NightForce Scopes - Are They Worth The Money?

[brown dog]

Never heard of the premier heritage before ds1's post; just looked it up:

 

http://www.premierreticles.com/Products.html

 

Nice!

 

Some Hensoldt 'heritage' in there I would say!

 

( & FFP!)

 

 

and spotted this for the "FFP/SFP confused" too: http://www.premierreticles.com/PDF%20Files...%20Reticles.pdf

[baldie]

BD makes some good points there.

My s+b would cover the mcqueens wall on 20 power, but the NF will only go up to 18, before i lose the ends of the wall, so obviously the target appears smaller. Smaller FOV.

They have just brought out a zero stop turret for the nxs BD, it can be ordered with a scope, and will retro fit the older ones too.

First versus second focal plane ? important to some, not to others i guess. Military/police etc, have to have it.I personally dont use ffp, at all. All my shooting is at known ranges, if it isn,t, i use a range finder, so have no need for a rangefinding reticule, but as you say, the nxs can be used on a certain mag if needed. I personally dont like ffp for one reason...the reticule gets bigger as its zoomed up, and covers more of the target. Not a logical argument i know, but its little niggles like that, that can put you off a scope isn,t it ?

Have a look at an IOR, BD, i think they would float your boat.

[brown dog]

Thanks Baldie,

 

Rather than rangefinding with a FFP, the most useful function I find with it is correction of fall of shot. At any power setting a shot seen to be "0.5mils left" can be immediately assessed as a '5 click error' to the wind call.....and dealt with accordingly.

 

the reticule gets bigger as its zoomed up, and covers more of the target.

Aaagh! It always covers the same amount!! (but I know what you mean )

 

Have a look at an IOR, BD, i think they would float your boat.

 

I think they might! Chatting about this with one of the fellows on this thread just a couple of days ago. Are IOR available all-metric and FFP? (I'm not after a scope, but he is!)

[Ronin]

IOR have a good reputation with the "tactical" shooters in the states.

[baldie]

I would have to check BD, but i think there are options on mil etc with IOR.

The one i have is an old model from theriflestore days, the range has since been updated, but it has the excellent mp8 reticule which is similar to the s+b p4 fine.

If you give Les or Lee a ring at border, they would tell you better than i can. The range is now quite large, and they have a hunting range, and a pure tactical range, which is far more military than civilian in its intended use. Their mounts are bloody good too, and border supply them with a lapping bar and compound, all steel mounts too......for 60 quid !

[onehole]

Nightforce suits me,glass is very good but not as good as say s'b,zeiss etc but for the 95% of shooting I do better glass wouldn,t really be of any additional benefit.Function is superb,big knobs, solid and quiet adjustments.super smooth mag change etc etc.Best reticule I think is DD as I dial everything anyway and FFP not an issue here.Only time I would use the reticule ie small bottom dot is at 22 mag on ranges to save 8 MOA of dialling at 500 and 600 yds.

Unscrew the rear ocular away from its lock ring and you wont find much if any play in the machining,try doing that with your leupy and that just makes me wonder somtimes about the rest of the machining on the inside of leup but then again I have had leups and been perfectly happy with them apart from really pissed reticules on more than a few that I have had in the past.

When they do finally arrive the 2ndFFP 10x50 s'bs with choice of turret function will be the dogs and if your spending 1200 on a nightforce I for one would be seriously tempted to find the extra 400 ish for that baby----14 months and no waters have broke yet???!!!!Onehole.

[onehole]

Found this pic, pheasant at 260. Not the best pic using a little compact camera but shows uncluttered reticule and not much loss of resolution and fov at 22mag. Onehole.

[ds1]

Hi BD,

 

You were close with Hensoldt.......S&B actually, former S&B employees set up Optrinica? and sold or made the design for Premier.....sort of queered the pitch between Premier and S&B....Premier holding the USMC contract to supply S&B scopes. Which is why the 3-15x56 came out, followed by the 5-25x56. The big question is will Premier`s 3-15 meet the requirements to replace the S&B USMC.

 

FWIW best all round scope I've used so far is USO sn3 3.8-22x44 ERGO, EREK.

 

David.

[eldon]

Yes but DS how much was the USO baby?

[Orka Akinse]

BD / Fellas I was looking at the IOR 6-24 and this is what I found out.

 

Wrt IOR Scopes the 6-24x50 is only in second focal plane, and in fact nearly all IOR scopes are in second focal plane. They also only offer 1/4moa clicks vertical adjustment.

 

The one exception currently is the IOR 3-18x42. It is in first focal plane BUT has cm/100m clicks, Does NOT have illumination reticule AND is a slightly different reticule, MP8-SH which is the 'snipers hide' version.

 

I am now considering USO and Zeiss as I need the top end mag which without spending £2k I don't know of another top end scope that goes that high, the IOR 6-24 would have been ideal. More thought needed and an apology to the thread starter, whilst on topic still I feel the thread has been hijacked a little.............. sorry

 

OA

[baldie]

Just been for a ruby, with a guy who has the new scope on order [he does r+d for them here] its gonna be 2300 euro, which is around £2100 here ?

Ouch...let go of my arm......

