As with my previous 2020, 2019 and 2018 threads, the purpose of this thread is to provide a catalog of this years reviews and articles, give you a behind the scenes look at what I am working on as it is worked on, and provide a place for your input and comments. Last year ended up quite ambitious with nine reviews and/or articles. That was a bit much and so I'm planning on dialing it back a little this year. The main focus of the year will be a series of optics reviews for scopes in the ~$2k price range similar to the series I did the last two years which focused on the sub $1k range.
The first review scopes of the year arrived this week. The Minox 5-25x56 LR and ZP5 5-25x56 THLR
Minox 5-25x56 LR:
When it comes to reviews, there is typically a new product being released that gets the ball rolling on a series of reviews. The LR is that product this year. When I saw the SH thread about it's release a while back, the idea of Minox producing a lower cost alternative to the ZP5 line interested me. It also looked a little like a test balloon being that it is a single model with just one reticle between their other product lines and even lacking a proper name. The box I have actually has a hand marked X above the line that says 5-25x56 LR. I'm sure the X was put on to pull the scope from those being sent to the distributors at that time and redirect it to me, but it amuses me to imagine it as a place holder for proper model name. The information I was able to get from Minox prior to the scopes arrival is that it is not simply a ZP5 with lesser glass but a different optical design sharing more commonality with the ZE series than the ZP5 series. The coatings are the same as the ZP5, the glass is a lower grade, the turrets are the same as the ZP5, and both are made in Germany.
Minox ZP5 5-25x56 THLR:
It's probably best when taking a look at the LR model to have it's big brother the ZP5 present to compare it to as well as some competitors models. Obviously, the ZP5 is of higher cost and I'll be taking a look at it in that context as well. I will also discuss the THLR reticle which is one of the choices Minox offers in this scope. This design is from Thomas Hauglands of THLR.NO and of the same channel name on YouTube. His equipment, backdrop (mind-bendingly beautiful fjords), and even thinking is a significant departure from most of that in the U.S. and I find this quite interesting and worth the watch. I'm not sure how I'll feel about the reticle until I use it, but it is quite different than the typical .2mil Christmas tree that has become the defacto standard in the U.S.
Sig Sauer Tango6 5-30x56:
Sig entered the optics and opti-electronics business just a few years ago. At the time, I pretty much just thought this was another company with good name recognition looking to cash in on the name by branding some stuff OEM'd for them. Though, that wouldn't be the worst thing, lots of folks brand excellent stuff they have OEM'd and do a great job servicing their customers. It just isn't so interesting for me to see the 3rd or fourth scope from a different brand using the same optical design. While Sig is certainly a huge name, and most of their optics are sourced from an OEM, Sig invested a lot more in the process than a marketing team. Sig hired some optics designers away from competitors and invested quite significantly both in design and manufacturing facilities. In addition to design work on their optics, a few models are actually manufactured stateside in a new state of the art facility. The size of Sig's investment would quickly show most dramatically in their BDX (Ballistic Data Exchange) rifle scopes and laser range finders. Though the Tango6 is not one of the BDX models, it still contains some unique Sig tech elements in the form of an integrated electronic level they call the LevelPlex Digital Anti-Cant System.
Leupold Mark 5HD 5-25x56 with PR2-Mil reticle:
Leupold's Mark 5HD line has become their biggest hit in the long range shooting community in a number of years and has steadily been gaining popularity in the competitive shooting sports. I have heard good things regarding both for optical performance and reliability and the Mark 5 has been on the list of things I wanted to take a hands on look at for a while now. New for this year is a PR2 reticle which is the result of collaboration with Jon Pynch and a few other top competition shooters.
Bushnell Elite Tactical
I will be reviewing one of the updated Elite Tactical scopes from Bushnell later this year when it becomes available. Exact details and timeline are unknown to me at this point.
Sightron SIII PLR FFP 6-24X50 Zero Stop (Delayed until mid 2022 because of production delays)
This is a more full featured version of the SIIISS624X50LRFFP/MH scope a reviewed 3 years ago. This new scope has the same optical design that I have continued to appreciate even more over the past 3 years but adds 10mil / turn, a zero stop, illumination, more elevation adjustment range (29.1mil), a tree reticle, even closer focus (20M). It retains fairly light weight (28oz)
Mantis X10 Elite training system
Mantis is a smartphone based training system company. They produce a variety of Laser indicator training systems as well as an accelerometer based product. Regarding the laser systems, they have both a laser training system based on the Pink Rhino laser training bullet (a cartridge sized laser that goes where a cartridge would go), and a second system for the AR-15 that replaces the bolt carrier group and actually resets the trigger itself so you can rapid fire.
The Mantis system I will be reviewing is the Mantis X10 Elite. This is an accelerometer based training system that attaches to the pic rail on you firearm and records its movement throughout the shot process. It can be used for both dry fire and live fire and can be used with various adapters for firearms not possessing a pic rail. The MantisX is also a software product. You interface with it through a smartphone app which automates and archives your training and provides tips for improvement. In addition to the base unit, I have obtained a few adapters for the mantis to try it out on various different platforms such as handgun, shotgun, and precision rifle. My initial thought it that it is probably most useful in the context of handgun but I'll be interested to see what else it can do.
How to quantify precision
Last year I intended to do an article on how to quantify precision. I have never been satisfied with how precision is quantified within the precision rifle world. The general ideas of a half MOA rifle or MOA rifle are neither sufficiently defined nor particularly statistically meaningful. When we quantify the degree of precision in our velocity using standard deviation we have a good statistical tool and this greatly aids us. Measuring the 2 furthest out rounds in a 5rd group to quantify precision is not sufficient. I think that an important step the shooting process is to more meaningfully determine the precision of a particular platform. An article on why this is so and what ways are better suited (such as circular error probability CEP or distance root mean square DRMS) will be forthcoming as soon as I am happy with the tools easily and cheaply available for folks to use and I have the time to mess with it.
