Well, I was all set to give Nightforce the first report this year when I sat down at the S&B booth at 3:00 and found out that they had 5 new scopes to introduce, including a monster 3-27x56mm PMII. Yes, you heard right: a 9x erector ratio in a FFP scope. How much you ask? I think I’ll make you wait until the end for that. It’s like a treasure hunt where the surprise is that you are the one providing the treasure. I couldn’t resist but to write about the S&B first, especially since I don’t see anybody else doing so. Scoop for me.
So, here are the vitals. It weighs 39.79 oz, putting it on the heavier side of optics but not out of the normal range. Length is between the old 5-25x and newer 3-20x at 15.52”. Field of view is basically equivalent to the 3-20x at applicable magnifications. It also sports the locking double turn with milestone clicks every mil elevation turret, found on the 3-20x and that seems to be giving some folks problems.
S&B calls this unit the “Double Turn with MTC and locking function.” Responding somewhat to customer feedback, S&B has altered the turret to provide a better seal against water. They also encourage users not to remove the slotted screw on the elevation turret. Doing so and then removing the turret apparently really makes a mess of things and you ain’t putting Humpty Dumpty back together by your lonesome. Not having an S&B of my very own to put though the paces, I can only agree with the comments of some others concerning the difficulty of the hard click every mil milestone feature. I gave it a good try and I don’t think there is any way to dial directly to the click immediately following a milestone click. It’s going to skip on by and you’re going to have to go back. I like the principle of a different-feeling click every 10, but in practice I am not sure it is worth the difficulty of the drive-bys. The full two turns of elevation adjustment will give you a usable 26 mils, though apparently 36 mil units can be made.
As for the windage turret, it is a “single turn with zero stop” and it also locks. It provides 6 mils of windage each way and has a nice hard milestone click in the middle that I don’t think will draw any detractors.
The side focus parallax adjusts from 10.9 yds to infinity. American makers take note of this. Oh, who am I kidding: if anybody was going to listen to my moaning on that point, they probably would have done it long ago. Sometimes when it’s cold and miserable and my local ranges close, I have to shoot inside and, depending on the range, it may only be 50 ft or 25 yards. On top of all of that, gasp, I use a .22lr because it is cheap practice. Just as with the parallax control, veteran S&B users will find no surprises with the analogue 11 setting illumination (sorry, battery was dead in the demo) and euro +2 to –3 diopter. The reticles available at time of release will be P4 fine, H2CMR, Tremor 2, H37, and H59. Others (the MSR comes to my mind) may or may not be added in the future, though can certainly be obtained if you want to buy enough of them - think Uncle Sam enough, not you and your shooting club enough. Colors are Black, Pantone, and Ral 8000. I don’t really know what Pantone or Ral 8000 are, but I’m willing to bet that one is flat dark earth and that the other is a good shade for the Vegas nightlife. Not too obvious, but alluring enough to get the job done.
So, what did I think in practice? Well, first off, 3-27x is probably just a bit more massive than you think that it is. I was a little taken aback. You practically go from a landscape to a blade of grass. Now I know that March has done the 10x erector ratio in a 2fp scope for a while now, but those scopes are very tricky exit pupil wise. This felt much more forgiving. The numbers are 8.6-2.54mm. In practice it was enough to get a good through the scope shot at 27x. What I am clumsily getting at is that playing with the 3-27x I did not feel like I was sacrificing usability in less than ideal situations for a little extra magnification under an ideal scenario. It felt usable across the whole of the magnification spectrum. It also looked clear edge to edge with minimal distortion, a very nice experience.
At 3x:
At 27x:
And now for the price. For those of you worried that Nightforce’s Beast was in S&B range; fear not! S&B has upped their game to make up for all the $3k scopes floating around these days. The MSRP on this quite impressive optic is $5,599. S&B is committed to being the best that can be had when cost is no object. And yes, I am told a contract already exists with Socom for this optic, so, in a way, you already bought a few.