[Orka Akinse]

Technical Data

Magnification 6x 24x

Objective (mm) 56

Field of view (ft at 100 yds) 18.6 5.10

Twilight performance 16.9 36.7

Exit pupil (mm) 9.3 2.3

Eye relief (inches) 3.15

1 click at 100 m 0.5 cm

Parallax free at 50 yds - infinity

Windage Adjust. Range (inches at 100 yds) 25.2

Elevation Adjust. Range (inches at 100 yds) 57.6

Center tube diameter (mm) 30 (33)

Objective tube diameter (mm) 62

Eyepiece tube diameter (mm) 45 (41)

Length (inches) 14.84

Weight (oz) 28.40

 

Specs for the ZEISS Victory Diavari 6-24x56T Illuminated reticle from Sportsmans

 

Now am I being dumb or what, why does the spec say 1 click = 0.5cm and yet elevation says inches.

 

Confused of Wiltshire

[ds1]

Yes but DS how much was the USO baby?

 

I got a good deal on that scope - ex demo from the factory. USO are very easy to talk to and I bought direct from them.....a few times.

 

I'm getting to be a real sad ######.....I think the USO 3.8-22x44 configuration is 'cute', not massive like the USO 5-25x56 TPal and S&B 5-25a56 PMII.

 

Nightforce has a NXS 3-15x56 FFP and I think by the end of the year a 5.5-22x56 FFP NXS out but by the time you add a zero stop your not that far off USO price range, and USO has many more options.

 

Poor mans S&B scope would be Meopta 4-16x44 Tactic. Not fancy but still excellent.

 

David.

[brown dog]

The one exception currently is the IOR 3-18x42. It is in first focal plane BUT has cm/100m clicks, Does NOT have illumination reticule AND is a slightly different reticule, MP8-SH which is the 'snipers hide' version.

 

OA,

 

Not 'but'. Should read: 'and delighted to say' : 'It is in first focal plane and delighted to say has cm/100m clicks'

 

All metric is the way to go. Unless you're hard-over on getting illum ret, that IOR 3-18x42 sounds like a scope to leap at. How much?

 

You were close with Hensoldt.......S&B actually, former S&B employees set up Optrinica? and sold or made the design for Premier.....sort of queered the pitch between Premier and S&B....Premier holding the USMC contract to supply S&B scopes. Which is why the 3-15x56 came out, followed by the 5-25x56. The big question is will Premier`s 3-15 meet the requirements to replace the S&B USMC.

 

I don't understand the Premier/S&B/USMC situation (no reason I should!) but I wouldn't have thought the USMC were looking to replace the S&B; they've not had them that long (unless they're dropping (3-12) in favour of 5-25).

 

Need to know more about Optrinica!

[brown dog]

Aaagh runaway-gun! Break the link! Break the link!

[Orka Akinse]

BD

 

Its £761 for the scope from Border.

 

Any opinions on the Zeiss?

[brown dog]

BD

 

Its £761 for the scope from Border.

 

Any opinions on the Zeiss?

 

 

£761 sounds like a gift. Stop reading this and buy it

 

The Zeiss? Never had hands-on with the 6-24; I'd imagine it would be fine. (although I remember an anecdote from ds1 relating to unit returns of these scopes for problems -cured by changing to S&

 

If I was going zeiss / hensoldt this is the model I'd be after (nice and compact) I get the impression the 6-24 is a bit of a hubble:

[Guest bobjs]

£761 sounds like a gift. Stop reading this and buy it

 

The Zeiss? Never had hands-on with the 6-24; I'd imagine it would be fine. (although I remember an anecdote from ds1 relating to unit returns of these scopes for problems -cured by changing to S&

 

If I was going zeiss / hensoldt this is the model I'd be after (nice and compact) I get the impression the 6-24 is a bit of a hubble:

 

hi bd,

 

i love that scope,

 

what is it, my old eyes are playing me up.

 

bob.

[brown dog]

Bob,

 

It's a Hensoldt (mil division of zeiss) 4-16x56 FFP. It's tiny for a 56 obj -far smaller than a PM2. I used to have some pdf data sheets on the hensoldts; can't find them! Here's the European outlet: http://www.i-e-a.de/productssimple51.html

 

ATB

 

Matt

[Guest bobjs]

Thank you Matt.

 

now to start buying lottery numbers.

 

bob.

[skany]

I have hada 5.5-22x56 np2 dd on my 243Ai for a few months & couldnt be more pleased with it!

 

love the ret

 

love ther turrets

 

glass wise it jsut edges out both mine & my mates ziess conquest at night & has quite a lot more contrast in the day!(think thats right basicaly i can see the bullet holes in paper & detail better)

 

as for the non adjsutable ilumination ive jsut set it so it jsut shows up red & cant see a need to re adjsut!

 

only down side is the side focus is a bit fussy

 

oh & the price!

 

would i have another

 

if i could afford it YES

 

Andy

[northern monkey]

I've got a 12-42*56 NXS on my .308. 7 1/4 inch 5 shot grpup with it at 1000yards, but I do not rate the scope. I have a S&B on my new SYSS 6.5*47, the 5-25 model and just ordered a 12-50*56 S&B with 1/4 MOA CCW turrets and a FFP P4F ret. I have S&B on my FT and HFT rigs too.

For the extra money ( yes a lot more!) worth it.

 

By the way Baldie builds a mean rifle

 

Tim F

[Elwood]

I have four Night force scopes, optically I don't think they are worth the money. Personally for the optics you get I think around the £800 mark is what they are worth. However when you stack up the quality of the turrets and the build strength along with some of the best reticles there are then I suppose they might just be worth the money that they are new.

[eldon]

To you dissatisfied owners if you have a 5.5 - 22 or a 3 - 15 with a NP-R1 or NP-R2 I may just know of a way out of the relationship for you