Looking at either the Vortex Razor HD LHT 4.5-22x50 or the NX8 4-32x50. Anybody have a real life comparison between the two? Primary use is going to be hunting and long range shooting. I don’t have anywhere around me to go and look through each scope.
No experience with the NX8 4-32 but a friend let me borrow his LHT for the San Diego NRL Hunter this upcoming weekend and ive been playing with for about a week on my NRL Hunter gun (a purpose built NRL Hunter gun 
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The LHT definitely punches about its weight, price and actual weight wise on its class. Ill share my takes from a week of use.
I have to agree that the parallax knob is small and stiff and and i can foresee a bit of a pain if i have to mess with it in a rush. Same for the mag ring. MKM makes a polymer throw lever that solves the weird mag ring ring design all hunting scopes have. The mag ring design without a lever makes its operation NF ocular housing like in my opinion
Elevation turret on the copy i have is less tactile or stiff what you’d get on a Atacr but the clicks are very positive. The lock itself is soft and very, very easy to engage if you touch the turret while it’s disengaged. The one im running tracked true thru 6mils (had a short calibrated target)
Zeroing system is idiot resistant. It’s basically a machined shim that gives you .5 mils under when you reset the turret at zero after zeroing.
Windage turret is capped, very small and not as tactile as the elevation turret. honestly im planning on holding wind if they stay under 8mph average. The wind turret is not something id want to mess around with on the clock for sure, specially with gloves.(need to check that tracking tomorrow)
Glass looked good to me, on par with the Gen 2. Eyebox is a touch small but that expected, still easy to get behind at 10-15x mag ranges. Weak side positioning at mid power was not a major pain which is all really need.
XLR-2 Reticle is pretty much a EBR7C. Reticles are a very much personal thing. I like my EBR7C so i like the XLR2. Bit thick but just fine for the intended use.
Its got ilum via a ilum toggle button. Hopefully there wont be blacked out targets to engage. Ilum toggle switches are not my thing, thats the NF way too.
Overall im liking the LHT a lot. Its light and definitely pack more bang for your buck on that class than its peers.
)The LHT definitely punches about its weight, price and actual weight wise on its class. Ill share my takes from a week of use.
I have to agree that the parallax knob is small and stiff and and i can foresee a bit of a pain if i have to mess with it in a rush. Same for the mag ring. MKM makes a polymer throw lever that solves the weird mag ring ring design all hunting scopes have. The mag ring design without a lever makes its operation NF ocular housing like in my opinion
Elevation turret on the copy i have is less tactile or stiff what you’d get on a Atacr but the clicks are very positive. The lock itself is soft and very, very easy to engage if you touch the turret while it’s disengaged. The one im running tracked true thru 6mils (had a short calibrated target)
Zeroing system is idiot resistant. It’s basically a machined shim that gives you .5 mils under when you reset the turret at zero after zeroing.
Windage turret is capped, very small and not as tactile as the elevation turret. honestly im planning on holding wind if they stay under 8mph average. The wind turret is not something id want to mess around with on the clock for sure, specially with gloves.(need to check that tracking tomorrow)
Glass looked good to me, on par with the Gen 2. Eyebox is a touch small but that expected, still easy to get behind at 10-15x mag ranges. Weak side positioning at mid power was not a major pain which is all really need.
XLR-2 Reticle is pretty much a EBR7C. Reticles are a very much personal thing. I like my EBR7C so i like the XLR2. Bit thick but just fine for the intended use.
Its got ilum via a ilum toggle button. Hopefully there wont be blacked out targets to engage. Ilum toggle switches are not my thing, thats the NF way too.
Overall im liking the LHT a lot. Its light and definitely pack more bang for your buck on that class than its peers.
I don’t know how the NF 4-32 is but the 2.5-20 was a no-go for me for hunting. I felt the glass was subpar for a NF. The worst though was the reticle. At 2.5 it was impossible to see being a FFP and that made the low mag setting useless for close shots in dark timber or fast moving target. I had to crack it up to 5-6x to feel confident and that kind of defeated the purpose for me. Maybe the 4x will be better.
I have the LHT on my NRL Hunter and the reticle is useable for close and far. I will actually hunt with this gun too. Mr.F summed up the rest pretty well but so far I’m happy with the LHT for its intended purpose.
