Well as stated in the RPR thread I recently got this neat little guy and decided to mount it on my 6mm Creedmoor RAP bedded in a Boyds At one Stock ( glass bedding around the V blocks for added measure) I had a Athlon Argos 6x30x50 on there before and it was functional but SFP and I wanted to see how I liked FFP on that rifle. NTM I moved that Argos to my 22LR for some real fun bench/distance work.
Initial reaction when I unboxed was solid. Good packaging ( Still think Athlon does it right with their stuff ) Scope looked tactiready and very sleek. Turrets were oversized looking but not obnoxious. I of course went straight to man handle them and they definitely felt solid. Not super loud but solid. I ran the full range elevation and it had 5 clicks in each direction more then listed. 2.5 MOA for free....now if that translates to actual reticle movement remains to be seen. I spent a hour or so on my balcony looking through it down the road/through trees to items I ranged with my rangefinder and parallax was pretty close to spot on. Which was nice. Clarity of glass through the magnification range was a pleasant surprise. I witnessed no dulling of the image. Eye box got tighter as expected but in the glass it kept its clarity and color better then I had been led to believe it would. Kudos Nikon!
Next day I went to the range and let fly the brass of fun. Put about 90 rounds of my pet load down range. I could only go to 300 today but decided to use the quarter on a golf ball challenge. Yes that means I use tape or superglue to put quarters/tokens on golfballs and then place them randomly on the range all the way out to the 300 yard posts. I had no problems locating each one and scored a respectable 15/20 after zeroing in at 100 using nothing but dialing in for both wind and elevation. Each longer shot I transitioned back to 100 to test the zero stop...which worked perfect. Easy to set and rock solid zero return. Another win.
The bad: Eye box above 20 is finicky. Seems tighter then listed by Nikon. Not a big deal....could very well have been me not settling behind it consistently. Time will tell. Reticle is clean, serviceable but if it had ANY small amount of xmas tree type markings this scope would be a stupid easy home run. Also free float dot or cross hair like in the NightForce MOAR would make this a very very attractive target shooting scope. As it is I think as a hunting scope that can serve as a bench scope it works well....not a bench first option though.
Hunting with this will be no issue I think as my test at dusk and with weak streetlights allowed for very clear and useable site pictures. So big score there.
All in all Nikon has a real winner on its hands. If they want to up their piece of the pie add a few reticle options and float the cross hair and people will be hard pressed to look else where. Winner winner, chicken dinner guys!
Initial reaction when I unboxed was solid. Good packaging ( Still think Athlon does it right with their stuff ) Scope looked tactiready and very sleek. Turrets were oversized looking but not obnoxious. I of course went straight to man handle them and they definitely felt solid. Not super loud but solid. I ran the full range elevation and it had 5 clicks in each direction more then listed. 2.5 MOA for free....now if that translates to actual reticle movement remains to be seen. I spent a hour or so on my balcony looking through it down the road/through trees to items I ranged with my rangefinder and parallax was pretty close to spot on. Which was nice. Clarity of glass through the magnification range was a pleasant surprise. I witnessed no dulling of the image. Eye box got tighter as expected but in the glass it kept its clarity and color better then I had been led to believe it would. Kudos Nikon!
Next day I went to the range and let fly the brass of fun. Put about 90 rounds of my pet load down range. I could only go to 300 today but decided to use the quarter on a golf ball challenge. Yes that means I use tape or superglue to put quarters/tokens on golfballs and then place them randomly on the range all the way out to the 300 yard posts. I had no problems locating each one and scored a respectable 15/20 after zeroing in at 100 using nothing but dialing in for both wind and elevation. Each longer shot I transitioned back to 100 to test the zero stop...which worked perfect. Easy to set and rock solid zero return. Another win.
The bad: Eye box above 20 is finicky. Seems tighter then listed by Nikon. Not a big deal....could very well have been me not settling behind it consistently. Time will tell. Reticle is clean, serviceable but if it had ANY small amount of xmas tree type markings this scope would be a stupid easy home run. Also free float dot or cross hair like in the NightForce MOAR would make this a very very attractive target shooting scope. As it is I think as a hunting scope that can serve as a bench scope it works well....not a bench first option though.
Hunting with this will be no issue I think as my test at dusk and with weak streetlights allowed for very clear and useable site pictures. So big score there.
All in all Nikon has a real winner on its hands. If they want to up their piece of the pie add a few reticle options and float the cross hair and people will be hard pressed to look else where. Winner winner, chicken dinner guys!
