For what I gather it was mostly older units, but mine was made this year. Sold as a blem, but mine also has a rma history with my serial number that was never fixed…
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Rifle Scopes M7xi 4-28 thoughts
- Thread starter Tikkaguy
- Start date
Yeah haha, mine is getting mailed out today hopefully I will get a new replacement unit from them here soon in exchange
Just got a look through my buddies new m5xi 3-15x50. That thing killed the glass in my m7 at least on the top end easily. lol ugh I hope my next one is better. The old m5 scopes I think were very nice for the time! But now that I think about it. Steiner hasn’t been the only high end scope maker that I think has had issues as of late tho. I know a lot of guys had tracking issues with the minox zp5 line. Sucks to pay all that money and have to deal with it but at least they will help you out if something goes bad.
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I haven’t spent a ton of time with either of the 2 4-28x M7XIs that I have but they do seem really nice up to about 20x and then the image does seem to degrade. Wish the windage was capped but otherwise love everything else about them so far! I agree with everyone about the MSR2 being a great reticle.
Yeah part of what got me interested in these was a video from a few years ago that DLO put out and he said that it compared favorably to the PMII til 20x and then dropped off at upper mag. I figured if it would still hang with my ATACR after 20x I thought that would be a win.
The first m7xi 4-28 I had showed a little more CA then I would of liked it to have, that was in the 19XXX serial range.
It also went back to Steiner because I had some Grease splatter on the reticle from running the 338NM.
They replaced it for me and to be honest this one seems to handle CA better and optically is nicer.
Here's a pic of a plate at 500m , if memory serves its at 20x
It also went back to Steiner because I had some Grease splatter on the reticle from running the 338NM.
They replaced it for me and to be honest this one seems to handle CA better and optically is nicer.
Here's a pic of a plate at 500m , if memory serves its at 20x
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That one looks very nice, I think if you get the usual quality where it’s supposed to be they are a world class tier 1 scope. Most of the lesser samples were early 2019 I believe. Not now again some seem to slip through here and there. Probly more so good ones that you don’t hear about Because no one complains. Only ever hear a stink about one that doesn’t work out
Looks even slightly above 20x just based on the reticle, and the image looks great. If I knew for 100% certain I was getting that level of quality without having to go through customer service or sending one back, I may well pull the trigger on one without much thought. I just hate to have to deal with that kind of thing though. Still, that reticle....
+1.
I had a 5-25 ATACR that was a little foggy. They did a complete rebuild, and I had it back in about 2 weeks.
yeah I would say its at 24X, they really are a good optic. Between this and my zp5 I really like using them.
I had it out on a last light hunt and it done really well. I wont hesitate to get another one down the track whether its the 2.9-20 or the 4-28.
I am very sad to report that my M7xi showed up today and is incredibly purple and electric looking, like an old tube tv on the fritz.
I have an older steiner hunting z 3-10x50 that looks great all over the eye box. Was my first one. Also have an older steiner VZF 3-12x56 that is weird. The CA can be pretty terrible if you are off to the right. Stay in the middle or tend towards the left and its fine. Otherwise, I wouldn’t say that any of my mixed bag of simmons/burris/nikons shoot rays of purple lightning badly enough to distract me. To be fair, nothing else is quite 28x but it’s already very pronounced at anything 12x and up on the M7.
So yeah, my experience with the M7 mimics what’s already been said here in detail, so I’ll spare you.
I wish I had found this thread sooner. I’ve been on here reading every day. I didn’t realize it at the time, but I think optics planet resells their returns “as is” on ebay. Would not surprise me if the first customer said hell no and returned it. Pretty sure ebay would still side with me if I asked for a return, but meh. I was shitting rainbows when it showed up this morning and now I find this thread describing exactly what my eyes were telling me.
Going to sleep on it. Re-evaluate with fresh eyes in the morning. Half of me wants to give Steiner a chance and warranty it. Other half wants to cut bait and steer clear.
Hooray first post.
