Apparently my Solus Comp 6.5 Creed is looking to be a shooter... The only things I've swapped so far is put in a TriggerTech Special with the screw removed (1 lbs.), and retorqued the action screws to 65 in-lbs. First 25 rounds, only a simple barrel scrubbing and dry-patching before going to the range. 3 shots to sight it in, so 3 of the groups are 4-shot groups, then the last 2 are 5 shot groups... I'm using brand new virgin Alpha SRP 6.5CM brass, Nosler 140 RDF's, StaBall 6.5, and CCI 400 primers. Seated them to 2.270", which is 0.010" jump, and still fit and feed perfectly from an MDT steel AICS mag with no front binder plate. Didn't know it was shipping, so I was caught with my pants down on ordering a matching Ergo grip like on all my other rifles, and the proper height rings, but they should arrive this week from Midway.
The DNT scope is alright... It tracks true, and I can see the reticle just fine, the reticle layout is very nice with the .1 MIL marks, the parallax is almost dead-on with the known distances, and I have no problems shooting tight groups. It was quite overcast, so it really put the glass to the test to show how it stacks up in the shadows compared to out in the bright light where every halfway decent optic can look clear. In the shadows when the sun went behind the clouds while shooting, above 25x definitely got a bit grainy, but nothing that wasn't able to be mostly adjusted-out with some slight parallax tweaking...But at 30x it wasn't as clear as my Burris XTR-3 5.5-30x56 at 30x. The DNT is assembled in China with Japanese EXD glass, and the Burris is built in the Philippines with Japanese ED glass.
Personal opinion based just simple on initial thoughts with only 25 rounds through it... In bright light, very clear, very bright, organic colors (no tinting). There is tiny bit of dark blueish/purple CA around the edges when you get your head off-center of the eye box, but that's not the end of the world. Eyebox is a bit tight at 35x, but most scopes will be. I'd certainly buy one over another Arken, I can tell you that much, just that the glass is much better than any of the ones I have/had prior, including a Gen1 EP5. Also I REALLY like the TOR reticle. It's .1 MIL marks, so it makes corrections and helping spot for others to give corrections for them super simple and easy.
It's definitely worth the $600 I paid for it, but honestly, the glass in my Burris XTR-3 5.5-30x56 is noticeably better for just a few hundred more. Haven't compared it to anything else yet, as those were the only 2 guns I carried to the range with me today. That said, if my budget for a LR scope was $600-750, I'd probably recommend the DNT.
That all being said, it very well could have just been extreme mirage from the cans, being that my rings are super low, and I'm waiting on my taller rings to arrive. That could help with the grainy image at max mag noticeably, because I did have that problem with several higher-end scopes until I put taller rings on them and got them above the barrels and suppressors directly in the LOS. My taller rings should arrive this week, so hopefully we can test this theory next weekend, and after more rounds my thoughts might change. Only time will tell, just giving my initial rundown.
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Here's the first 5 groups (first 25 shots on a brand new barrel, random ass load choice, and getting some REALLY good velocities and ES/SD numbers for a new barrel that hasn't even fully settled in yet. But it started to settle in nicely in the 4th and 5th groups (other than the random flier in each one). Those fliers were me pulling because there was lots of people at the range today talking and bumping the goddamn bench while I'm trying to shoot.
Also, not sure WTF happened at 44.0 grains with that double-grouping, but that was weird.
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