Vortex Strike Eagle vs Venom optical performance

[WestSoDakThwack]

A buddy loaned me a Venom 5-25 to use in a PRS 22 match. I liked the scope a lot a. The EBR7 reticle is awesome and one of the best tree reticles I've ever used. The turret design and feel is good and easy to set zero stop and rezero the turret. All though the "rev-stop" is a questionable design flaw but otherwise I thought everything performed well. The glass was just ok and sort of what you expect from a 500$ optic. Had some trouble getting the focus just right for me and it also seemed like parallax was sort of touchy

My question is does the 300$ step up to buy the Strike Eagle buy you better optical performance or are the optics the same on both and the extra money just buy the illumination and locking turrets?

Note- Not a Vortex Fan boy at all. In fact I spent the past 5 ish years bashing Vortex after getting burned on some lower end Viper HS/HST stuff.

And Yes I'm well aware a competition scope should cost north of 2000.00 but that's not a reality right now. Keeping it under $1000.00 on this deal probably coming down to A XTR 2 a Strike Eagle or a second Meopta Optika 6. Reticle design is what has the Vortex holding the edge at the moment

 

[ARlife4me]

I don't do competitions nor a fan of any tree style reticles. I do own several vortex optics and all work great. As far as strike eagle I only have lpvo style. In viper I have several pst (not gen2) that have served well. The meopta seems promising, but don't own 1.

 

[Stewart2550]

TTT

 

[DakotaFire101]

While I don't have have any experience with the venom, I bought a strike eagle 5-25x56 when they first came out just as a screw around plinking scope but it ended up on my 7mm magnum and I plan on buying another for my 28 nosler. **** good scope for the money. The turret feel and locking system is top knotch, I rarely use the illumination so that's not a big deal to me. A bit on the heavy side but for the features you get in a $700 package I'll happily pack the extra weight into the back country.

 

[Rob01]

I have both the SE and Venom and the SE is better optically. It's close to the PST Gen II which I also own and put it up against. As you saw the Venom is not bad and full of a lot of good features but the SE gives you more elevation, locking turrets and illumination. All of which can help in matches. I have shot matches for years in centerfire and almost 5 years in Rimfire. I ran the SE for a year on my Vudoo and it worked great. Run a 40 moa base and no need for zero stop and you can dial to about 500 yards.

Price should be about $200 difference with SE at about $699 and Venom at $499 but you can find both for less usually. Look at Liberty Optics.

 

[chadt]

I think for the for the small amount more you pay for the SE you get a much better scope for what you are using it for, I have had a lot of people say locking turrets are not need in matches but know of a few that have lost matches do to turrets getting bumped accidentally while shooting