I have an older steiner hunting z 3-10x50 that looks great all over the eye box. Was my first one. Also have an older steiner VZF 3-12x56 that is weird. The CA can be pretty terrible if you are off to the right. Stay in the middle or tend towards the left and its fine. Otherwise, I wouldn’t say that any of my mixed bag of simmons/burris/nikons shoot rays of purple lightning badly enough to distract me. To be fair, nothing else is quite 28x but it’s already very pronounced at anything 12x and up on the M7.
So yeah, my experience with the M7 mimics what’s already been said here in detail, so I’ll spare you.
I wish I had found this thread sooner. I’ve been on here reading every day. I didn’t realize it at the time, but I think optics planet resells their returns “as is” on ebay. Would not surprise me if the first customer said hell no and returned it. Pretty sure ebay would still side with me if I asked for a return, but meh. I was shitting rainbows when it showed up this morning and now I find this thread describing exactly what my eyes were telling me.
Going to sleep on it. Re-evaluate with fresh eyes in the morning. Half of me wants to give Steiner a chance and warranty it. Other half wants to cut bait and steer clear.
Hooray first post.
Do Porsche, BMW, and Mercedes Benz send cars back to Germany to get fixed?
Isn't this hearsay?
What's your first 4 serial numbers ?
Curious to know if it's an early gen or not
From now on I would buy a scope from Doug at cameraland or hewbrew hammer. They would have taken care of you quickly if they had the price you were looking for. I’m in the warranty battle with them atm. Probly be close to a month before I see a new scope. Or they try and “ repair” it. Back and forth battle with them. I bough the same thing from them. A discounted referb no one wanted. Now I’m paying for it. Figured straight from them it would be okay. It’s a joke. I’m a steiner fan boy and it’s making me look at switching brands.
Yes I like them a lot. I think the 2.9-20 might be a better design. I’ll get behind one here in a few days. Friend of mine just bought one
I was able to see a 3-20 steiner this weekend. First one Ive seen at a match. Very bright all the way up to 20 power and zero CA on 20x and that was with plenty of snow to induce it. Impressive little scope.
I own one 4-28 and have owned 2 and CA was never a problem for me. Just darkens above higher zoom as mentioned. Just beautiful image till then tho.
Good to see Steiner will make it OK if you get a lemon.
GL
DT
I own one 4-28 and have owned 2 and CA was never a problem for me. Just darkens above higher zoom as mentioned. Just beautiful image till then tho.
Good to see Steiner will make it OK if you get a lemon.
GL
DT
Yeah I have never seen A m7 in person outside this winter so I will be curious to see it when there’s not snow anywhere haha. The ca on my new models isn’t too bad. I’ll be able to see more as I get more time behind it. The more I play with it the more I enjoy it.
I'm really glad we were able to resolve the problem with the first one. I went through that second and had a few others as well and we all agreed it was a much better scope. The first one was most definitely not the image we want in an M7 and I'm sorry you ended with it in the first place. Feel free to let us know if we can help in the future. You can reach me a bit faster via the support system but I pop in here on occasion.
Did you guys ever fix the DRS1X not being daylight bright? I had a few when they first came out but got rid of them all as they were no where near daylight bright in the summer.
I'm glad you asked, we did address that. We were able to swap out the components on those early ones but all of them now will be daylight bright.
Yes thank you I am much happier with my current unit! Miles better might have to try a 2.9-20 soon
This was my post on a different thread.
BTW, I have a MSR2 reticle.
"How disappointed should I be?
I purchased my first M7xi in December of 2021 from Optics Planet. I paid $2,774 delivered. I mounted the scope and headed to my shooting spot. There were two things that I immediately noticed. The CAs were absolutely horrible, and the scope could not focus at my 100 yard target. It wouldn’t focus no matter how much I played with the parallax knob and eyepiece. A buddy of mine that I regularly shoot with got behind the scope and he said the same thing. As far as the CAs goes, I had heard that the first runs of these scopes had pretty bad CAs, and Steiner had made improvements to future manufactured M7xi scopes. Was this scope part of the early batch? Before sending the scope back to Optics Planet I took a picture of the serial number. I did this because I had requested an exchange from Optics Planet, and I wanted to make sure they didn’t send me the same scope back. The serial number read 109231xxxx. (By the way, the second M7xi scope’s serial number reads 201081xxxx.)
