner that we can be sure the rings dont move. You could verify that if scopes passed the test. Would not even fire a shot. But mounting a scope on a gun and dropping it is just not a good test. It does test the entire system though. Even still, personally if I ever dropped my rifle I would not feel comfortable shooting at an animal without checking zero. Id just would have to know for sure. Even if you have to do it in the back country.
It may never be as perfect as the other, but good design, sample size, and reserved conclusions can help you
Nightforce at least pretends that their smacking jig is worthwhile and useful to them for proofing
Alex Wheeler
Well-Known Member
The crazy thing is they hand hold the scope in their fixture when they look through to see if it moved. At least in the video they posted. That test was not designed to pick up tiny movements in my opinion. If we have a ring move .0005" thats over 1/4 moa downrange. Is that scope returning to the exact same spot to 50 millionths or better? We could pick up on less than 1/16 moa with the scope checker. Thats about .0001" or less at a ring. One thing the scope testing did do is impress me how good some of this stuff really is and when you see a little day to day poi shift in a rifle its no surprise just with some temp change. Im a big NF fan and still use them today. Not knocking them. And Id be surprised if they dont have a much more advanced way of testing these days.
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