With so few out there, and even less info thought I would throw out some thoughts on the ZCO 2-10 so far.
TL;DR
- The HTR is very well thought out for 2-10x but has some quirks but is overall a good fit.
- It's what you'd expect from ZCO...a heavy, expensive, but truly excellent optic
Initial impressions:
the HTR: I actually really like this reticle far more than I anticipated. It isn't perfect, and I thought it was the least of all evils of the 3, but the more time I spend with it the more I feel it's actually had some thought behind it. For a 2-10 FFP optic, it doesn't really have an unusable area in that range and anything outside would not be very useful. Wasn't sure about the segmented ring...I think Vortex has the right idea with the mildly transparent ring as they have on their 1-10.
I was a little surprised at the subtensions measuring at 0.22 mils for the dots.
Illumination: Its fine. They opt for about 10% one direction as the night/nv setting; then 85% rheostat the other way for gradual brightness stopping just shy of a true daylight bright. There is a detent in between the 2 directions but the redundancy of this 10% would have been better on the top end and one could've had a 2nd detent stop at the end of the night/nv settings and more brightness for daylight.
2x: It's clear the Austrians were involved. The ring gives it an AUG donut-of-death vibe. There IS a bit of tunneling up to a hair over 2.5 down to 2x. Given this isn't a super light an speedy LPVO, it's not a bg deal but it's there. Working small targets from 55-135y, the 2x is serviceable. This is an area where SFP on low power (OG Short Dot LE, 1-8CC SFP, Razor HD 2 1-6) either with or without the flash dot supplement is my go-to. With the smaller ring, I could see for folks stalking in the shaded woods, the illumination will be a must with darker, vegitative backgrounds. Again, 10-15% more brightness would help a lot.
4x: This is an area I feel many 8-10x LPVO's neglect. The HTR is coming into its own with the fine crosshair supplemented with the segmented ring. Good blend of fast but still refinable sight picture in less stable conditions. With the segmented ring on circular steel plates, more target is obscured than I'm used to, but it's not a "problem" just and observation if one has hold off of the target for wind rather than bracketing it in the middle
6x: The subtensions are now becoming usable
8x: Given we're still 20% shy of the top end and the ability to adjust parallax, we're well beyond anything in the LPVO market...even my favored Schmidts.
10x: Still not as tight/restricting as some. The HTR is reaching its limits on thickness leaving endeavors like dot drills and small pasties to be a challenge
I have this optic on a unicorn Hodge Mod 1 that shoots better than it has any business shooting. Fed 73gr GMM chrono'd at 2680 fps average, 15 fps SD.
A surprisingly mild IL day with wind out of the N/NE/E from 11-20mph. As per the usual here, the mirage was kind of a bitch.
Was probably the easiest zeroing i've ever had in my life:
After a couple of confirmation groups, I generally run every "dmr style" gun through:
- 1/3 IPSCs and 4" poppers spaced from 55y to about 135y shot off of props to test the 2-4x range. "Scrambler" style setup.
- 300y graduated rack with 3", 5", 7" and 9" plates off the ladder for the medium 4-6x range
- UKD on 2/3 IPSCs (435 and 560y on this outing) on the 8-10x range. Both dialing and using the tree reticle. I will note the smaller .11 marks at the 1/2 mil stadia was challenging when bringing the power down against the mirage.
To me, this was meant to be a better-than-LPVO optic for the 50-600y range in my area of extremely flat, open ground...not a lot of wasted top end and unusable bottom end and keeping a small-ish footprint for the system. YES, it's a heavy, thick girl of an optic. However, when I'm in the glass, I know I'm behind a real precision optic and not an LPVO swinging for the fences. Try as the S&B Dual CC might with the scaled down US turrets and MDRt6 tree, the ZCO is on another level. It's pretty much exactly what I expected: a good candidated for an SPR small frame, shorter large-frame, or something for that Gladius style shorty/compact bolt gun.
TL;DR
- The HTR is very well thought out for 2-10x but has some quirks but is overall a good fit.
- It's what you'd expect from ZCO...a heavy, expensive, but truly excellent optic
Initial impressions:
the HTR: I actually really like this reticle far more than I anticipated. It isn't perfect, and I thought it was the least of all evils of the 3, but the more time I spend with it the more I feel it's actually had some thought behind it. For a 2-10 FFP optic, it doesn't really have an unusable area in that range and anything outside would not be very useful. Wasn't sure about the segmented ring...I think Vortex has the right idea with the mildly transparent ring as they have on their 1-10.
I was a little surprised at the subtensions measuring at 0.22 mils for the dots.
Illumination: Its fine. They opt for about 10% one direction as the night/nv setting; then 85% rheostat the other way for gradual brightness stopping just shy of a true daylight bright. There is a detent in between the 2 directions but the redundancy of this 10% would have been better on the top end and one could've had a 2nd detent stop at the end of the night/nv settings and more brightness for daylight.
2x: It's clear the Austrians were involved. The ring gives it an AUG donut-of-death vibe. There IS a bit of tunneling up to a hair over 2.5 down to 2x. Given this isn't a super light an speedy LPVO, it's not a bg deal but it's there. Working small targets from 55-135y, the 2x is serviceable. This is an area where SFP on low power (OG Short Dot LE, 1-8CC SFP, Razor HD 2 1-6) either with or without the flash dot supplement is my go-to. With the smaller ring, I could see for folks stalking in the shaded woods, the illumination will be a must with darker, vegitative backgrounds. Again, 10-15% more brightness would help a lot.
4x: This is an area I feel many 8-10x LPVO's neglect. The HTR is coming into its own with the fine crosshair supplemented with the segmented ring. Good blend of fast but still refinable sight picture in less stable conditions. With the segmented ring on circular steel plates, more target is obscured than I'm used to, but it's not a "problem" just and observation if one has hold off of the target for wind rather than bracketing it in the middle
6x: The subtensions are now becoming usable
8x: Given we're still 20% shy of the top end and the ability to adjust parallax, we're well beyond anything in the LPVO market...even my favored Schmidts.
10x: Still not as tight/restricting as some. The HTR is reaching its limits on thickness leaving endeavors like dot drills and small pasties to be a challenge
I have this optic on a unicorn Hodge Mod 1 that shoots better than it has any business shooting. Fed 73gr GMM chrono'd at 2680 fps average, 15 fps SD.
A surprisingly mild IL day with wind out of the N/NE/E from 11-20mph. As per the usual here, the mirage was kind of a bitch.
Was probably the easiest zeroing i've ever had in my life:
After a couple of confirmation groups, I generally run every "dmr style" gun through:
- 1/3 IPSCs and 4" poppers spaced from 55y to about 135y shot off of props to test the 2-4x range. "Scrambler" style setup.
- 300y graduated rack with 3", 5", 7" and 9" plates off the ladder for the medium 4-6x range
- UKD on 2/3 IPSCs (435 and 560y on this outing) on the 8-10x range. Both dialing and using the tree reticle. I will note the smaller .11 marks at the 1/2 mil stadia was challenging when bringing the power down against the mirage.
To me, this was meant to be a better-than-LPVO optic for the 50-600y range in my area of extremely flat, open ground...not a lot of wasted top end and unusable bottom end and keeping a small-ish footprint for the system. YES, it's a heavy, thick girl of an optic. However, when I'm in the glass, I know I'm behind a real precision optic and not an LPVO swinging for the fences. Try as the S&B Dual CC might with the scaled down US turrets and MDRt6 tree, the ZCO is on another level. It's pretty much exactly what I expected: a good candidated for an SPR small frame, shorter large-frame, or something for that Gladius style shorty/compact bolt gun.