I sent the first scope back to Optics Planet and received a new M7xi (factory seal on the box from Steiner was undisturbed). I inspected and then mounted the scope on my MPA rifle. The CA’s were still present, but no where as bad as the first scope. Some owners say that if you are right behind the scope, then the CAs tend to disappear. They say CAs are only present when slightly moving your head from side to side. Mine exhibits CAs regardless of my head position behind the scope. The IQ, while better than my first M7xi, is still not as clear as I think it should be, especially at higher magnification. The IQ does clean up a little after focusing the eyepiece after adjusting the parallax knob. The scope does tunnel slightly while adjusting from 4x to 5x, but does not tunnel after that.
I purchased an Athlon Cronus BTR (gen 1) 4.5-29x56 about a year ago. I paid $1,250 delivered for the scope. The scope is manufactured at the LOW factory in Japan. I test this new M7xi scope against the Cronus today.
IQ: The Cronus has a clearer image over the M7xi, especially going above 20x.
CA: The Cronus has about 3-4x less CAs than the M7xi. The M7xi was fairly prevalent while I had to really search for any CAs with the Cronus.
Tunneling: There was no tunneling with the Cronus while tunneling existed from 4x to 5x with the M7xi.
Turrets: Turrets were far more positive on the M7xi while the Cronus was less “clicky’ and felt a tad mushy.
Sa far, I much prefer the Cronus regarding CAs and IQ. I just turned 50 and I’ve been shooting since I was 11. Anyway, I had been fantasizing about a tier 1 scope for years and finally have had the funds to make the purchase. Part of me now feels that I’ve made a mistake buying this scope. I’m a bit underwhelmed. Please someone tell me I’m wrong, so I won’t feel so bad/guilty with this purchase."
BTW, I have a MSR2 reticle.
"How disappointed should I be?
I purchased my first M7xi in December of 2021 from Optics Planet. I paid $2,774 delivered. I mounted the scope and headed to my shooting spot. There were two things that I immediately noticed. The CAs were absolutely horrible, and the scope could not focus at my 100 yard target. It wouldn’t focus no matter how much I played with the parallax knob and eyepiece. A buddy of mine that I regularly shoot with got behind the scope and he said the same thing. As far as the CAs goes, I had heard that the first runs of these scopes had pretty bad CAs, and Steiner had made improvements to future manufactured M7xi scopes. Was this scope part of the early batch? Before sending the scope back to Optics Planet I took a picture of the serial number. I did this because I had requested an exchange from Optics Planet, and I wanted to make sure they didn’t send me the same scope back. The serial number read 109231xxxx. (By the way, the second M7xi scope’s serial number reads 201081xxxx.)
I sent the first scope back to Optics Planet and received a new M7xi (factory seal on the box from Steiner was undisturbed). I inspected and then mounted the scope on my MPA rifle. The CA’s were still present, but no where as bad as the first scope. Some owners say that if you are right behind the scope, then the CAs tend to disappear. They say CAs are only present when slightly moving your head from side to side. Mine exhibits CAs regardless of my head position behind the scope. The IQ, while better than my first M7xi, is still not as clear as I think it should be, especially at higher magnification. The IQ does clean up a little after focusing the eyepiece after adjusting the parallax knob. The scope does tunnel slightly while adjusting from 4x to 5x, but does not tunnel after that.
I purchased an Athlon Cronus BTR (gen 1) 4.5-29x56 about a year ago. I paid $1,250 delivered for the scope. The scope is manufactured at the LOW factory in Japan. I test this new M7xi scope against the Cronus today.
IQ: The Cronus has a clearer image over the M7xi, especially going above 20x.
CA: The Cronus has about 3-4x less CAs than the M7xi. The M7xi was fairly prevalent while I had to really search for any CAs with the Cronus.
