Rifle Scopes S&B Exos. 👎

[Pronghunter]

Question here. It will be at the end but to give some info.

First S&B purchase. Well first time really spending any time behind one.
I’ve been waiting and waiting for a S&B that I could afford. And really wanted the EXOS moa.
Finally picked one up.

I know I’ll catch shit for this, but I always compare my NX8 4-32’s to everything. Some want to trash them, but the glass is actually excellent for what they’ve been able to accomplish with the size and amount of lenses.
Their low light is exceptional and the resolution is as well.
The complaints about tight eye box…if people would just take the rear ocular Tenebrex cover off, it completely changes the view. Night and day. It does not have a tight eye box. At all.

Anyhow, this Exos I have. Spent 3 days with it. Like full days.

The eye box is the worst on any optic I’ve ever experienced. Above 12x is super tuff to get behind.
At 21x the resolution is meh. Anything under say 1500 yards seems decent. But looking long range every other high end optic I have is better.
And the chromatic aberration is terrible.
Also, the FOV is considerably less than most all other scopes I have. Including my Kahles 525i’s.
Also see no noticeable increase in dawn/dusk light transmission over anything else I have.
And I’m very much aware on how to set focus and parallax to begin with to eliminate the above mentioned.

The build quality, turrets, illumination, etc is exceptional though. Very nice!

So brings me to my questions.
I really want to like/own an S&B. Maybe a PM2 or Polar.

But, from those who have owned or own any S&B’s, is this typical across the board? The terrible CA, the small field of view, the super tight eye box? The not the greatest resolution at extreme distance?
I can return the scope for a different model, but not sure it will get me anywhere.

I have Kahles 318/525, ATACR’s, Mark 5’s, Minox ZP5, Zeiss V8, Swaro Z6, Leica Magnus, March FX, Leica PRS etc.
All have less of the negatives than everything I mentioned above.

I can’t imagine I have the one that’s slipped by S&B’s quality check.
I guess what I’m getting at is I’m extremely underwhelmed at what was supposed to be a $4k optic.

 

[FuhQ]

In before all the fanboy heads start exploding...

 

[BurtG]

Had 1 or 2 5-25s and a 5-45

Shit and Bender.

Things were awful. Brown glass. Dark. And it seems a lot of people have them go in for warranty work

 

[jbuck88]

Tried s&b before, my eyes preferred other glass.

 

[WB300]

I believe the @Lowlight runs one and was happy with it. I've always wanted one of these on a hunting stick.

Hopefully he will chime in with his thoughts.

 

[FuhQ]

I believe the @Lowlight runs one and was happy with it. I've always wanted one of these on a hunting stick.

Hopefully he will chime in with his thoughts.

Do yourself a favor and get a Kahles K318i instead. It's what I run on my main hunting rifle. The glass is absolutely superb.

 

[Lowlight]

I ran an Exos for a minute, it wasn’t that bad

That said, it’s been the charge over recent years, the swings in quality. They seemed to get it together again with the 6-36x but just before, it was hit or miss.

 

[carbonbased]

I own a very recent NF 4-32 and a recent S&B 5-25 with the DTII+ turrets. It has the rubber zoom ring, but that’s just the older mechanics and apparently it has the same glass as the metal zoom ring models.

Anyway, I agree with you regarding the NF 4-32. Mine is super sharp and it cuts through flare better than any scope I own. Has a little CA, and like you, I have no problem with the eyebox. The eyebox isn’t as nice as my Razor 4.5-27 G2, but that’s not surprising. It is sharper than the Razor.

Ok, back to the S&B 5-25. It has much more DOF than the 4-32, which is a personal pref thing to me. I’m not sure which DOF I like more.

The S&B is way more flare-y than the NF. Buy the hood. I love the S&B focus dial way more. It’s huge, making small adjustments easier and it has numbers on it, which I always prefer.

While I do prefer, slightly, the “feel” of the view, the 4-32 is close. There’s no CA in my S&B and as mentioned, there’s a little in the NF.

The S&B tunnels at the low end out to something like 7x. I don’t care as I’m a varmint shooter and am always at 20-25x.

I’d say the eyebox on the S&B is better than the NF, but it’s still behind the Razor G2’s massive eyebox.

The image doesn’t degrade on either the NF or S&B when you zoom in. To me, anyway.

Personally, I don’t think either is amazing at low light. They’re decent, with the S&B probably being better. Haven’t a/b tested them that way.

So both are better, image-wise, than my Razor G2, but if I was looking through them all day, the Razor wins due to the ease of viewing. The S&B is close-ish, eyebox-wise. In other words, it’s closer to the Razor’s eyebox than the NF.

 

[carbonbased]

Forgot about the turrets! The DTII+ turrets are like sex. And I’m not even really a dialer.

The 4-32’s turrets are meh, just ok. I love the lock on both of the S&B’s.