Maven, Leupold, Trijicon, NF

Nards444

Private
Minuteman
Oct 20, 2024
17
2
New York
Looking for my first high end scope. Want to keep it to these 4 brands, been down a ton of rabbit holes already but have it narrowed down. I would consider myself a mid range shooter in the 300-500 range, with longest take on a deer being 700. So 7-800 yards is important. This is an out west gun where I have never shot anything under 300yds. Light properties are important, along with clarity and durability. We do a lot of turret work so that important.

These are all the same price relatively, with the Maven on the low end and the NF on the higher end.

Maven RS.5 maybe RS.3, 4-24x50
Trijicon Tenmile HX 5-25x50
Leupold VX5HD 4-20x52
NF NX8 4-32x50

Maven and Trijicon both have a 56mm reticle that looks attractive as well.

Sort of hesitant on boutique brands like Maven, only been around 10 years, long term warranty claims. NF almost falls into that, as well as being heavier and people not liking the reticle. Ive read some of the zero issues with Leupold, but dont know how much stock to put into it. The one brand I have not any rumor mill stuff from is trijicon
 
Want to keep it to these 4 brands
Why?
Light properties are important, along with clarity and durability
Steiner T6Xi 3-18 has great low light performance (with great eyebox) at about the same pricepoint as an NX8 4-32. I believe @Glassaholic has done a review on it, though I'm tired as hell so I could be misremembering. Tradeoff is the reticle is thin for low-power shooting but if it's for mainly mid to long range hunting that's a nonfactor in my opinion.

Maven RS.5 maybe RS.3, 4-24x50
Trijicon Tenmile HX 5-25x50
Leupold VX5HD 4-20x52
NF NX8 4-32x50
To clarify, you're not buying a second focal plane scope for mid to long range hunting, right? Don't do that. Especially with optics whose magnifications go so high since with SFP the subtensions in the reticle for wind holds are only accurate on max magnification. You should be on 10-15 power when actually shooting at game to preserve FOV for spotting your impacts and followup shots. And yes technically you could do the mental math to know how much to multiply or divide your wind holds by but in a hunting situation that's a complication to avoid.
long term warranty claims. NF almost falls into that
NF warranties mechanical defects, just not accidental damage. I recently bought an ATACR F1 7-35 that will pull double duty as a hunting optic when I go out west to destination hunt once a year since I'm paranoid about zero shift. I put it on my VPP insurance with USAA which covers loss/theft/accidental damage. Now for $30/year I have the same coverage on my NF that my Vortex R3 6-36 has on it plus coverage for loss/theft in case some airport employee steals my Pelican or whatever.
 
Why?

Steiner T6Xi 3-18 has great low light performance (with great eyebox) at about the same pricepoint as an NX8 4-32. I believe @Glassaholic has done a review on it, though I'm tired as hell so I could be misremembering. Tradeoff is the reticle is thin for low-power shooting but if it's for mainly mid to long range hunting that's a nonfactor in my opinion.


To clarify, you're not buying a second focal plane scope for mid to long range hunting, right? Don't do that. Especially with optics whose magnifications go so high since with SFP the subtensions in the reticle for wind holds are only accurate on max magnification. You should be on 10-15 power when actually shooting at game to preserve FOV for spotting your impacts and followup shots. And yes technically you could do the mental math to know how much to multiply or divide your wind holds by but in a hunting situation that's a complication to avoid.

NF warranties mechanical defects, just not accidental damage. I recently bought an ATACR F1 7-35 that will pull double duty as a hunting optic when I go out west to destination hunt once a year since I'm paranoid about zero shift. I put it on my VPP insurance with USAA which covers loss/theft/accidental damage. Now for $30/year I have the same coverage on my NF that my Vortex R3 6-36 has on it plus coverage for loss/theft in case some airport employee steals my Pelican or whatever.

Yes most likely FFP. Have a SFP on a mid grade SIG and not in love with it. Why not steiner, well to stay in budget looking at the military discount and the ones listed have the best, steiner is only 15% and they have a lot of busy MRAD reticles which I am not interested in.

Lastly Im to the point where I want to buy and the game could go on forever introducing new brands
 
Yes most likely FFP. Have a SFP on a mid grade SIG and not in love with it. Why not steiner, well to stay in budget looking at the military discount and the ones listed have the best, steiner is only 15% and they have a lot of busy MRAD reticles which I am not interested in.

Lastly Im to the point where I want to buy and the game could go on forever introducing new brands
That's understandable I guess. In that case the NF NX8 4-32x50 F1 would be my pick personally for ruggedness and zero retention. Lot of scopes lose zero from simple stuff that can happen on a hunt. Get that scope, some properly installed solid scope rings, a loctited (or integral) scope base, and a bedded stock to guard against zero shift. The NF will not necessarily be the best "glass" for its exact pricepoint I'll concede. But a scope is an aiming device first.
 
That's understandable I guess. In that case the NF NX8 4-32x50 F1 would be my pick personally for ruggedness and zero retention. Lot of scopes lose zero from simple stuff that can happen on a hunt. Get that scope, some properly installed solid scope rings, a loctited (or integral) scope base, and a bedded stock to guard against zero shift. The NF will not necessarily be the best "glass" for its exact pricepoint I'll concede. But a scope is an aiming device first.
Yeah the NX8 would be a more durable scope, but you can't hit what you can't see.
 
That's understandable I guess. In that case the NF NX8 4-32x50 F1 would be my pick personally for ruggedness and zero retention. Lot of scopes lose zero from simple stuff that can happen on a hunt. Get that scope, some properly installed solid scope rings, a loctited (or integral) scope base, and a bedded stock to guard against zero shift. The NF will not necessarily be the best "glass" for its exact pricepoint I'll concede. But a scope is an aiming device first.

Well spending the money I would to get good glass as well. Howver Im coming from mid grade Nikons and SIGs which are descent scopes, I mean if the glass is better then that Id be happy, but would be disappointed in less glass then a Nikon Monarch or Sig Sauer level stuff. However Ive always thought Nikon really hit high for what it cost.
 
Well spending the money I would to get good glass as well. Howver Im coming from mid grade Nikons and SIGs which are descent scopes, I mean if the glass is better then that Id be happy, but would be disappointed in less glass then a Nikon Monarch or Sig Sauer level stuff. However Ive always thought Nikon really hit high for what it cost.
You're not in danger of it being below those levels. The NX8 image quality will still hold up just fine against most things below $1700 or so I think. It's not the best image quality at its $2100 pricepoint or whatever but it's still good and will not hinder you.
 
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Looked at them. Not sure on ffp and their knobs and reticles are way to busy for me

Time to learn...

The mark 5hd TMR is about as basic as it gets for reticles while still having enough to measure with.

Ffp mills is the way to go.

My 12 year old has figured out ffp and tactical turrets with Christmas tree reticles. You can also with some education and practice.


I put a vx-5hd on my walking rifle in the 3-15 htmr. It's sfp, but I'll rarely shoot it past a few hundred yards. It's more of the 3x at 50 yards in the trees scope with a mill reticle that's only usable at 15x if necessary.
 
I have a triji credo 2.510x56. A departure from most discussion on this thread, but wanted to add that you shouldn’t rule Trijicon out if whatever scope you’re looking at has the features you desire. They’re good products for the $. A better “cheap” scope than all the others I’ve tried
 
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