Koshkin has said he is leery of the NX8 due to the design limitations.
I would take whatever reps say with a grain of salt.
I think you would be ill advised to think the NX8 would rival the ATACR. At that price point I see it falling closer to the SHV line. I see this as an “upgrade” of the NXS line.
Leery, in this case, simply means that I want to see one before I make any conclusions. There is no free lunch and compromises have to be made. The last scope of this type we have seen was March 3-24x42/52 and while very solid design, we know what compromises were made to get a 8x erector with FFP reticle to the market by March. I do not know what compromises Nightforce is making, so I do not want to make early conclusions (I do have some fairly well educated guesses).
NX8 is clearly the successor to the aging NXS line and if we look at it from that standpoint, it is likely to do very well for Nightforce. You are probably going to give up some user friendliness of the NXS, but the optics will likely be better, reticles are in FFP and magnification range is broader. Given that Nightforce now has the ATACR to go against the alpha scopes, I think they are positioning the NX8 in a veyr clever way.
Now, how NX8 is going to compare to the competition will be really interesting. The larger NX8 will compete against a full range of 4.5-30x or similar OEM'ed scope like Athlon Cronus, Delta Stryker HD, Burris XTR3, etc. Vortex Razor Gen II is close to that price range as well and moderately compact (but heavy). Previously mentioned March is a little more expensive, but configured very similarly (and Mach is getting smarter with reticles).
Then, there is the 6-24x50 AMG that is the subject of this thread and Vortex' way of throwing a wrench into things. It is exceedingly well made and well optimized. Made in the US and has spectacular factory support behind it. In terms of optical and mechanical design, it is comparatively unambitious with its 4x erector and overall length (it is 1.7 inches longer than the upcoming 4-32x50), but that is also the reason why it is so well optimized. AMG is a very easy to use design and that user friendliness is one of the things that is difficult to retain with high erector ratio riflescopes. Not, strictly speaking, impossible given enough real estate. I am not sure that there is enough real estate in the NX8, but I want to see it before I make too many guesses.
One guess I can make is regarding the FOV. Upcoming Burris XTR3 has about the same FOV as Vortex AMG at the same magnificaiton or very close to it. If my guess about the NX8 is correct, AMG or XT3 FOV at the same magnification will be about 15%-17% wider than that of the high magnification NX8. That means that AMG on 6x will be about the same FOV as NX8 on 5.1x. Same ratio for Burris XTR3.
However, other than the FOV, there is also an apparent image size difference that aids in user friendliness. NX8 will be lighter though.
For what it is worth, Minox FOV and apparent image size are about the same as AMG (very marginally smaller), but it is a much larger scope.
Every scope is a compromise. You gain something and you give up something: FOV, ease of use, reticle options, etc. It all comes down to what is important to you.
ILya
