Re: How about a scope comparison in the Houston ar
Well, it looks like Baccarat was typing at the same time I was.
First, thank you Tony for setting up this comparison. It was very useful and the scopes had a some surprises for me, both good and not so good.
My number one interest in the scopes was for deer hunting in the South Texas brush country, so I brought a cull buck rack. The rack was placed in the shadows up against the trunk of an oak tree, so the picture was antlers with a dark mottled brown, grey, and charcoal background. The test turned out to be pretty realistic and helpful to me at least.
My comments are mostly weighted based on looking at this sight picture for comparison, followed by clarity on the resolution chart and long distance picture, and then low light resolution.
For reference. I use NF. Had a Leupold previously, but changed to NF which was a major improvement.
S&B - short report, to me it is still the standard by which the others are judged. Great optics, turrets are easy to work, its clear, and it works well in low light. Not much else to say. It was the one brand of scope I looked at and did not really notice anything lacking, needing fixing, adjusting or improvement.
Premier - This is one of two scopes I came home thinking, "I wish I owned that scope" - with an asterisk.
The Premier has very heavy duty construction and "feels" very solid and stout. It seems more "solid" than the S&B. It was second only to the Unertl for a solid feel of construction to me. The glass was every bit the equal of the S&B, maybe even ever so slightly better. Comparing the 5x25 and 3 x 15, with both set at 15x, the 5x25 was slightly better to my eye. The same was true in comparing the S&B 4x16 and 5x25, with both set at 16x.
Now for the asterisk, the negative was the focus/parallax adjustment was too stiff on the 5x25. We were in hot humid conditions, so fingers were moist and the knob was hard to adjust. There is too much resistance and the knob had a slick outer ring. I truly hope someone at Premier reads this and will change both the amount of resistance, and use a knob with serrations in metal or a diamond pattern, or some textured metal finish which is easier to hold. In cold wet weather with gloves, the knob would be very frustrating. *IF* the knob is fixed, and they turn out to be as durable as a NF, this scope would be the best of the best. Notably, the windage and elevation turrets were just perfect, so hopefully this is an easy fix.
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: flyboy</div><div class="ubbcode-body">As for the Hensolt, and I wasn't alone on this, the eye relief front to back was amazing but if your so much as a hair off side to side, you would get shadowing. I'm also not sure if it was a lack of familarity with the Hensolt, but for the life of me I could not get rid of the fish eye effect, and I meen quite a bit of it. On the other hand It was the clearest one there only compairable to a 80mm pentax (hubble) spoter that was there.</div></div>
+1 For me, the Hensoldt was the by far most disappointing of all of the scopes. It had very long eye relief which was nice, but the "fish eye" effect was noticeable to the point of being distracting. Even more distracting, it is extremely sensitive to head position and significant shadows appeared with very slight head movement in any direction. Perhaps this would be a good characteristic for precision paper shooting for benchrest shooting or F-class, but to me, this scope was so uncomfortable on the eye as to be not useable in field conditions.
USO - Overall, the optics disappointed me especially in the low light. One of the USO's, a 58mm, was noticeably better than the others and it had very, very good resolution on the black and white resolution chart. However, I could not count the points on the deer antlers in the shadows with any of the USO's when light started fading. The upside to the USO is they have the best knobs/turret set-ups.
Unertl - this was the other I scope I came home thinking, I really wish I had that scope. This thing is built like a piece of oilfield pipe stuffed with S&B glass on the inside. The knobs are easy to hold, they click firmly and positively into place, and are spaced far enough apart that they are easy to count and not lose track. There were only three scopes which were good enough for me to be able to count the antler points in low light, Premier, S&B and the Unertl. Considering that the Unertl is a fixed 10x, and I was turning up the magnification on the other two, this was really an impressive scope considering the old technology at work. I honestly walked away very impressed, not because of the history of the scope, but just because it is a well made, well designed, good performing scope.
Leupold - it is time to give up any illusion on Leupold. They are FAR behind. The field of view is narrow, the resolution was poor, and low light meant it was time to go to the next scope. Save your money until you can buy a NF. These are overpriced and underperforming. I am appalled that the Army with its budgets is giving this piece of kit to anyone in the field.
Other - Platypus and Mrs. P were selling tripods that are about 10" high with a "U" bracket on top that are perfect for rifles without a bipod - like the M40A1 or typical hunting stock rifles. They are very light and compact. TAB's new slings are really easy to use. The base model seems to be more than strong enough.
The TAB ground mat is much lighter than the Eberle roll out mat I have been using. Also, the TAB mat has a loop on each corner, so it can be used as a rain fly in a pinch with some 550 cord. The TAB mat definitely will go hunting with me next fall.
That's my two cents, I hope it helps provide some data points for the next person out there thinking about a scope. I walked away satisfied with my NF's feeling that I was equipped more than well enough, but still wanting a Premier and the Unertl one of these days in the future.
