Rifle Scopes S&b 3-18x42
- Thread starter Bangin
- Start date
The issue with it in the Mark 5 is the a gap between the turret and the reference mark and it being offset give significant parallax error that wouldn't usually be present.
Offset windage reference with no gap is not an problem.
No shit...
24oz 3-18x42mm with exposed turrets...my heart skipped a beat
Fucking #7 reticle...what the fuck???
I'll likely try this one depending on price and how fricking long it will take to get to our shores....
So, guessing it's a combo of Klassik glass and tube and PMII internals? Or just that with SFP they were able to make it a little lighter?
I’ve always been told the Klassik series glass is basically the same as the PMII. Check out the FOV, eye relief, and even physical dimension of the eyepiece on the 3-12 Klassik and 3-12 PMII.
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Reticle selection, turrets, parallax and illumination I thought were the obvious difference.
Not that it matters, they are full Simple Jack priced out of relevance
There is quite a bit of difference. The resolution at the center of the picture is about the same. However, the Klassik series has more spherical and chromatic aberration. The klassik series is definitely an older design. This 3-18 scope seems like a modern remake of that seires. I’ll also add, this is comparing directly with the 4-16 series. The 5-25 and ultrabright smash the Klassik, but they should.
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They ever announce a price? Also, it says that the turret could be retrofitted to other scopes. Any guesses on what that would cost?
Would be really nice if they would offer that turret as a retrofit on the 3-12 ultra klassik
Looks like EO has it listed for $3.7k to $4k depending on options. WTF? Can those prices be realistic?
I have. This looks like a $2500 scope at the most. That new March is looking really good at $3k.
I have the 3-18 S&B with capped turrets and without rail. As I live in Germany the price was OK at ~2.250€
Overall a good scope, I can share a comparison to the other scopes I own in the upcoming days. Just this much: The S&B is very practical and offers great flexibility but does not shine too well in each individual area.
Best wishes und schönes Wochenende,
Julian
Overall a good scope, I can share a comparison to the other scopes I own in the upcoming days. Just this much: The S&B is very practical and offers great flexibility but does not shine too well in each individual area.
Best wishes und schönes Wochenende,
Julian
OK here we go:
First off all 2nd post, so please be kind Also I am no scope expert Like Ilya or others on here. So dont expect an objective and complete review of the 3-18 S&B. It is all only my opinion, compared to the scopes I have at home.
I want to take this opportunity to thank you all for the excellent forum and knowladge you share across the globe. I read a lot trough the forum on various optics and hope by this to give back at least a little bit.
I own:
Meopta Meostar R1 4-16x44 Plex
Doctor 8x56 fixed "Sauenglas"
IOR 4-28x50 Recon (I know you hate this scope/company on here but the drive to Romania is not that far and this is where this scope is made)
Noblex 1-6x24
Old Scopes:
Hela 2-9 steel scope
Zeiss Diavari Z 2,5-10x52
Aimpoint Micro H2
So how does my new purchase compare?
A) Versatility
This is by far the strongest point for the scope. It has a good illumination. The scope offers 11 steps, on maximum it is as bright as my Aimpoint on 10 (from 12). So the illumination is bright enough to act as a fast target aquisition when shooting both eyes open on 3x for driven hunts. This for me is a big point as 1-3times per year I join such a hunt and I never know what stage I get. It can be shooting up to 150yeards or shooting only 15yards. So i take Aimpont and a scope with me and decide depending on location what I put on my gun. With this cope I am fine shooting 30yards and above on driven game.
Compared with my LPVO 1-6 it performs MUCH better. Guess this is the difference between Chinese made Optic for 400€ and german made optic for >2000€. (?) Anyway I can get much faster behind the S&B, the illumination is brighter and 4x and above the field of view is better and all of the picture is sharp, whearas the Noblex has fish-eye and is not sharp on the edges.
Besides being good on 3x it is also good on 8x and above. The picture is crystal clear and good for my eyes.
Wit the parallax option it can be sharpen to various ranges and is ideally for clip-on devices.
B) Picture quality & FOV
The S&B is very sharp and has a good picture. It is rather bluish whears the old Zeiss for example is rather brown. The IOR is more green/brown and the Doctor 8x56 is very balanced - I cannot make out a particular colour trend.
