So, have had a bit of time behind my first MPCT3 reticle. (If you want the cliff notes, I like it and will be getting another one or two of them).
I’ll start with the actual optic briefly since it’s still a ZCO527.
The turrets on this one are the best turrets I’ve felt in handling over 20 zco. The original feel was awesome, but they have been tweaking the turrets as user experiences come in. These turrets are about as perfect as a locking turrets can get.
The locking turrets are super smooth. I would be totally comfortable locking, unlocking, dialing, and locking turrets back between targets on the clock. They work that smooth on this one.
The magnification ring is slightly stiffer than others I’ve had. But in a good way. Absolutely no need for a throw lever as always.
I did a couple “blind” tests. I had the optic mounted on a tripod and would start at a random distance inside 25yds and move backwards until the optic was parallax free. I did this several times and landed at 24.7 *yards* every time. This is about 22.5 *meters* and well inside the spec of 25 meters. It will focus clear much closer than that. But it’s absolutely parallax free at 24.7, which is good news for the .22 crowd.
I then did a few of the same tests at distances around 300yds to see how the numbers on the parallax knob line up to the real world. The first was 300yds on the knob. Lased at 297yds. Next was 350yds on the knob and was 343 lased. I still need to check at distance, but so far it lines up perfect (meaning you can dial your distance in for the range and be pretty close if not parallax free and in focus).
Also, the picture was in perfect focus when it was parallax free.
The rest of the optic is the same as it’s always been. I’d still like to see the illumination have hard detents or something, but not a big deal (I feel like I need to have at least one “complaint.”)
Now, onto the reticle. I have only dry fired so far and will he actually shooting out to ~950 tomorrow. I will test spotting impacts/misses inside of the tree when holding instead of dialing.
I can read the entire reticle all the way down to about 8-10x. By read, I mean it’s completely useable down to that power. I can see every .2/.5/1mil hash/dot/circle in the entire tree to use.
With the area around the floating dot being slightly wider than the mpct2, it gives the shooter the feeling of being more precise. It’s the same size dot, but the added area around it makes it really niceZ
The circles (and the dots in the tree) really make this reticle “transparent”. When you’re not needing the tree, it seems like it dissapears.
The ranging funnel is high enough it’s not really even a factor.
Over the next few days I’ll be shooting quite a bit out to 950. I’ll experiment dialing and holding. The next match I get to, I’ll use only holds for the match so I can get a good feel for the potential of this reticle.
Generally I hate grid style reticles. But ZCO has combined so many popular and eye pleasing features that as long as performs as well as I think it will, it will become my standard/favorite reticle choice.
I’ll update this post as I get more rounds on this reticle.
***Update***
Since the original post I have ~200 rnds live fire and probably ~1000 dryfire with the mpct3.
My experience mirrors @MTETM so I won’t go into super fine detail just to basically reword what he posted (which is excellent review).
Key Points:
Trace: haven’t had a decent day for this yet so unknown
Clutter: basically none. I’ve used the reticle for holds out to 930yds (6.3 mil) and haven’t had a shot yet that I couldn’t account for.
Ease of use: The main reticle windage is superb. Every .2 .5 and 1mil is easily found without counting. Hopefully I’ll be able to get in some mover shooting in May, but I’m expecting it to get very fast.
Tree/grid is probably the best mix of precise and still open viewing. I think @lowlight makes good point on most recent podcast. You don’t see anyone who has time and opportunity (F class benchrest etc) and is at the top of their game using holdovers. So, I think anytime a reticle designer gets too detailed with their tree/grid they are sacrificing FOV for fine measurements that should be dialed and not held.
Holdovers should be faster shots inside 600 or ELR shots when out of adjustments. And both will be have large enough targets that fine measurements aren’t needed.
I think ZCO did a good job of favoring FOV with the dots/circles. Each 1 Mil x 1mil square is wide open inside the square and is very easy to bracket properly.
Since I always like to add a “complaint”, the only one I could find was when using tree and holding 6.3 elevation and .5-.7 mph wind, I had to either double check from the labeled 4 mil vertical or look laterally for the labeled 6mil. Which isn’t a big deal at all. Just something I noticed myself doing. And to be fair, I don’t holdover much. This is likely eliminated through practice.
Ranging Funnel: works as described. The mirage has been pretty bad here. So ranging at 900+ isn’t too realistic (reticle ranging past 600 is always pretty spotty in general for a plethora of reasons). I already knew the ipsc was 930, and I was getting about 950 with funnel. But due to mirage, I can’t honestly say my knowledge of the range was guiding me to that.
Inside 600 I was able to range and make impacts easily. And there is a fudge factor (in a good way) you can exploit. I had an 8” circle that is 309yds. I used the 9” (center line to 18” side) to range it. Came up with 350yds. Alternated between dialing and holding 350 dope and was 100% on impacts. Did this for several targets between 200-600 and was 100% on impacts using the dope the funnel called for.
They could easily stop the funnel at 700 and it would easily accomplish the intended use.
Conclusion: I typically dislike grid reticles. But this one is “different.” So much so that I’ll be spending the money to change over to mpct3 on all optics.
