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I am an MOA guy, always have been, probably always will. I am mainly a hunter but want to start my long range shooting so am starting to research high end glass and it seems like everyone is in MIL. ARGGGG!
I have a "lights out" shooting AR (6.5cm) that needs glass and I was thinking "why not put this really high end scope on there and then be able to transfer that scope onto my bench-rest gun when the time comes?".
I am looking at tactical style or precision match type scopes. Looking for FFP. Brands I've seen thus far that peak my interest: Schmidt Bender / Hensoldt / NightForce / Kahles . Looking for something that goes up to 25x to maybe 30x.
 
Have you taken a look at the Leupold Mark 5HD? They've got a few different flavors, 5-25x and 7-35x. Both come in MOA.

 
Have you taken a look at the Leupold Mark 5HD? They've got a few different flavors, 5-25x and 7-35x. Both come in MOA.

I have a love / hate with leupold. I love them for their warranty, as I know they have taken care of my father and grandfather on scopes WAY over anything expected, and they are local to me. My eye just does not see their reticle well. So I usually rule them out. I am sure it is a parallax thing, that they have set different. I have not had one with an adjustable parallax. That would make it worth a look. Didn't even cross my mind b/c I have not used one with an adjustable parallax.
 
NightForce.
March
US Optics
Schmidt & Bender

Be rich.
Had never heard of March. Have seen US Optics advertised before but it didn't cross my mind for this. Thanks for the suggestions.

And as for you last comment. It is a scope that will make a rifle I bought a long time ago useful, and an expensive one. So it is like half price 'cause it "comes with a rifle" (that I already have). I am thinking up my wife justification. Do you think it will work?
 
For some folks the starting price of a US Optics scope, at around $3500 or so, plus the necessary mounts and rings from Third Eye or similar - at another $1000 - are pocket money. March are much the same deal - their TOTR air rifle scope for Field Target [HFT] is around the same price.

If you are in that category, then good for you.

I've made do with Nightforce over the years, like the US Marine Corps, or Schmidt & Bender, like the British Army, Royal Marines, and at least half the rest of the world's top professionals. The PMII and III are the gold standard of military long range sniping scopes.

However, it is my experience that after you've passed the $3000 mark they are all pretty much the same.
 
I have a love / hate with leupold. I love them for their warranty, as I know they have taken care of my father and grandfather on scopes WAY over anything expected, and they are local to me. My eye just does not see their reticle well. So I usually rule them out. I am sure it is a parallax thing, that they have set different. I have not had one with an adjustable parallax. That would make it worth a look. Didn't even cross my mind b/c I have not used one with an adjustable parallax.


There may be two reasons why you 'don't see the reticle'.

1. It is not focussed for you. This is easy to fix - hold the scope up to the sky, look through it, turn the focus until it's clearly defined. NOW it permanently focussed at infinity.

2. Look through it a distant object - manipulate the parallax knob until it becomes clear - when it IS clear, that will be set for THAT range, but no other.
 
There may be two reasons why you 'don't see the reticle'.

1. It is not focussed for you. This is easy to fix - hold the scope up to the sky, look through it, turn the focus until it's clearly defined. NOW it permanently focussed at infinity.

2. Look through it a distant object - manipulate the parallax knob until it becomes clear - when it IS clear, that will be set for THAT range, but no other.
I am sure it is a parallax issue. I used Leupold a lot in my earlier shooting days and did not have one that had a parallax adjustment.I never realized that was the problem and then moved on to other scopes that worked better for my eye. I never really looked back and realized it was just that the Leupolds I had when young just didn't have a way to adjust parallax. (And they were not their high end scopes). Now that I am considering a high end scope, the Leupold's would have that adjustment so I can see it being just fine for me now.
 
Not so high end, but VERY good - Meopta.

I also missed out IOR Valdeda in the upper bracket of scopes, as well as the top end of Steiner and Minox.

Well if we are adding to your very good optics list, Here are a few more from the shooters at TCGC 600 yds

Kahles 10-50x56 MOAK. 30mm tube All ED glass, very clear optics, very good with reading mirage ~ $2899
Sightron SIII 10-50x60; $1200 Good value for money. On sale or in classifieds often
Sightron SVSS with ED glass $2K
Vortex Golden Eagle 15-60x52. ~$1200 Lot's of fans and lower profile than the others. I almost bought one.
Nightforce Precision Benchrest 12-42x56mm ~$1400 It's cheaper than NXS & Competition series with great glass

Occasionally you run into tracking problems even with the highest quality scopes. Running a scope box test is important to verify tracking and return with your specific scope.

One other "secret" is some manufacturers actually use "in per yard" vs MOA with their adjustment even if the Reticle is actually MOA. MOAs are 1.047" where IPYs are an even inch.
Matters more for long range where the difference widens.

The scope box test can be used to see how much actual travel your scope clicks have.
You can make your own target or just use the standard sight in target with a target in the center and 4 other targets in the corners. Starting with a zeroed scope, fire 3 round at the middle then adjust scope to move the required amount to the lower left target, fire 3 rounds, move scope to the left upper target, fire 3 rounds, move to right upper target, fire 3 rounds, move to lower right target, fire 3 rounds, move back to center, fire 3 rounds.

If you used the exact number of clicks to move point of impact POI, and your scope is tracking, you can measure the distance between groups to confirm the distance per click and whether your turrets move in MOAs or IPYs
 
OK, Gentlemen - this is the upcoming glass from March, first spotted over on sigforum.com.


No fixed price as yet, but figure on around $4500 or so, depending on how much your state charges for the privilege of buying stuff there. This is where Orrygun has a real advantage over most of the others states of the Union.

A slightly-less specced version will also be made available, at around one big one 'cheaper', if you'll excuse the use of the word.

March have a novel way of making the scope body. They start with a big lump of aircraft-grade AlOOminum of the highest grade, and machine away everything that doesn't look like that body you see.

Sooooo, basically, March make alOOminum swaff with scopes as a by-product.
 
Notwithstanding scopes that cost almost as much as my house, I've always been more than happy with the stuff made by the boys at Nightforce - like this -

1586805441265.png

1586805767353.png
Image Courtesy of Nightforce Optics Co.

It's the 8-32x56 NSX with the illuminated reticle which also has their oddly useful hollow MIL dots with a teeny dot in it, as you can see from their reference library shot above. I leave it set on x22, which is where the magnification and perceived size of the MIL dot meet in reality. At ~900m or so, the maximum I shoot, it's just fine on the 20cm disc I'm shooting at. At least, I usually hit it first shot unless it's raining badly.

I also have a Tenebraex ARD Kill Flash insert, not currently fitted due to prevailing low light conditions up until we stopped shooting about a month ago..but I keep an 80mm ARD Kill Flash fitted permanently on my spotting scope.

Here's another view of me and my spotter, ig, taken a couple of years back before the surgeon went all Western on my fizzog - as you can see, a scope like this ain't for no shrinkin' violet, for sure.

1586806696131.png
 
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