Rifle Scopes New Schmidt & Bender

[Clicks]

Today I picked up my 5-25x56 PMII ccw DT. Man what a beautiful scope. But I've got to say. Perhaps I've been dreaming about it to long, but I wasn't utterly impressed. The tunnel vision is pretty irritating. Between the power range of 5-7 your FOV stays the same. It's all tunnel vision. I mean whats the point of even having it go down to 5x. It might as well be considered 7-25x56. Anyways it's still a dream to own a S&B. Do you guys reset your elevation and windage knobs? I didn't think about doing it until I read the manual. Which makes the process seem pretty confusing. More than I thought it would be.


-Clicks

 

[Rob01]

Re: New Schmidt & Bender

First congrats on buying one of the best scopes on the market. It will serve you well for years of service.

You have never reset knobs on a scope before? It's as simple as loosening two allen screws and turning it back to 0 then retightening the allen screws. Nothing that is overly hard. You should do it as your scope has a zero stop about .6 mils below the elevation zero.

As for the tunneling, most people using that scope rarely go below 8x. I have 2 of them and a third on the way and I have used it down to 5x at matches for close movers and targets down to 11 feet and never felt like it was a problem. Use the scope more and you will see the advantages of that scope greatly out weigh that one perceived disadvantage.

 

[JRWALLSIII]

Re: New Schmidt & Bender

I agree that the 5x25 Is the best scope on the market.

As far as the tunneling at low powers, I could care less. My scope rarely sees below 10x. At lower powers where the tunneling starts you can clearly see the target and make good hits. The hash marks are harder to see but I rarely need them while on a low setting.

The one thing in my safe that would be the last thing to go is my 5x25.

I will say that I used to own 2- 4x16x50s. While they were great scopes and I loved the single turn knob, neither had near the optical quality as my 5x25....not sure why.

As Rob stated. The knob is very very easy to reset to zero. Takes maybe 20 seconds at the most

Congrats on a great scope!

 

[DT1]

Re: New Schmidt & Bender

+1 on the two posts above. While there is a bit of "tunneling" on the low end of the magnification range, you'll find a huge benefit on your scope at those low powers. Have you tried to focus on a very close target on 5x? Put a target out at 15-20yds and observe how sharply you can focus on it.

This feature is very handy if you're shooting a match and they have a board at 15-20yds with a bunch of 1" dots with shooter numbers over each. You can dial way down with your 5-25x PMII, find your number and hit your dot. Other scopes won't focus on objects/targets that close.

I've got two 5-25x PMII's and wouldn't consider anything else for competition. I do 90% of my shooting between 12x and 18x so the low power tunneling isn't a biggie to me at all. 25x is great for spotting etc. If the conditions are decent, I can see 30 caliber holes in cardboard targets at 300-400yds on 25x. Better clarity than many spotting scopes.

You'll find that your scope is tremendously verstile as well as bombproof. Use it for awhile, then compare it to other scopes and I'm sure you'll fully appreciate what you've purchased!

Good luck and have fun with that new scope!

 

[Red Belly]

Re: New Schmidt & Bender

Concerning the "tunneling", does this happen on the 3-12 scopes as well?

 

[brand692]

Re: New Schmidt & Bender

Every FFP scope I've owned or used tunneled, with the exception of Premier. I'm also told the new March 3-24 FFP doesn't tunnel, but I haven't seen one yet.

Hensoldt, S&B, USO and NF all tunneled.

 

[SSSamurai]

Re: New Schmidt & Bender

The 3-12s tunnel below 4x, so does my IOR, but my March doesn't tunnel at all....

 

[Redmanss]

Re: New Schmidt & Bender

Tunneling annoys me but it isn't a deal breaker on an otherwise outstanding scope such as what you just got. I focus more on the high magnification performance and mechanical accuracy than the low power FOV anyhow.

However it is something that apparently scope makers have identified and are working on removing, with both the new SWFA 5-20x and the upcoming S&B 3-20x reportedly having no tunneling.

 

[Clicks]

Re: New Schmidt & Bender

Oh the tunneling is definitely not a deal breaker. Just a bit annoying. And I'm still not sure I'll find a situation where 5x will be any better than 7x. I have reset the knobs on a few scopes. Just loosen the set screws move back to 0 and re-tighten. I was reading the manual and it sounded like they wanted me to loosen the set screws, lift the knobs up until I see an o-ring, re tighten, sight in, loosen, rotate knob to 0, push the knob back down, and then tighten. I couldn't make any sense of the loosen, lift, tighten steps. I don't know if I should ignore them or not. I'll figure it out after the range tomorrow.

 

[bm11]

Re: New Schmidt & Bender

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Clicks</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Oh the tunneling is definitely not a deal breaker. Just a bit annoying. And I'm still not sure I'll find a situation where 5x will be any better than 7x. I have reset the knobs on a few scopes. Just loosen the set screws move back to 0 and re-tighten. I was reading the manual and it sounded like they wanted me to loosen the set screws, lift the knobs up until I see an o-ring, re tighten, sight in, loosen, rotate knob to 0, push the knob back down, and then tighten. I couldn't make any sense of the loosen, lift, tighten steps. I don't know if I should ignore them or not. I'll figure it out after the range tomorrow. </div></div>The manual procedure is for zeroing. It allows you to turn the elevation knob to a spot below the zero stop if needed during intial zeroing (in case your POI was still high with the scope turned all the way down to the stop.)

From my experiences with two of these scopes purchased brand new, you don't need to do this, even with a 45 moa base. The scope is pretty well "bottomed out" from the factory, so most of your zeroing movement is up.

Hope that makes sense to you.

-Bob

 

[Clicks]

Re: New Schmidt & Bender

Thanks Bob! That makes perfect sense. I should read alittle more closely next time. Thanks for all the replies!

-Clicks

 

[pc3]

Re: New Schmidt & Bender

If you have to "come up" for a zero.................using a 20moa rail etc. rather than a 45moa to "reset" zerostop you got to loosen off the turret screws and lift it a 1/4" then turn it CCW (if you have CW model as I do, hope I have not got this back to front) two revolutions if I am correct (could be one) and then push back down at the "zero" mark and re-tighten. I have a 30moa rail on a rifle with the 5-25 and this what I had to do to reset zero stop so it only went a couple clicks below zero like it did from the factory.

 

[head2h2o]

Re: New Schmidt & Bender

I have never felt like the tunneling effect on FFP scopes was that big of a deal. Yes is would be ideal if it did not happen, but the field of view is so wide at the lower ranges that to me it seem like s mute point. I think once you shoot it a bit and actually have it in the field and put it through the paces, you will not think much about it. I have to say I honestly notice it far more when I am around the house dry firing than actually on the range shooting.

 

[hydro556]

Re: New Schmidt & Bender

The tunneling never bothered me in the least. I honestly have never really had any problems using the 5-25's at 5x, they work fine even though there is TV. Even though they work, I rarely needed anything under 7-8x and wouldnt care if they called them 7-25's.

Awesome optic either way.

Asking if anyone resets their knobs tells me you may be a new shooter. So, get it right and spend some time with it, and you will see why they have been a benchmark for a long time. Enjoy.