Rifle Scopes New Nightforce scope - is this normal?

[capp325]

Bought my first Nighforce, an SHV 5-20. Beautiful scope, but one thing bothers me a little. The finish on the threads in front of the lense looks a bit worn, even though the scope is brand new and came in a sealed box. I don't have much experience with Nightforce optics - is this something that would be considered 'normal'?

 

[6point5CM]

My ATACR 7-35 is worse, and has glue blobs where the little notch is in that ring by the threads. Hasn't effected anything so far through.

 

[Deleted member 10043]

Who is the vendor

 

[capp325]

It's a Canadian vendor, I doubt you've heard of them

 

[Ankeny]

Well you made me go look at two of my NXS scopes and two SHVs. One of mine looks about like yours. I do know that one of the issues that plagues manufacturers is tiny artifacts of loose debris left in the scope body/tube. With time and recoil those specs get attracted to the lens and the result is little black dots or specks in the field of view. I have had that happen with Zeiss, Leupold, and Trijicon scopes. Never had it happen with a Nightforce.

You could call and ask, but I would guess (and it's only a guess) that the "wear marks" are from some very robust cleaning of any suspected loose paint on the threads and in the surrounding area during assembly. Of course, I could be talking out my behind.

 

[Deleted member 10043]

I don't like it. Looks refurbished rather than new. They paint their scopes rather than anodized?

 

[Diver160651]

Isn't that something that happened during assembly of the objective?

 

[JMGlasgow]

Normal. It happens during assembly, anodizing does scratch.

 

[Caveman0101]

I think it must be bad. I'll give you $500 for it.

 

[natdscott]

It's a Canadian vendor, I doubt you've heard of them

LMAO! "She lives in Canada. I met her at Niagara Falls...you wouldn't know 'er."

Try us Capp. You might be surprised how far the ol' Hide reaches.

 

[Deleted member 10043]

That is some sorry ass threads for that to happen. How much are those things anyway. I'm looking at all my $800 jap scopes and nothing.

 

[Deleted member 10043]

I did find one new in the box with poor threading that resulted in similar assembly marks. It is a Mueller APV 4.5x40. I'm going to sell it for about $975 one of these days, by god. But for right now Amazon is practically giving them away.

https://www.amazon.com/Mueller-Rifle-Scope-Black-4-5-14/dp/B000SULCTA

 

[Ziggy12]

I have had the exact same scope for almost a year now. My threads are very similar to yours, but it hasn't affected the scope at all. In fact, mine tracks perfectly and the glass is awesome. I was a leupold man until I got my nightforce SHV. I'll give you $501 for it!!

 

[Basher]

Yep, perfectly normal. Stop looking at the wrong end of the scope, and go out and shoot. It won't bother you any more if you're looking through the proper end of the scope...

 

[Steel+Killer]

Your looking through the wrong end try looking through the other end.

 

[Deleted member 10043]

And then what?

 

[B-P-UU]

It's a threaded joint.. that lock ring is engaging the objective lense via those threads. I don't really see a way around it.

 

[Deleted member 10043]

Well, now that I think about it Nobody/Larry would throw it down a rocky cliff just to show it still works and then paint it orange, hot pink, or gold so nobody would want to steal it

 

[madppcs]

If this would be a Vortex, yall would be screaming (You get what you pay for) or (Should have spent money on a Nightforce) lolol.

And yes, I have them all

 

[Hairy Biker]

Not seeing an issue beyond mild cosmetic.

 

[Sharpened Graphite]

If this would be a Vortex, yall would be screaming (You get what you pay for) or (Should have spent money on a Nightforce) lolol.

And yes, I have them all

Hehehe. Yep. I never understood why NF gets a pass for so many things. Rotating ocular, meh eyebox, SFP on the older NXS, no tree rets except more expensive/busy Horus, etc etc... But but but, muh built like a tank! But but but muh made in Murica (by a Strayan company no less)!

I wouldn't be bothered by it, though. Just to clarify.

 

[Krazy_jim]

We have all of 24 retailers here who deal with nightforce.. a lot of which is cabelas.

Cabelas is the only one close to me, and they don't carry a whole lot the last time I was in there. No 4-16 that I wanted to look at .

 

[Clearlight]

It’s churned out of Light Optic Works or elsewhere by the thousands for a few $100 bucks production cost ,
there is going to be the odd flaw . Companies like NF and many other ‘ brands ‘ spend way more
on marketing per scope , than what it costs to make them believe it or not . Then there’s the
wholesaler and retailer margins too . If it works fine and holds zero don’t worry .

 

[SLG]

I'm not even sure what you're looking at...

The SHV is a lower priced scope. I buy them for the tracking and robustness. If they didn't spend the extra time and money on a part that is going to get worn/becovered up when I put a sunshade on it, then I'm glad to have gotten a deal and not pay more for a meaningless cosmetic.

Now with the atacr line, or the nxs, nx8, I do expect a little more. Still not sure what the issue is though.

 

[kujuak]

Just a comment from an old fart. Folks on here think nothing about dropping 3-4,000 K on a scope. A few years ago I thought a $800 Leopold was a bfd. And then I bought a $1700 on a Swarovski hunting scope 12 years ago and thought man o man that's a lot of money. Now I have Nightforces, Sightron and a couple of Kahles. Back in the $800 scope days if I had bought a $1500 scope and it was not perfect I would have been seriously BENT. Not to presume anything about the OP but I can understand his concerns about a flaw on a new, not cheap scope, same as I understand how guys here are nonplussed about oil drops in the scope and sticky turrets on their new $3,00K+ scopes.
He should just send the pic to Nightforce customer service and ask them about it. Pretty sure they would reassure him so he could get back to using the scope for some shooting.

Cheers!

 

[Rhed]

Hmm.. my ATACR doesn’t have anything like that. Is the vendor a certified NF distributor? Check out NF website to see if the vendor is on the list.

 

[Birddog6424]

I'm pretty sure, as stated above, that slight marring to the anodizing is created while threading the front lens retention ring into place.

It's cosmetic.

If that's the only cosmetic damage on it, you need to get out and shoot more