Schmidt & Bender 12~50 x56

[Strangely Brown]

A friend who has shot TR with iron sights for many years is thinking of doing a bit of F TR and wondered if the above scope, (8 MoA) would be his ideal.

I have no knowledge of the 12~50 but my initial thought would be that the higher end of the magnification would be unusable due to the extreme power. Can anybody throw any light on this with their own experience please?

 

[The Gun Pimp]

With a rested rifle, you can't have too much power.

Having said that most top FTR shooters will use their March 10-60 at around 40 power. I use a Vortex Golden Eagle and find that 40x is about right.

You won't see many S&B 12-50 scopes on FTR rigs due to the weight - most shooters will be using a 30 to 32 inch heavy barrel and making weight is nigh impossible with a Schmidt.  The S&B is about 10 ounces heavier than the March.

 

[Bianchi]

The March weighs in at 25 ounces. I also set mine to 40x for F-Class comps. The Nightforce Competition 15-55 (28 ounces) and Kahles 10-50 (31 ounces) are both SFPs and lighter then the S+B. BTW: Check out the new MOAK (floating dot) reticle for the Kahles.

[OSOK]

Nightforce Competition set at 40x to my eyes is better than the 12-42 NXS , 12-50 S&B or 10-60 March set at the same . I Can't speak for the Kahles but side by side the Nightforce Competition has better resolution and seemed brighter .  IMHO

OSOK

[baldie]

I have several S+B's and did have the 12-50 at one point.

It didn't stay long Mick. I found it unusable , much over 40 power. It was extremely fussy on eye relief and head position. I wouldn't say it " whited out" , but i could not get on with it.

I also own an 8-32 and a 12-42 NXS , and these don't have that problem. Optically not as good, but perfectly useable on full mag.

Haven't owned or used a competition, but I would bet its better than the NXS.

Can't speak for the high mag March, but the lower powered ones [of which I have two ] also suffer , in that your head has to be exactly in the right place, or you can tell its not. I do believe, this is actually an intentional feature, and it certainly helps with parallax error correctment, but a scope that is fussy on head position is distracting at best, and a pain in the butt at worst. Not what you want when trying to cope with all the other factors involved in long range shooting.

Just my own personal experiences however, and not a slight on any of the brands mentioned, they are all very good scopes, but didn't suit me personally.

[Strangely Brown]

Thanks one and all; I believe he is going ahead and getting one. 

I had a similar dilemma between a 3~20x and a 5~25, luckily I knew people with both and the majority who had the 5~25 told me they rarely used it above 18x so I bought the 3~20 and haven't looked back.

I also have an older 3~12 PM1 S&B and quite frankly that does almost everything I require of it.