Rifle Scopes Middle Weight Low Light Tactical Scope Evaluation Part II

[CSTactical]

wjm308 is very methodical in his testing, we're very fortunate that he shares this information to the hide.

 

[JePhyllis]

Nice post! Thanks for the information

 

[CavReconScout]

I hope Bill is still planing on doing a review on the LRTS. I have two of them, and am extremely impressed with the glass, features, and tracking. I would like to hear his opinion on them,

 

[BallisticPrimate]

I hope Bill is still planing on doing a review on the LRTS. I have two of them, and am extremely impressed with the glass, features, and tracking. I would like to hear his opinion on them,

Likewise. I have a 3-12 LRHS and it is without doubt the best value I've seen in a riflescope. I had a Premier LT 3-15 to compare it to and the Bushy is extraordinary at a fraction of the cost

 

[Glassaholic]

I haven't had a chance to go through this with a fine-tooth comb yet, but I wanted to make sure to join those offering thanks to wjm308 for both doing these comparisons, and for posting the results! I realize that there's a significant financial and time investment involved, and to share this info with a bunch of goobers on the Internet with no vested interest (of which I am aware) on his part is extraordinarily generous... as far as I am concerned, wjm, ILya, and KSE are in a class of their own in this regard. Kudos!

Thank you very much BurnOut, and thanks to the others as well. It is for the community that I submit these things and it does take a lot of time and effort to get the information out there. I must admit last year was a crazy year with a move from our farm back to suburbia so doubtful I'll be able to do more of these as quickly as I have in the past. But there are a couple scopes rumored for 2018 that have me interested so we'll see.

 

[Glassaholic]

Likewise. I have a 3-12 LRHS and it is without doubt the best value I've seen in a riflescope. I had a Premier LT 3-15 to compare it to and the Bushy is extraordinary at a fraction of the cost

I agree BP. The Bushy LRTS holds its own and gives up very little to the Premier LT 3-15x50. Are they equals, no, the Premier/TT represents the best of the best, but for a fraction of the cost the Bushy gets you pretty darn close, that is how impressed I was with it.

 

[scudzuki]

Bill,
I'm very relieved to read that you sold the farm So much less traumatic than buying it.

 

[Glassaholic]

Bill,
I'm very relieved to read that you sold the farm So much less traumatic than buying it.

Now that's funny right there! Though I must admit that living back in suburbia after over 6 years in the country feels a bit like I "bought the farm" at times.

In other news for this year, SHOT show is close and I'm curious if anything surprising will pop up. Right now, on my radar for this year is the new EOTech Vudu Super Short 5-25x50 at only 11.2" this scope would be in direct competition with my beloved Schmidt & Bender Ultra Short 5-20x50 but with 5x extra at the top end. This is EOTech's first foray into the high magnification scope market so we'll see how well they execute on this, but the specs are certainly worth note. I'm hoping this scope will hit the streets around $2500 as long as they are using either German glass or the latest Japanese HD, if it comes in at more than that I don't think EOTech has the name to unseat Schmidt & Bender as you can often find deals on the Ultra Shorts close to $3000, hopefully this won't be another Trijicon TARS where a manufacturer known more for their lower powered scopes tries to enter a market at too high of a price point (does anyone actually own a Trijicon TARS???). Does anyone know if EOTech has a discount for Veterans, the only thing I could find was GovX which didn't seem to offer much of a discount at all. In an undoubtedly cheaper market, the new Athlon Ares ETR 4.5-30x56 at $1200 could give the Vortex PST II and Bushnell Elite Tactical lines a run for their money, it's an entirely new optical formula and being in the Ares line will undoubtedly not have as good of glass as their top tier Cronus line but I'll be watching out for this one as well to put up against my PST II 5-25 as the two are very close in price.

For those who might remember on the old Scout site (am I allowed to say that or is it anathema?) I started an interesting thread on "Journey to my lightweight AR-10" where I walked through the entire decision making/purchase and build process of building a large frame AR, it started out as a 308 but transformed into a 6.5 Creedmoor that was a shooter for a gas gun. Well I had to sell that rifle last year in order to help fund a landscaping project for our new home, but hope to begin a new project this year once funds are available.

 

[Glassaholic]

Some of you have asked for updated tables/spec sheets since when the new Hide site updated before SHOT all the previously copy and paste tables got wiped out and put into cryptic html code, I have since replaced those with images that will hopefully be readable.

 

[summutaja]

Hello,

Very good review, can you also add a m5xi or even the newer m7xi to the test?

 

[Glassaholic]

Hello,

Very good review, can you also add a m5xi or even the newer m7xi to the test?

I would recommend taking a look at ILya's review of the "New High End Tactical Article" scopes he did, it is a video review and I think on page 2 or so he goes into the M7Xi (it is not in his original video) and talks a bit about the M5Xi, he does mention the M7Xi is better than the M5Xi. I have not had the chance to personally see the M7Xi, but I know some who have and the general consensus is that it is nice but does have some drawbacks and is not quite on par with the Schmidt 5-25, ZP5 and other upper Tier One scopes.