I have the LHT on my NRL Hunter and the reticle is useable for close and far. I will actually hunt with this gun too. Mr.F summed up the rest pretty well but so far I’m happy with the LHT for its intended purpose.
I’m having a similar dilemma. Between the Razor HD 4.5-22 or the NX8 2.5-20… any thoughts or anyone have good comparison or personal experience???
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Ok, I'm sorry but are these pole results a joke? I have no dog in this fight but I've owned both, still own one of them and this is no comparison. Id love to hear anyone's reasoning behind picking the Razor over the 4-32 NX8. Literally everything about the NF is better except for weight and we could go rounds about the zero stop feature on the NF that is a pain, but durable or the zero stop in the Razor that is easy, but fragile. Glass, no comparison, turrets, no comparison, reticle, no comparison, durability, no comparison. Just buy the NF and ignore the poll.
Yeah, buy the 4-32 NX8, it's one ounce and one inch larger than the 2.5-20 with a much better optical experience at all mag levels.
I have both; one 4-32 and three razors. A ranger band over the razor’s parallax knob helps, and a throw lever is almost mandatory (although it might get smoother with use…one of mine has worn in a bit).
During bright daylight, my recent model 4-32 is freaking amazing. Sharp sharp sharp. Handles flare without a hood like a champ. The razor is no slouch either, but needs a hood to get close to the NF in the flare dept.
The razor has a better eyebox but has worse FOV. If varmint hunting all day, I’d go Razor on eyebox alone. Previously, I thought the NF was fine for eyebox, but this summer I got to compare them. The NF is not horrible, but it’s something I noticed that bothered me a bit. I was using a 1.5” mount on a Bravo.
If shooting once or twice on a hunt, it’s a wash. Half-day on the range…might bug you. All day varmint shooting in varied light conditions and tripod use…the NF’s eyebox bugged me a little.
NF has less DOF, so one must twiddle more.
Elevation turrets on both aren’t great. For hunting, I like that the Razor is locking. NF does have the edge here on click-feel, but I don’t think it’s awesome compared to my Razor 4.5-27 or especially my S&B DTII+ turrets. Note that I do not dial with these two scopes in question, nor use the zero stop. That’s for my gun with the S&B!
Just getting into dialing, you see. Been a holdover-type guy.
Love the zoom range on the NF. Great for tiny ground squirrels.
Now this is a little hazy: I think (but do not know) that the Razor is a fair bit better at dusk. Again, don’t totally trust me on this, as I haven’t done a direct comparo. But I know, in my experience, that the 4-32 at 15x-20x isn’t great when the light is fading.
That’s the zoom range I tend to use when varmint shooting. If you are shooting larger game at a lower zoom, I reckon that the fading light issue might bug you less.
Edit: aaaaaannd shit, the OP is from 2022
During bright daylight, my recent model 4-32 is freaking amazing. Sharp sharp sharp. Handles flare without a hood like a champ. The razor is no slouch either, but needs a hood to get close to the NF in the flare dept.
The razor has a better eyebox but has worse FOV. If varmint hunting all day, I’d go Razor on eyebox alone. Previously, I thought the NF was fine for eyebox, but this summer I got to compare them. The NF is not horrible, but it’s something I noticed that bothered me a bit. I was using a 1.5” mount on a Bravo.
If shooting once or twice on a hunt, it’s a wash. Half-day on the range…might bug you. All day varmint shooting in varied light conditions and tripod use…the NF’s eyebox bugged me a little.
NF has less DOF, so one must twiddle more.
Elevation turrets on both aren’t great. For hunting, I like that the Razor is locking. NF does have the edge here on click-feel, but I don’t think it’s awesome compared to my Razor 4.5-27 or especially my S&B DTII+ turrets. Note that I do not dial with these two scopes in question, nor use the zero stop. That’s for my gun with the S&B!
Just getting into dialing, you see. Been a holdover-type guy.
Love the zoom range on the NF. Great for tiny ground squirrels.
Now this is a little hazy: I think (but do not know) that the Razor is a fair bit better at dusk. Again, don’t totally trust me on this, as I haven’t done a direct comparo. But I know, in my experience, that the 4-32 at 15x-20x isn’t great when the light is fading.
That’s the zoom range I tend to use when varmint shooting. If you are shooting larger game at a lower zoom, I reckon that the fading light issue might bug you less.
Edit: aaaaaannd shit, the OP is from 2022
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