I absolutely concur with Lou's remarks and assessment of the Horus Reticle and the Horus scope. Like Lou and Bruce, I twiddled knobs for years before discovering the Hours system in Iraq. To be honest I hated it when I first used it. The S&B was awesome but the view was all cluttered up and strange, I mean you didn't use dial ups! So I returned to the GenII mildot that I was using. When I came home I watched the Magpul training DVD "The Art of the Precision Rifle" and absorbed everything Todd Hodnett was teaching about the Horus System.
What an epiphany! Given you had means of determining range, good dope and could dope the wind, a first focal plane scope with a Horus H-58, H-59, or like me the H-37 reticle, first round hits beyond what was considered at that time 'long range' were expected. No knob twisting, no looking up to make sure you setting was correct, no returning to zero, no risk of over twisting a knob, no worries about set screws coming loose from yanking knobs back and forth... life was good! But like Todd Hodnett has said, learning the Horus system was a venture 'outside my comfort zone', but a venture well worth the incidental discomfort and time.
So a couple of years ago I decided to save up my lunch money and purchase a quality scope with a Horus reticle. I took my time, researched, spoke with folks I respected and considered experts like Mr. Boyd, Mr. Ventura, and Mr. Hodnett, US Army AMU and SOTIC instructors, shooters and team members. I sought out folks with the scopes I was considering... US Optics, March, S&B, Leupold, Nighforce, Burris, Bushnell and Vortex. One fella had a Horus Falcon with the H-59 reticle and my interest was piqued. The more I shot it, the more I like it. Yep it's a bit heavier, but that steel body is an absolute security blanket when it comes to humping around in unforgiving terrain, and in my humble opinion, "if you can't hump it, don't pack it".
To me the Horus Falcon compared with S&B as far as clarity, color distortion (lack of), edge to edge at all magnifications, and dusk and dawn light gathering, and exceeded the others mentioned in one way or the other. The kicker was the price of the Horus Falcon. I was buying riflescope of exceptional quality without the exceptional price, I could eat lunch again!! The scopes that I thought were exceptional were US Optics and March, but then again so was the price.
When I started my quest I had decided on a Horus reticle, but it was totally open regarding which brand, without prejudice, preference, or sponsorship. So now I happily own the steel bodied Horus Falcon with the H-37 reticle and have absolutely no complaints whatsoever. All I can recommend when considering going without lunch for a long time to buy your once in a lifetime riflescope is to keep an open mind, don't be afraid to step out of your comfort zone, actually look at and attempt to use what you are considering buying and seek expert opinion and recommendations...positive and negative. I did, thanks go out to my mentors!
DocB
"Animo et Fide" ... Courage and Faith
The Horus reticle, while. A decent idea for soley long ranges, would be really tough for me to use. Many shots are in timbered or brushy areas, and must be taken fairly fast at times. These reticles are far to cluttered for good all around use to my way of thinking, however not having even tried one, i am just tossing this out as an idea.
i thought the Valada had 35 mil adjust in a 40mm tube could be wrong,4-28x50 glass etc suppose to be good?you can google vid reviewSo when I reactivated this thread in September I was hoping to see if anybody was using any new extreme range scopes. I had tried to get a 200MOA 12-50x US Optics custom scope but failed -- for a new .338 /408/Gibbs.505 case based rifle built for 3000yds. My 5-25 S&B is great for hunting on my Snipetac .375 out to about one mile. My .375 AM has a S&B 12-50 which is great to 2200 yds but after that runs out of reticle and I have to use Mil dots for holding over. I also have a Valdata Terminator 12-52 for a .416, a 6-24Meopta, and others like a NF 5.5-22 for a 30-378 and Leuopolds and Nikons for shorter range rifles.
The problem is clearly beyond about 2000yds the options are small because of the balance between power and reticle adjustment range. While some have used adjustable bases I worry about how accurate the precision and return to zero is on these, including th added height, all which would seem to add to potential inaccuracy.
As rifles become more accurate at larger ranges, hopefully we ll see some better extreme range scopes. Does anybody have experience with the custom US Optics scopes that go to 50x power and what dial MOA range do you get?
i thought the Valada had 35 mil adjust in a 40mm tube could be wrong,4-28x50 glass etc suppose to be good?you can google vid review
Thanks Feenix. This Arc Rizer looks promising to try since it was designed for .50 caliber. I don't see a phone or email contact info though?