Tunneling: There was no tunneling with the Cronus while tunneling existed from 4x to 5x with the M7xi.
Turrets: Turrets were far more positive on the M7xi while the Cronus was less “clicky’ and felt a tad mushy.
Sa far, I much prefer the Cronus regarding CAs and IQ. I just turned 50 and I’ve been shooting since I was 11. Anyway, I had been fantasizing about a tier 1 scope for years and finally have had the funds to make the purchase. Part of me now feels that I’ve made a mistake buying this scope. I’m a bit underwhelmed. Please someone tell me I’m wrong, so I won’t feel so bad/guilty with this purchase."
Well mine I haven’t had time to take to range or hunt with yet. Maybe this weekend. But I did have to time compare to a few other steiners, the old military 4-16,3-12,m5xi 3-15, and a 2.9-20 just off my porch. Keep in mind this is just in the late afternoon in the winter where is nothing but snow and ice haha. But the differences were pretty minimal. My 4-28 was notiably better in most respects. But again very very marginal. All those older units were very respected scopes optically. Maybe in the spring when there is more vegetation to look at I will be more impressed or let down i dont know. I have played with some of the higher end Japanese made stuff as well. One thing some scope company’s do with coatings is balance them to be very bright and pretty during the day, then with conditions get less than ideal they kind of fall apart. Especially during low light. Yea the m7 has some CA some models seems worth than others. My first one had a bad blue hue Develop in the higher end and lose sharpness. My current one stays pretty sharp just gets a little darker. And yes it tunnels from 4-5 power. My option the scope is more
Of a 5-25 then a 4-28 but not sure. I will continue to run it through its paces. The steiners may not be the best of the best optically bht mechanically I think they are teir 1. Just I don’t see them being worth the current msrp. I would like the chance to try a pmii. I do have a set of delta optical 9x45 binos that rape all my steiner scope during the day but the. Again that’s not really a fair comparison.
The non distorted field of view in my M7Xi, k525i, and FDN 25X is bigger than I had in my Japanese optics. My Maven RS.4 and Cronus had more blurring. I'll gladly take Chromatic Aberration over Spherical Aberration any day, and I can reasonably guarantee that your Cronus has quite a bit of SA by comparison.
The M7Xi is known and reputed to have lower IQ at > 20x. DLO's reviews on multiple M7Xis showed it.
TL;DW - Under 20x, Steiner > S&B. Greater than 20x, different story. This info has been out there for two years now. Do your research, and you won't be disappointed.
There are other reviews that say similar, and I believe this thread even has similar info. My friend's mk5 has less CA and better IQ at 25 than my M7Xi at 28x, but I knew that when I bought because I read up on stuff, and I'm not a magnification w#0re.
Both my Cronus and my RS.4 had significant dimming effect after 16x. I'd bet your IQ and other analyses are extremely limited. No mention of Depth of Field, Spherical Aberration, or resolution at distance. I recommend leaving optical reviews to people who know more about optics than just "Chromatic Aberrations = bad scope".