I’ll start with the actual optic briefly since it’s still a ZCO527.
The turrets on this one are the best turrets I’ve felt in handling over 20 zco. The original feel was awesome, but they have been tweaking the turrets as user experiences come in. These turrets are about as perfect as a locking turrets can get.
The locking turrets are super smooth. I would be totally comfortable locking, unlocking, dialing, and locking turrets back between targets on the clock. They work that smooth on this one.
The magnification ring is slightly stiffer than others I’ve had. But in a good way. Absolutely no need for a throw lever as always.
I did a couple “blind” tests. I had the optic mounted on a tripod and would start at a random distance inside 25yds and move backwards until the optic was parallax free. I did this several times and landed at 24.7 *yards* every time. This is about 22.5 *meters* and well inside the spec of 25 meters. It will focus clear much closer than that. But it’s absolutely parallax free at 24.7, which is good news for the .22 crowd.
I then did a few of the same tests at distances around 300yds to see how the numbers on the parallax knob line up to the real world. The first was 300yds on the knob. Lased at 297yds. Next was 350yds on the knob and was 343 lased. I still need to check at distance, but so far it lines up perfect (meaning you can dial your distance in for the range and be pretty close if not parallax free and in focus).
Also, the picture was in perfect focus when it was parallax free.
The rest of the optic is the same as it’s always been. I’d still like to see the illumination have hard detents or something, but not a big deal (I feel like I need to have at least one “complaint.”)
Now, onto the reticle. I have only dry fired so far and will he actually shooting out to ~950 tomorrow. I will test spotting impacts/misses inside of the tree when holding instead of dialing.
I can read the entire reticle all the way down to about 8-10x. By read, I mean it’s completely useable down to that power. I can see every .2/.5/1mil hash/dot/circle in the entire tree to use.
With the area around the floating dot being slightly wider than the mpct2, it gives the shooter the feeling of being more precise. It’s the same size dot, but the added area around it makes it really niceZ
The circles (and the dots in the tree) really make this reticle “transparent”. When you’re not needing the tree, it seems like it dissapears.
The ranging funnel is high enough it’s not really even a factor.
Over the next few days I’ll be shooting quite a bit out to 950. I’ll experiment dialing and holding. The next match I get to, I’ll use only holds for the match so I can get a good feel for the potential of this reticle.
Generally I hate grid style reticles. But ZCO has combined so many popular and eye pleasing features that as long as performs as well as I think it will, it will become my standard/favorite reticle choice.
I’ll update this post as I get more rounds on this reticle.
***Update***
Since the original post I have ~200 rnds live fire and probably ~1000 dryfire with the mpct3.
My experience mirrors @MTETM so I won’t go into super fine detail just to basically reword what he posted (which is excellent review).
Key Points:
Trace: haven’t had a decent day for this yet so unknown
Clutter: basically none. I’ve used the reticle for holds out to 930yds (6.3 mil) and haven’t had a shot yet that I couldn’t account for.
Ease of use: The main reticle windage is superb. Every .2 .5 and 1mil is easily found without counting. Hopefully I’ll be able to get in some mover shooting in May, but I’m expecting it to get very fast.
Tree/grid is probably the best mix of precise and still open viewing. I think @lowlight makes good point on most recent podcast. You don’t see anyone who has time and opportunity (F class benchrest etc) and is at the top of their game using holdovers. So, I think anytime a reticle designer gets too detailed with their tree/grid they are sacrificing FOV for fine measurements that should be dialed and not held.
Holdovers should be faster shots inside 600 or ELR shots when out of adjustments. And both will be have large enough targets that fine measurements aren’t needed.
I think ZCO did a good job of favoring FOV with the dots/circles. Each 1 Mil x 1mil square is wide open inside the square and is very easy to bracket properly.
Since I always like to add a “complaint”, the only one I could find was when using tree and holding 6.3 elevation and .5-.7 mph wind, I had to either double check from the labeled 4 mil vertical or look laterally for the labeled 6mil. Which isn’t a big deal at all. Just something I noticed myself doing. And to be fair, I don’t holdover much. This is likely eliminated through practice.
Ranging Funnel: works as described. The mirage has been pretty bad here. So ranging at 900+ isn’t too realistic (reticle ranging past 600 is always pretty spotty in general for a plethora of reasons). I already knew the ipsc was 930, and I was getting about 950 with funnel. But due to mirage, I can’t honestly say my knowledge of the range was guiding me to that.
Inside 600 I was able to range and make impacts easily. And there is a fudge factor (in a good way) you can exploit. I had an 8” circle that is 309yds. I used the 9” (center line to 18” side) to range it. Came up with 350yds. Alternated between dialing and holding 350 dope and was 100% on impacts. Did this for several targets between 200-600 and was 100% on impacts using the dope the funnel called for.
They could easily stop the funnel at 700 and it would easily accomplish the intended use.
Conclusion: I typically dislike grid reticles. But this one is “different.” So much so that I’ll be spending the money to change over to mpct3 on all optics.
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