The first review scopes of the year arrived this week. The Minox 5-25x56 LR and ZP5 5-25x56 THLR
Minox 5-25x56 LR:
When it comes to reviews, there is typically a new product being released that gets the ball rolling on a series of reviews. The LR is that product this year. When I saw the SH thread about it's release a while back, the idea of Minox producing a lower cost alternative to the ZP5 line interested me. It also looked a little like a test balloon being that it is a single model with just one reticle between their other product lines and even lacking a proper name. The box I have actually has a hand marked X above the line that says 5-25x56 LR. I'm sure the X was put on to pull the scope from those being sent to the distributors at that time and redirect it to me, but it amuses me to imagine it as a place holder for proper model name. The information I was able to get from Minox prior to the scopes arrival is that it is not simply a ZP5 with lesser glass but a different optical design sharing more commonality with the ZE series than the ZP5 series. The coatings are the same as the ZP5, the glass is a lower grade, the turrets are the same as the ZP5, and both are made in Germany.
Minox ZP5 5-25x56 THLR:
It's probably best when taking a look at the LR model to have it's big brother the ZP5 present to compare it to as well as some competitors models. Obviously, the ZP5 is of higher cost and I'll be taking a look at it in that context as well. I will also discuss the THLR reticle which is one of the choices Minox offers in this scope. This design is from Thomas Hauglands of THLR.NO and of the same channel name on YouTube. His equipment, backdrop (mind-bendingly beautiful fjords), and even thinking is a significant departure from most of that in the U.S. and I find this quite interesting and worth the watch. I'm not sure how I'll feel about the reticle until I use it, but it is quite different than the typical .2mil Christmas tree that has become the defacto standard in the U.S.
Sig Sauer Tango6 5-30x56:
Sig entered the optics and opti-electronics business just a few years ago. At the time, I pretty much just thought this was another company with good name recognition looking to cash in on the name by branding some stuff OEM'd for them. Though, that wouldn't be the worst thing, lots of folks brand excellent stuff they have OEM'd and do a great job servicing their customers. It just isn't so interesting for me to see the 3rd or fourth scope from a different brand using the same optical design. While Sig is certainly a huge name, and most of their optics are sourced from an OEM, Sig invested a lot more in the process than a marketing team. Sig hired some optics designers away from competitors and invested quite significantly both in design and manufacturing facilities. In addition to design work on their optics, a few models are actually manufactured stateside in a new state of the art facility. The size of Sig's investment would quickly show most dramatically in their BDX (Ballistic Data Exchange) rifle scopes and laser range finders. Though the Tango6 is not one of the BDX models, it still contains some unique Sig tech elements in the form of an integrated electronic level they call the LevelPlex Digital Anti-Cant System.
Leupold Mark 5HD 5-25x56 with PR2-Mil reticle:
Leupold's Mark 5HD line has become their biggest hit in the long range shooting community in a number of years and has steadily been gaining popularity in the competitive shooting sports. I have heard good things regarding both for optical performance and reliability and the Mark 5 has been on the list of things I wanted to take a hands on look at for a while now. New for this year is a PR2 reticle which is the result of collaboration with Jon Pynch and a few other top competition shooters.
Bushnell Elite Tactical
I will be reviewing one of the updated Elite Tactical scopes from Bushnell later this year when it becomes available. Exact details and timeline are unknown to me at this point.
Sightron SIII PLR FFP 6-24X50 Zero Stop (Delayed until mid 2022 because of production delays)
This is a more full featured version of the SIIISS624X50LRFFP/MH scope a reviewed 3 years ago. This new scope has the same optical design that I have continued to appreciate even more over the past 3 years but adds 10mil / turn, a zero stop, illumination, more elevation adjustment range (29.1mil), a tree reticle, even closer focus (20M). It retains fairly light weight (28oz)
Mantis X10 Elite training system
Mantis is a smartphone based training system company. They produce a variety of Laser indicator training systems as well as an accelerometer based product. Regarding the laser systems, they have both a laser training system based on the Pink Rhino laser training bullet (a cartridge sized laser that goes where a cartridge would go), and a second system for the AR-15 that replaces the bolt carrier group and actually resets the trigger itself so you can rapid fire.
The Mantis system I will be reviewing is the Mantis X10 Elite. This is an accelerometer based training system that attaches to the pic rail on you firearm and records its movement throughout the shot process. It can be used for both dry fire and live fire and can be used with various adapters for firearms not possessing a pic rail. The MantisX is also a software product. You interface with it through a smartphone app which automates and archives your training and provides tips for improvement. In addition to the base unit, I have obtained a few adapters for the mantis to try it out on various different platforms such as handgun, shotgun, and precision rifle. My initial thought it that it is probably most useful in the context of handgun but I'll be interested to see what else it can do.
How to quantify precision
Last year I intended to do an article on how to quantify precision. I have never been satisfied with how precision is quantified within the precision rifle world. The general ideas of a half MOA rifle or MOA rifle are neither sufficiently defined nor particularly statistically meaningful. When we quantify the degree of precision in our velocity using standard deviation we have a good statistical tool and this greatly aids us. Measuring the 2 furthest out rounds in a 5rd group to quantify precision is not sufficient. I think that an important step the shooting process is to more meaningfully determine the precision of a particular platform. An article on why this is so and what ways are better suited (such as circular error probability CEP or distance root mean square DRMS) will be forthcoming as soon as I am happy with the tools easily and cheaply available for folks to use and I have the time to mess with it.
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