My thoughts on the BEAST vs AYACR as an owner of both:
BEAST pros:
- Made in America, fuck yeah!
- Great optical performance, at least to my eyes.
- Lots of elevation travel. Like, if you want to throw a 20 MOA mount on your 30 MOA AI rail, no problem.
- 0.2 mil elevation turret is fast.
- +0.1 mil throw lever works surprisingly well with just a bit of practice.
- Locking windage turret is nice (I like this better than a covered windage turret)
Cons:
- Damn, this thing is tall.
- Looks aren't everything, which is good because the BEAST got beat with an ugly stick.
- Not sure that dialing 20 mils/rev of elevation in 0.2 mil increments really gets me any advantage over a standard turret.
- The elevation turret lock - oops, excuse me, brake - is a bit finicky (compared to a pull-up/push-down locking turret) and adds more height to a scope that didn't need it.
- I still prefer a standard illumination knob to the Digillum bottom (this isn't BEAST-specific, of course, but I'm trying to be thorough with my gripe list).
- The price is a bit steep by 2020 standards (the only time it came close to making sense was when S&B was pushing the 5-25 PMII at a similarly chest-clenching price).
- It doesn't focus as close as the ATACR, so I can't do something silly like mount one on my Vudoo rimfire trainer.
If the features meet one's needs, I certainly would not discourage anyone from buying one.