--> For MY EYES the Doctor & IOR offers the nicest picture from contrast point of view.
But the Bender is very crisp and offers better debth of vield. So I dont have to mess a lot with parallax. If set at 50m the picture is fine all the way from 30m to 100m no issues. If I do the same on the IOR the picture falls off much faster when not in the correct range. The Doctor has a fixed parallax and is therefore not entirely comparable.
--> For hunting the S&B therefore is the best in my opinion. As once on the hunting stand I can set the parallax and then forget about it. One less topic to mess around with. The picture is not better than the Doctor, but also not worse - but I get variable magnification so I would choose the S&B.
The Meopta is interesting as it offers great picture with very neutral colours but the vield of view is narrow (and tunneling from 4x to ~4,5x) so the view even tough it is good contrast, sharpness etc simply does not have such a good feel. It always seems like looking trough something and does not have this natural feel. It is difficult to explain but I think you know what I mean. The Meopta seems like a centrury (at least) behind the S&B, Doctor or IOR.
The old Zeiss is very similar to the Meopta in this case, as it also offers lower vield of view and has some tunneling. Therefore the scope also feels "old" when comparing with S&B. Although I must say given the age the ZEISS is still a beast and offers a great picture.
The S&B is very easy to get behind, a little head wiggle or not ideal eye reliev does not effect the optical result too much - you get away with a lot. I think this is due to the good edge-to-edge sharpness and the generous exit pupil on lower magnifications. On higher mag this effect becomes less but still very good. On 8x it is still easier to get behinid the S&B vs the Doctor 8x56. However onc the light fades the 56 objective does give a small edge - but really only a small one.
So I would take the S&B anytime. However it surprised me how well the old designs did and that apparently my selection of scopes is not that bad the IOR did great in terms of vield of view, sharpness and image quality - the Doctor hat for me the best picture and suprised since I bought this used at 300€
C) Features
The S&B comes with everything I needed and more.
The Tenebraex covers were included without it saying so on the website and they are of very good quality. Sadly these make the outside ring of the scope more visible and the sight picture therefore wass less "wow" - for the coparison and also at the range I therefore remove the covers. But for taking the gun to hunt etc. it is nice to have them included and they protect the scope well.
The illumination is good. All measures in Aimpoint brightness (0-12):
Aimpoint 12
S&B 10
Noblex 9
Doctor 8-9
IOR 8
Really cool: In the elevation turret there is a second battery. S&B really thinks of us muddle-headed men
The scope offers parallax which is great and the feel of it is very very good. It is easy to manipulate but stirdy enough to not get shifted accidently. At 100m there is some resistance, so in the darkness you can always get back to 100m.
The zoom ring has a good feel & grip and similar to the parallax as (for me) the right amount of resistance. Also at below freezing everything was smooth to operate. There is a little bump at 9x so at night one can always falls back to 3x, 9x and 18x - a nice feature.
3-18 is a really good altough I would prefer a 2-12 with the same optical qualities as this would aid my type of usage with driven hunts & stationary hunting.
I have the capped turrets, the feel if them is good, the clicks are clean and audible. I cannot comment on the other turret options.
What I also really like is the user manual that explains with what torque the scope rings should be tightened. I missed this information on so many other scopes and was never certain and endet up using 20in-lb.
D) Reticle
There is no option here: It is 2nd focal place type4 with a very fine center floating dot which is illuminated. I like thick reticles especially for low light huntung, but since the illumination is so well done and there is a spare battery - the thin reticle is perfectly acompanied by the illuminated center dot.
--> So i came more and more in favor of this reticle set up. And like it a lot. Simply. Easy. Perfect for hunting & presice shooting on the range.
D) Others
The scope is sturdy and therefore rather on the heavy side given the small objective. For me not a big deal. I like the look of it.
The Warne Mountain 30mm Rings are very nice, and I would purchase them again.
Any questions please let me know.
Best wishes,
Julian
First off all 2nd post, so please be kind
Also I am no scope expert Like Ilya or others on here. So dont expect an objective and complete review of the 3-18 S&B. It is all only my opinion, compared to the scopes I have at home.I want to take this opportunity to thank you all for the excellent forum and knowladge you share across the globe. I read a lot trough the forum on various optics and hope by this to give back at least a little bit.
