Re: Millett TRS1. The test begins...
Great write up HRF!
I purchased a Mil/.25Moa TRS-1 two years ago. I was looking for a scope I could swap between a couple of rimfires and if all went well, perhaps a bigger brother in the gun family. Before I made the purchase, I searched high and low for a thorough review of the scope to little avail. Most "reviews" were nothing more than vague opinions. At any rate, I purchased the scope and other than doing a few side by side comparisons to some of my other glass, it pretty much sat in the safe...until this week.
I threw the scope on a Savage 93r17 TR that had been waiting on a 20 moa base to arrive. After installing the base, I mounted the TRS in a set of Burris XTR low profile rings and headed out to the range with my daughter to give the rifle and scope a little work out.
Upon arriving at the range, I could tell the wind wasn’t going to be our friend as there was a steady 3-5 mph half value wind with frequent gusting of 12-14mph. (Might not seem like a lot, but a few miles per hour at 300 yards with a 17gr bullet can change the game)
After spending a few moments bore sighting the scope, (try finding a target at a 100 yards looking down a .17 barrel
I found the TRS’ point of aim was sitting approximately 3 feet low and 2 feet left of the target. A few turns of each turret seemed to have me where I needed to be.
I started the sight in session at 50 yards shooting 17gr CCI hollow points. I found my first shots were within a few inches of where I needed to be. I proceeded to make small adjustments with the scope and found my rounds moving equally closer to my point POA.
After a 50 yard zero, I proceeded to move out to 100 yards. With there being only a little difference in POI at 100 yards, only a couple of adjustments needed to be made. Again the scope’s tracking was excellent as I moved the POI to where it needed to be.
Next I decided to “zero” my turrets. This is where things got ugly in a hurry. I proceeded to loosen the turret hold screws in order to zero the turrets. The elevation turret didn’t seem to present too much of a problem but I could feel a bit of drag as I moved the outer turret casing over the inners. After zeroing the elevation turret, I fired off another 5 rounds to make sure I hadn’t actually moved the turret and shifted my POI. I found my point of impact was still fairly close, however I can’t be sure due to the short term memory loss brought on from a an incident of sheer horror.
After getting the elevation turret set, I attempted to zero the windage turret. I locked down the turret and after loosening the screw, I found I couldn’t get enough height to clear the inner turret. After fumbling around for a bit, I decided to try to loosen the screw a bit more. I made a couple of turns on the turret screw with the turret locked down in order to prevent any possible dialing and POI shift. With the turret locked down, I could not get the sleeve to slip over guts. At this point I learned that you get a little bit more play if you loosen the turret lock and was able to barely move it to a zero.
I proceeded to put a couple of test rounds in the target and neither I nor my daughter could find any impact on paper. After several rounds of frustration, I proceeded to fire into a pile of dirt near the target and to my utter shock, found I was shooting approximately 3 feet to the right of my POA
I can’t tell you the amount of frustration that can set in after spending meticulous time getting the scope and rifle zero’d only to find myself starting over.
The only positive thing at that point was the scopes excellent tracking ability and ease of dialing the reticle back to near zero. After re-zeroing, I again attempted to zero the turret and after loosening the turret lock, I did manage to slip the outer turret to 0.
After that whole fiasco, it was starting to get dark. I had previously set two 4 inch balloons at 300 yards and wanted to see what the scope would do moving out a bit. I didn’t have any personal data from my gun to plug into my ballistic calculator so I ended up having to go with a different manufacture’s published data that had the same rated muzzle velocity. After plugging in the data, I found I needed to dial in approximately 11.6 moa. After dialing in the dope on the scope, I took a shot at the first balloon and to a bit of my surprise, the bullet impacted the balloon on the first shot. I then proceeded to terminate the second balloon with the following shot.
In conclusion;
I did notice while making adjustments with the turrets, every once in a while a “click” would feel a bit mushy but it didn’t bother me at all as the adjustment on POI was dead on and the majority of clicks were crisp and audible. The one complaint I have with the scope, although it eventually worked itself out, was the level of difficulty in zeroing the turrets. Although even if I hadn’t been able to zero them, it wouldn’t have been a huge deal to +/- while dialing in.
I found no “milkyness” in the glass, nor have I ever, although eye placement seems to be a bit more critical than in some of my other scopes. I don’t find this to be a big deal though as I try to remain as consistent and repetitive in my cheek placement as I can with every shot and I have set my scope up at the right eye level to my cheek’s natural point of contact with the stock.
I can’t express how pleased I am with the tracking of the scope and its ability to return to zero. Looking through the glass at 16x was bright and crisp. I could clearly see each .17 hold in the target at 100 yards throughout the evening, even as darkness set in. I could see each hole clearly from edge to edge and found no distortion around the edges. I did not try the illumination as I didn’t find I needed it, but my 12 year old daughter who shot the rifle after I did, used the illumination on level two to help pick up the reticle and was putting hit after hit on a 6 inch target at 300 yards in near darkness.
All in all, I was more than impressed with our first date and plan on taking her out again. I can see this relationship getting more serious as time progresses and if all goes well, she will likely be introduced to other members of the gun family, but as HRF stated, time will tell.
Sorry for the length of this post, HRF is certainly covering more bases than I could in a good length of time, but I didn’t want to come out and say; “Bought the scope, awesome, I would recommend this to others”, or “I had one, it’s the biggest piece of crap I’ve ever owned, it was broke before it was made. Buy once, cry once. Buy a Schmidt & Bender”.
Thank you HRF for your work and honest trial of the scope. I look forward to seeing the continuation of your running the scope through its paces. Stay safe out there.
Sincerely,
K9-