At 8x:
Well, I’m not forgetting about the promised 4 others. They are a 5-20x50 PMII Ultra Short, and a new hunting line of scopes called the Stratos that includes a 1.1-5x24, a 1.5-8x42, and a 2.5-13x56. I’ll blurb about these tomorrow as well as talk about the Nightforce Beast and US Optics SR-8.
So, here are the vitals. It weighs 39.79 oz, putting it on the heavier side of optics but not out of the normal range. Length is between the old 5-25x and newer 3-20x at 15.52”. Field of view is basically equivalent to the 3-20x at applicable magnifications. It also sports the locking double turn with milestone clicks every mil elevation turret, found on the 3-20x and that seems to be giving some folks problems.
S&B calls this unit the “Double Turn with MTC and locking function.” Responding somewhat to customer feedback, S&B has altered the turret to provide a better seal against water. They also encourage users not to remove the slotted screw on the elevation turret. Doing so and then removing the turret apparently really makes a mess of things and you ain’t putting Humpty Dumpty back together by your lonesome. Not having an S&B of my very own to put though the paces, I can only agree with the comments of some others concerning the difficulty of the hard click every mil milestone feature. I gave it a good try and I don’t think there is any way to dial directly to the click immediately following a milestone click. It’s going to skip on by and you’re going to have to go back. I like the principle of a different-feeling click every 10, but in practice I am not sure it is worth the difficulty of the drive-bys. The full two turns of elevation adjustment will give you a usable 26 mils, though apparently 36 mil units can be made.
As for the windage turret, it is a “single turn with zero stop” and it also locks. It provides 6 mils of windage each way and has a nice hard milestone click in the middle that I don’t think will draw any detractors.
The side focus parallax adjusts from 10.9 yds to infinity. American makers take note of this. Oh, who am I kidding: if anybody was going to listen to my moaning on that point, they probably would have done it long ago. Sometimes when it’s cold and miserable and my local ranges close, I have to shoot inside and, depending on the range, it may only be 50 ft or 25 yards. On top of all of that, gasp, I use a .22lr because it is cheap practice. Just as with the parallax control, veteran S&B users will find no surprises with the analogue 11 setting illumination (sorry, battery was dead in the demo) and euro +2 to –3 diopter. The reticles available at time of release will be P4 fine, H2CMR, Tremor 2, H37, and H59. Others (the MSR comes to my mind) may or may not be added in the future, though can certainly be obtained if you want to buy enough of them - think Uncle Sam enough, not you and your shooting club enough. Colors are Black, Pantone, and Ral 8000. I don’t really know what Pantone or Ral 8000 are, but I’m willing to bet that one is flat dark earth and that the other is a good shade for the Vegas nightlife. Not too obvious, but alluring enough to get the job done.
So, what did I think in practice? Well, first off, 3-27x is probably just a bit more massive than you think that it is. I was a little taken aback. You practically go from a landscape to a blade of grass. Now I know that March has done the 10x erector ratio in a 2fp scope for a while now, but those scopes are very tricky exit pupil wise. This felt much more forgiving. The numbers are 8.6-2.54mm. In practice it was enough to get a good through the scope shot at 27x. What I am clumsily getting at is that playing with the 3-27x I did not feel like I was sacrificing usability in less than ideal situations for a little extra magnification under an ideal scenario. It felt usable across the whole of the magnification spectrum. It also looked clear edge to edge with minimal distortion, a very nice experience.
At 3x:
At 27x:
And now for the price. For those of you worried that Nightforce’s Beast was in S&B range; fear not! S&B has upped their game to make up for all the $3k scopes floating around these days. The MSRP on this quite impressive optic is $5,599. S&B is committed to being the best that can be had when cost is no object. And yes, I am told a contract already exists with Socom for this optic, so, in a way, you already bought a few.
At 8x:
Well, I’m not forgetting about the promised 4 others. They are a 5-20x50 PMII Ultra Short, and a new hunting line of scopes called the Stratos that includes a 1.1-5x24, a 1.5-8x42, and a 2.5-13x56. I’ll blurb about these tomorrow as well as talk about the Nightforce Beast and US Optics SR-8.
Last edited:
