For you [timeless61]...but you're asking about a "real" tactical scope...when our guys are dragging in or out of a bag over terrain, hopping in and out of vehicles (wheeled, tracked, rotary wing or fixed) it MUST perform, that means not breaking in the field. It means the use it sees on a daily basis is exponentially (hope I spelled it right) greater than that of the average hunter or target shooter. It's actually not "overdone" at all, but built to the standard set by the people using it in the harshest situations period...USO, NF, S&B all have to perform mechanically flawlessly...
Good glass is a given, great glass is nice, but the scope must hold zero and work from -40F to 140F in the field, not the lab...
You may or may not already be framiliar with what the scopes have to endure, but my opinion (former desk flying USAF) is that if you want a "real" tactical scope, it will be built like NF, or USO or S&B, Leupold MkIV and others...and you gotta pay for that. There are scopes with better glass, **** good internals, but don't qualify for the "real tactical scope" monniker.
Straightshooter--you're wondering where to get info on the scope build so you can decide? Don't think that's the way to go about it. Not everyone has cutaways with spec's on the internals...however, you CAN find who is selling to the US Government...you can google S&B, or Nightforce, or Leupold and you'll come up with some websites that tell you how much they do direct...won't necessarily give you ALL the Gov't sales, but you will get an idea of who is actually SELLING scopes used operationally by the services.
Choices are to buy what the military buys or you can buy a something one level down. If you want the "real" ones spend the money, if you can live with the next level down, you get what you pay for. The military doesn't "really" use the next level down because that's not what they buy...if this thread was titled "Almost tactical scope" people would be telling you about those other scopes, not S&B, USO, NF and Leupy et al...
Matt
I have been looking through a lot of scopes lately, and it seems like the NF's are very overbuilt, i was also impressed with how the Trijicon felt as far as how substantial it was...
for me, optical quality is more important than being able to hammer nails in with the scope... my leupolds have tracked very well, and it has only been operator error that has caused problems lol and the NF models I would be looking at would not have zero stop anyway