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so as a little update getting more time behind my current unit i have. the glass quality is pretty good up to around 20 power then is falls quite a bit. i was having some odd little 1/4 moa shifts in my groups. not sure if its my loads, the gun, or me.(most likely my ability). tracking seems to be right on but i havent had time to set up a hard core tracking test, mostly just casual 500 yard shooting. ive compared it to a p4xi 4-16, m series 3-12,3-15, a 2.9-20, arken sh4, and a m series 4-16. so far the m7 holds a fair bit of a advantage over all the listed scopes until you pass the magnifations of the other scopes. the 2.9-20 was very very close. the bottom end of it at min power is amazing . up at high end it did every thing the 4-28 could just with a little less fov. but not a ton. now up to this point i was feeling pretty good. i will say my replacement unit was marked "blem"which is only supposed to be a cosmetic blemish and not mechanically flawed and same thing i can find no defects on the inside. . now my cousin had just bought a used 4-28 off here on buy sell trade. his is a 2018 early batch scope. i had a change to day to play with it and compare side by side. it does have the very very slight tunnel effect on the bottom end, which i have found to be more of a eye relief change as when you move ur eye closer to the scope at 4x it does tend to diminish the tunnel effect. at the lower end of of mag range it is about identical to mine. it is nothing short of sublime image quality. the color rendition and resolution is amazing. you know you are looking through a alpha scope. it has that 3in a half k ziess "pop" to the image. my sample holds its own up to around 16-20 power then i lose a little brightness and clarity as is what i thought was okay for the zoom factor. but once i cranked the zoom up on his above 20 power up to max it gave up almost nothing. like it wasnt even close. his stayed razor sharp, offered almost zero ca and it was like i was looking through a whole other league of optic. makes me feel a bit annoyed on how much sample variation there is with these scopes. like when ur spending this much money on optics you shouldnt have to play scope roulette. his sample control wise was also a bit better and smooth except maybe the paralax was a little more stiff. turrets were a bit morel tactile and audile but not to the point where I could complain. most of what i own are steiners and i always tell my friends to save there hard earned cash up and buy these cuz they are great. but its getting to the point where i can no longer recommend them. especially with this years price increase which kind of priced them out of the market to the point of insanity. at this point i will probly keep on testing mine to see if i can sort out the weird flyers in my groups. i just am about to move to a trg 22 when it shows up that i will proby rebarrel fresh and see what happens. i just feel a little let down that mine is slightly subpar for the course optically.
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If it makes you feel any better EVERY brand has some sample variability. But the Steiners suffer more from this IMO. They are still great scopes and won’t handicap you. The price increase definitely makes it harder to justify the decision compared to something else…. If it weren’t for the MSR2 reticle I would have a difficult time not grabbing another optic. The price increase is also being seen in other optics so I assume it will level the field over time.
I’ve got TT, ZCO, S&B, Leica, Zeiss, among others. They all have their pros and cons. For pure optic quality the TT reigns but lacks in the reticle choices. The ZCO is the same with slightly less optic quality. My favorites are the SB and Steiner because of their overall package usability. And comparing all these side by side at certain times of day or in different atmospheric conditions they ALL take top dog placement. This is all subjective to my eyes and my personal preferences but what I am saying is go shoot your choice and enjoy it, it doesn’t place you at any substantial disadvantage!
I’ve got TT, ZCO, S&B, Leica, Zeiss, among others. They all have their pros and cons. For pure optic quality the TT reigns but lacks in the reticle choices. The ZCO is the same with slightly less optic quality. My favorites are the SB and Steiner because of their overall package usability. And comparing all these side by side at certain times of day or in different atmospheric conditions they ALL take top dog placement. This is all subjective to my eyes and my personal preferences but what I am saying is go shoot your choice and enjoy it, it doesn’t place you at any substantial disadvantage!
yes you are right. ive seen good sample size of a few scopes. and overall i do really like the m7. i dont exspect every sample to be 100 percent but it should be close. the first sample i had was terrible second is okay and so far its working fine and time will tell. the msr2 ret is my favorite. just looking thorugh the other sample was like the angels touched my eye balls lol
I did have my scope off my gun as it’s moving to another rifle here in a few days. I had the 2 samples next to each other and noticed the other had had the diopter almost all the way in. I matched the setting on my scope. Mine got alot more clear on the top end. Pretty much the same as the other. So instead of the tried and true method of setting diopter I just adjusted mine a little from all the way in on max power and bam seemed to fix most of my problems on high mag. Well see how it groups. It really do feel the m7 is a great scope the more I play with them. First one I had was a dud but it happens to the best of them
Here's a couple of pics I took over the weekend.
Distance is 500metres and the
Steiner M7XI is at 28X , you can get some CA / purple fringe around the rocks but it isn't crazy nor unusable.
Here's a pic of the Minox ZP5@25X
Distance is 500metres and the
Steiner M7XI is at 28X , you can get some CA / purple fringe around the rocks but it isn't crazy nor unusable.
Here's a pic of the Minox ZP5@25X
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