S&B 5-45 PMII advice

[Desert Rat]

Hey y’all…….new to ELR but looking to seriously dive into this discipline with 300 Norma. My question is concerning the Schmidt & Bender 5-45 High Power. I’m curious those that have been doing this for a while if you can see any pitfalls with the extreme magnification. Or any real pitfalls that I’m not seeing in general. I own two other S&B currently, and do like them very much obviously, and would not mind investing in a third. It is an expensive scope, but I’m also thinking long-term and putting it on other ELR builds in the future. The below pictures are the scope and turret I was considering. As usual, thank you all in advance for your wonderful input.

 

[A5scott]

Which S&B do you currently have? PMII 5-25 is plenty of scope to get out to 2500 yards and further. If you want a new SB, I'd say look at the 6-36x and they have a 40 MRAD version if you want lots of internal elevation. The glass was damn close to TT when Iooked through them side by side.
As far as pitfalls of 45x optic... the more magnification kind of magnifies any error introduced from mirage and the higher end mag might not be useable if there is heavy mirage. My experience, 15x to 20x is plenty of magnification to reach 2500 yards.
I mostly only use full magnification to zero at 100 yards.
I'd say maybe stay away from the 3-27x as well. I have no experience with them, but from what I have read, the glass on those isn't as good as others, and the parallax might not be as reliable either.
Depending on the reticle you want, Eurooptic has 5-25x with the DTII+ turrets for like $3200 on gunbroker I think H2CMR.

Scott

 

[Desert Rat]

Currently I have the 5-25 and the 3-27 both high power. I was thinking of trying out the 3-27 on the 300 Norma I’m going to build. I agree with you 100% I won’t be dialing up to 45 power as it’s not needed in my experience with the longer shots. My options at my current range are 1 mile maximum but I guess for argument sake what I’m asking is is it better to have it and not need it I guess? The magnification that is. Also, with a scope I am a big fan of the more finite adjustments In elevation. Your response was much appreciated..

 

[redneckbmxer24]

I can’t speak to those turrets but I ran a S&B 5-25 on my AXMC that I shot beyond 2K many times with the 300WM barrel and 215 Hybrids and right around 2K or so is where I’d run out of elevation on the turret since it was only double turn 26 mil and would have to start holding in the reticle.

I would run some numbers for drop in the worst case scenario conditions you expect to shoot at a conservative velocity to the max distance you want to shoot and just make sure that the maximum travel on the turrets will accommodate that. I’ve got no idea how to read those funky ass turrets so I don’t know WTF the total turret travel is, 30 mil maybe?

Personally I wouldn’t worry about .05 mil turrets. I would just get .1mil turrets so you have to turn the knob half as much and favor .05mil lower or higher with the reticle which you’ll find easier at ELR distances to not obscure the target anyway.

 

[GIXXER2000]

I have both a 5x25 and 3x27 S&B. I think if I were going to get a new S&B it would be the 6x36. The one thing I did notice with a 9x zoom is the eye box is smaller and the the parallax is touchier then a 5x zoom. So with the the 6x36 being a 6x zoom is should have a better eye box than the 5x45.
I shoot ELR with my 5x27 and most days on go up to 22 maybe 25 power when shooting over 2000 yards. And yes you do want as much travel in the turret as possible.

 

[Desert Rat]

I have both a 5x25 and 3x27 S&B. I think if I were going to get a new S&B it would be the 6x36. The one thing I did notice with a 9x zoom is the eye box is smaller and the the parallax is touchier then a 5x zoom. So with the the 6x36 being a 6x zoom is should have a better eye box than the 5x45.
I shoot ELR with my 5x27 and most days on go up to 22 maybe 25 power when shooting over 2000 yards. And yes you do want as much travel in the turret as possible.

Yeah, I’m taking a hard look at that 6-36 now….. much appreciated

 

[schmi015]

So I bought a 5-45 from glassaholic on snipershide. I used the 5-45 at the NF ELR Challenge in Wyoming in 2022 on my MRAD in 300 norma. It has the Mil LRR reticle which I really liked. Overall I never went above 20-25 power and most often shot at 15x, the targets were anywhere from 700-2200 yards or so. In 2021 I used a 5-25 schmidt with p4f on a trg42 in .338 lapua and had a great time. For 2023 I used a NF 7-35 with Mil-xt on the mrad so my brother and I were using same scope and reticle. If you want a good ELR scope find one that has more internal elevation such as the 5-25 atacr or 6-36 schmidt. Also pick a good reticle, the more I shot chrsitmas trees, the less I liked them(they block your view), ended up selling a 5-25schmidt with h59. The mil-xt does a good job of not being too busy, but H2cmr, mil-lrr, mil-c, p5f and gen2xr or the gen 3 are all great choices.

Avoid the 3-27 as other have said. I never felt limited/hindered with my S&B 5-25 at the NF match.

 

[wooferocau]

I run S&B 6--36,s on both my Desert Techs, ... hands down best optics i have owned and used ( and i have had a lot of optics!! ZCO, S&B, TT, March, Zeiss, NF, Kahles )
I have PM2 5-25,s and 3-27 HP,s also...not in the same league as the 6-36.

I also have a TT 5-25 and the 6-36 IMO has equal or better glass !!

 

[Centurion123]

I suppose the 6-36 is really reliable too, given its S&B. Did any scopes fail on those DT HTI?

 

[wooferocau]

. Did any scopes fail on those DT HTI?

Yes.....ZCO and March.

 

[TheOtherAndrew]

can you elaborate on the ZCO - DT HTI 'fail.'..not a clue what that means

 

[wooferocau]

can you elaborate on the ZCO - DT HTI 'fail.'..not a clue what that means

ZCO... Parallax Dial developed "Gritty" "Grinding" feel...Focus going out after recoil pulse...POI changes.. ( 2 x 5-27 and 1 x 8-40 )

 

[wooferocau]

Avoid the 3-27 as other have said.

Yep...the 3-27 has terrible glass!!

 

[TheOtherAndrew]

ZCO... Parallax Dial developed "Gritty" "Grinding" feel...Focus going out after recoil pulse...POI changes.. ( 2 x 5-27 and 1 x 8-40 )

Interesting, any idea on why it occurred? I own a 527 and I have a tad of resistance going over the 100yd mark area but everywhere else it is flawless for the 1 unit I have.

What caliber was being used?

 

[TheOtherAndrew]

Yep...the 3-27 has terrible glass!!

Im praying the new 5-20 has fixed all of that

 

[wooferocau]

What caliber was being used?

338Lap on SRS and 375CT and 50BMG on the HTI...