I own:
Meopta Meostar R1 4-16x44 Plex
Doctor 8x56 fixed "Sauenglas"
IOR 4-28x50 Recon (I know you hate this scope/company on here but the drive to Romania is not that far and this is where this scope is made)
Noblex 1-6x24
Old Scopes:
Hela 2-9 steel scope
Zeiss Diavari Z 2,5-10x52
Aimpoint Micro H2
So how does my new purchase compare?
A) Versatility
This is by far the strongest point for the scope. It has a good illumination. The scope offers 11 steps, on maximum it is as bright as my Aimpoint on 10 (from 12). So the illumination is bright enough to act as a fast target aquisition when shooting both eyes open on 3x for driven hunts. This for me is a big point as 1-3times per year I join such a hunt and I never know what stage I get. It can be shooting up to 150yeards or shooting only 15yards. So i take Aimpont and a scope with me and decide depending on location what I put on my gun. With this cope I am fine shooting 30yards and above on driven game.
Compared with my LPVO 1-6 it performs MUCH better. Guess this is the difference between Chinese made Optic for 400€ and german made optic for >2000€. (?) Anyway I can get much faster behind the S&B, the illumination is brighter and 4x and above the field of view is better and all of the picture is sharp, whearas the Noblex has fish-eye and is not sharp on the edges.
Besides being good on 3x it is also good on 8x and above. The picture is crystal clear and good for my eyes.
Wit the parallax option it can be sharpen to various ranges and is ideally for clip-on devices.
B) Picture quality & FOV
The S&B is very sharp and has a good picture. It is rather bluish whears the old Zeiss for example is rather brown. The IOR is more green/brown and the Doctor 8x56 is very balanced - I cannot make out a particular colour trend.
--> For MY EYES the Doctor & IOR offers the nicest picture from contrast point of view.
But the Bender is very crisp and offers better debth of vield. So I dont have to mess a lot with parallax. If set at 50m the picture is fine all the way from 30m to 100m no issues. If I do the same on the IOR the picture falls off much faster when not in the correct range. The Doctor has a fixed parallax and is therefore not entirely comparable.
--> For hunting the S&B therefore is the best in my opinion. As once on the hunting stand I can set the parallax and then forget about it. One less topic to mess around with. The picture is not better than the Doctor, but also not worse - but I get variable magnification so I would choose the S&B.
The Meopta is interesting as it offers great picture with very neutral colours but the vield of view is narrow (and tunneling from 4x to ~4,5x) so the view even tough it is good contrast, sharpness etc simply does not have such a good feel. It always seems like looking trough something and does not have this natural feel. It is difficult to explain but I think you know what I mean. The Meopta seems like a centrury (at least) behind the S&B, Doctor or IOR.
The old Zeiss is very similar to the Meopta in this case, as it also offers lower vield of view and has some tunneling. Therefore the scope also feels "old" when comparing with S&B. Although I must say given the age the ZEISS is still a beast and offers a great picture.
The S&B is very easy to get behind, a little head wiggle or not ideal eye reliev does not effect the optical result too much - you get away with a lot. I think this is due to the good edge-to-edge sharpness and the generous exit pupil on lower magnifications. On higher mag this effect becomes less but still very good. On 8x it is still easier to get behinid the S&B vs the Doctor 8x56. However onc the light fades the 56 objective does give a small edge - but really only a small one.
So I would take the S&B anytime. However it surprised me how well the old designs did and that apparently my selection of scopes is not that bad
the IOR did great in terms of vield of view, sharpness and image quality - the Doctor hat for me the best picture and suprised since I bought this used at 300€C) Features
The S&B comes with everything I needed and more.
The Tenebraex covers were included without it saying so on the website and they are of very good quality. Sadly these make the outside ring of the scope more visible and the sight picture therefore wass less "wow" - for the coparison and also at the range I therefore remove the covers. But for taking the gun to hunt etc. it is nice to have them included and they protect the scope well.
The illumination is good. All measures in Aimpoint brightness (0-12):
Aimpoint 12
S&B 10
Noblex 9
Doctor 8-9
IOR 8
Really cool: In the elevation turret there is a second battery. S&B really thinks of us muddle-headed men
The scope offers parallax which is great and the feel of it is very very good. It is easy to manipulate but stirdy enough to not get shifted accidently. At 100m there is some resistance, so in the darkness you can always get back to 100m.
