Toughest Long Range Hunting Optic?

[bigpapa]

Oh well ill have to say the night force is awsome, but i started hunting and shooting very young and now im 66 in all this i have never changed from leupold, i have from the start 3 -9-40 to 4.5-50 mark 4 and now a mark 5 and will not change any of these for anything different. Good hunting and shooting.

 

[Quintus]

I have not had a nightforce for more than a couple years and not many of them but no issues. I don't know of any that have failed friends. I have had half my Nikons fail, all of my bushnells, most of my Burris, all of my tascos. I have only 2 leupolds in over 80 that have failed and both were nearly old as me Vari x II 2-7x33 with stuck erectors that Leupold replaced nearly 40 years after the original sale. I have only had one ziess fail, but half of Swaros have had one issue or another. For the money I will still roll with Leupold, but if my ol Lab starts crappin dollars I'd buy NF.

 

[RockyRandy]

Here's what i have learned in the last two weeks, Take it for what it is worth. After listening to Jamie from Wolf Precision which he says is the oldest long range shooting school East of the Mississippi. He only recommends two scopes to hold zero, Kahales k624I & Leopold 5-VX HD. I asked him about night force and said he has seen them at schools but didn't really say much about them. He really like first focal Plan.

 

[lachoneus]

Theres nothing to a fixed 10x. Its hard to break what you dont have. I'm not Special Forces and I'm married so I cant jump on the nightforce bandwagon.

I only have three, but the first 10x I got has been to hell and back and never so much as hiccuped. I don't have a NF so I can't compare the two, but my SWFA's have always been right on all day every day.

 

[Starlite]

Do any of the SWFAs have resettable and lockable turrets that return to zero?

 

[TXAoudadKlr]

Maybe the Gen 2 Razor?

I don't think you really get more bomb proof than Nightforce....certainly pay with the added weight of them

 

[gareyg]

I've owned 5 nightforce and 1 US Optics scope. I believe you could bet your life on either brand.

 

[dfanonymous]

Do any of the SWFAs have resettable and lockable turrets that return to zero?

No. You can reset zero. But you there's no zero stop. You can get some shims for them, some dude on snipersnest sells em, it's not a true zero stop but works.

 

[muleystalker]

N

Do any of the SWFAs have resettable and lockable turrets that return to zero?

No they don't have zero stops or lockable turrets.

 

[brotherbear67]

I'd have to say Nightforce ATACR. I absolutely love mine, have beat a couple of em up and they stayed true. That being said. I packed a Zeiss V6 on my 338 LM elk hunting this year and 5 days of rough SxS rides and a couple tumbles down a drainage, it still held zero for 2 elk over 700 yds. I wouldn't be afraid to go that route.

 

[fiftybmg]

Are you saying a leupold vx3i is just as tough and will hold zero just as well as a nightforce ATACR?

I say yes.

In this part of the world, you don't see any Nightforce mounted on dangerous game rifles.

If you spot a DG rifle with a scope, it's first Leupold, then Zeiss, very few Swarovski which I think is more to do with the huge price tag.

It's not to say that one is better than the other, but people tend to look around and see what others use successfully, what is recommended from the more experienced, what has the best reputation for reliability, and follow suit.

Leupold builds long range scopes to the same level of reliability as their DG line.

 

[ejg]

Here's what i have learned in the last two weeks, Take it for what it is worth. After listening to Jamie from Wolf Precision which he says is the oldest long range shooting school East of the Mississippi. He only recommends two scopes to hold zero, Kahales k624I & Leopold 5-VX HD. I asked him about night force and said he has seen them at schools but didn't really say much about them. He really like first focal Plan.

My Kahles K624i started to be slightly unreliable, when I took it off something rattled inside. Had it repaired and sold it. Now I have Schmidt Bender. In one case shooting across a valley at 410m I could not see the bullet holes with the 624 Kahles but could see them with the 3-20 Ultra Short Schmidt, even the old Conquest 6.5-20 we had along that day seemed a bit better than the Kahles. We were two people swopping rifles /scopes back and forth with the same result. The earlier Kahles also did not have turret lock feature which is not good for a hunting scope. I agree FFP is the way to go.
edi

 

[30dirty]

ATACR second focal !!!!!!! In long range hunting , I dial up the shot (using all the education gathered VIA: range,wind,angle,etc.) Then if I have to place a second shot,use the retical . I find second focal to be a lot more percision as well as MOA

 

[257RobertsMan]

IOR Valdada 10x42 fixed. I owned one for six years and ran 2000+ rounds of 6.5-284 under it. It was a truck gun, it often lived in the floor board or tractor without a case, just Butler Creek flip covers. Dialed it to 1900 yds and returned to zero multiple times. The number of 400-800 yards shots was a lot, and never once did it lose zero. It has a steel tube, great glass, covered turrets, etched reticle, huge field of view. I sold it with the gun and the man who bought it has not re-zeroed yet and he has owned it since 2009. I know they get a bad rap from some folks but I had excellent service from mine. I did replace it with a Nightforce NXS and it has been flawless as well but the glass in the IOR is better IMO.

I have 1 Valdada and it's zero has never changed. If the rings or gun fails just take the scope off and use it for a club, it's tough but heavy.