The zoom ring has a good feel & grip and similar to the parallax as (for me) the right amount of resistance. Also at below freezing everything was smooth to operate. There is a little bump at 9x so at night one can always falls back to 3x, 9x and 18x - a nice feature.
3-18 is a really good altough I would prefer a 2-12 with the same optical qualities as this would aid my type of usage with driven hunts & stationary hunting.
I have the capped turrets, the feel if them is good, the clicks are clean and audible. I cannot comment on the other turret options.
What I also really like is the user manual that explains with what torque the scope rings should be tightened. I missed this information on so many other scopes and was never certain and endet up using 20in-lb.
D) Reticle
There is no option here: It is 2nd focal place type4 with a very fine center floating dot which is illuminated. I like thick reticles especially for low light huntung, but since the illumination is so well done and there is a spare battery - the thin reticle is perfectly acompanied by the illuminated center dot.
--> So i came more and more in favor of this reticle set up. And like it a lot. Simply. Easy. Perfect for hunting & presice shooting on the range.
D) Others
The scope is sturdy and therefore rather on the heavy side given the small objective. For me not a big deal. I like the look of it.
The Warne Mountain 30mm Rings are very nice, and I would purchase them again.
Any questions please let me know.
Best wishes,
Julian
I hope a first focal plane version is in the works. Not uncommon for S&B to have both options in their optics.
Well, I´m looking for a hunting scope for the field hunt (and sometimes for mid-range fun shooting) here in Germany for over half a year now, because I had to realize, that my 3-12 comes to its limits sometimes.
If they would produce this as a FFP, I would get me one right now.
Hi,Well, I´m looking for a hunting scope for the field hunt (and sometimes for mid-range fun shooting) here in Germany for over half a year now, because I had to realize, that my 3-12 comes to its limits sometimes.
If they would produce this as a FFP, I would get me one right now.
If you are in Germany and in the market for a high power FFP scope, depending on budget, I would look into these (sometimes you find good used deals on "egun"
Delta Stryker 4,5-30
DDOptics 2,5-20
Steiner MX5 / MX7 (2,9-20x50 MSR2 is on sale for 2170€)
Kahles 624/525/318
Hensoldt 3,5-26x56 / 4-16x56
Sightron SVIII 5-40
IOR
Leica PRS
S&B PMII
S&B Polar 4-16x56 with P4FL FFP (mad expensive)
A cool old-school but still very good glass - but SFP - is the Zeiss/Hensoldt 6-24x72.
All of these should yield a better resale value back in the states.
Best wishes!
Well looks like they un-fucked this idea:
1st Focal
Ultra Short/Dual CC style double turn turrets
Decent mil tree reticle (looks suited for the mag range/purpose) SBX
27oz.
1st Focal
Ultra Short/Dual CC style double turn turrets
Decent mil tree reticle (looks suited for the mag range/purpose) SBX
27oz.
Probably looks like a fine crosshair plex I'm hoping. Left, Right, and bottom stadia all go to 10mils and into duplex
Finally! I can get behind this! Love this for a hunting scope and occasional NRL Hunter match. Anyone hear a price yet?
Probably not pleasant.... I'm sure the first number will be a "3"
Supposed to be Sept 2025....so in optics launch speak: "A few months after we get back from SHOT 2026, if you're lucky!"
Probably not pleasant.... I'm sure the first number will be a "3"
I wish. Try a 4, almost a 5...
Keep in mind that much like a few years ago when they did the same thing S&B's bipolar pricing is currently on a manic swing, it may change down substantially when they come back to reality... Hopefully. That's a lot of money, especially for the US version with the restricted FOV. The full FOV euro version makes the price a little more palatable, but still hard to justify IMO.
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I didn't realize there were different models. Do you know what the FOV difference is compared to the EU Model?
US version has a limited FOV, probably via a field stop, because of the Swarovski patent. The newest S&B models including the 3-18 SFP and this new FFP version, 6-36, and 10-60 are all limited to just under 22 degrees AFOV for patent compliance in the US.
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