Schmidt & Bender U.S. Service Center Experience

[Burdy]

I had a surprisingly good experience with S&B's U.S. based service center. I am not sure why I expected not too, but typically imported product can be a P.I.T.A. to deal with in certain aspects. I reached out to the service center because I wanted the parallax on my 1-8 Dual CC Short Dot moved from 100 to 300 meters and asked about cost and turn around time. I got a very quick response on the cost and the turn around time would be "a matter of days."

I shipped the scope out on Sept 12, 2 day priority, which means they received it on the 14th and I just received the scope back from them today, that they shipped on the 25th. For the scope to be in-house only 7 business days I think is excellent. They also check a number of things while in house such as tracking verification etc.

In all, very positive and it could possibly influence my decision to purchase other optics from them in the future just based upon this experience.

 

[redneckbmxer24]

They’re awesome and actually fix everything in Winchester instead of sending it to the motherland like most.

Where did you get that tannodized Vudu?

 

[GIXXER2000]

I have had Jerry at S&B do work for me on a couple of scopes. I had the reticle on 2 changed and 1 had an alignment issue( my fault). Great service every time.

 

[Burdy]

Where did you get that tannodized Vudu?

They are available in tan, it's just a standard SKU.

 

[cjs88]

How do you like the dual short dot?

 

[Burdy]

How do you like the dual short dot?

There is a lot to like, and a lot of things that don't matter for the way I use LPVO's:

Things I love:

• Single Turn Turret w/ 12 MILs-This should be on every single LPVO on the market. There is no way to screw this up under pressure.
• The MTC feature (more tactical clicks)...I can find the whole MILs blindfolded! The whole MILs have a nice "CLUNK" to them that makes them easy to find by feel alone.
• Not used often, but the windage zero being angled at 45 degrees, you can see it from the eyebox, rather than having to look to the side of the scope tube
• The lock/unlock feature on the turrets are super smooth and never gets hung up between a tooth. It goes back down exactly when you need it to
• The glass is really good. I have a spot on my range that will expose CA on pretty much any optic at a certain time of day on a white target, this one is one of the best I have seen in that particular spot and there is no edge distortion at max magnification.
• They eyebox is extremely easy to get behind at all magnification levels, even from funky angles
• The reticle: (MDRT-6) is very fast above 5x. I thought I would not like the tree extending to only 6 mils...but it is kind of genius. You know where 6 mils is immediately because the tree stops there (you get 4 more MILs below the tree) 5 mils is marked by a crosshair instead of a dot, 4 Mils is one above the crosshair and 3 MIL is the first whole MIL below where the half MILs stop (at 2 MILs). Additionally, every MIL is numbered and there are no half mils beyond 2 mils. On an optic like this, I want to quickly find the whole MILs and if I need a half MIL, I want to split the numbers. That is far faster than counting hash marks under pressure. If I needed 8 MILs on this optic with windage, I would hold 6 MIL and dial 2 MIL...and due to the MTC turrets, I wouldn't even have to look. Also, because the center dot is in the second focal plane, it gives you a wonderfully nice tiny aiming point at 8x. I love that.
• The scale for 36"-ish tall targets from 200 to 600 is a value add. You can basically range using 30", 18" or 7".

Things that aren't perfect, but livable

• The scope tube/body does not disappear at 1x like a Razor 1-6, Kahles or even the Vudu 1-0 does. It's not tunneling, but the scope body is there. The good news is the eyebox is so freaking good, it really doesn't matter
• The reticle NEEDS the illumination if you plan on operating below 3-4x. It's just too fine of a reticle with no features to find the center quickly if you leave the illumination off. This doesn't matter to me, because I piggyback a red dot.
• The dual focal plane design does have the appearance of an illumination flicker when off center. Again, I use a red dot for most of that work, so it's not an issue for me.
• The mag ring gets a bit stiffer as you go up in magnification (This is because it is moving the mechanicals for the dual parallax). This is not an issue, but it just feels different so it takes some getting used to. It also is quite a throw from CC all the way to 8x. So a little slower than most to make the transition. EDIT: I should also add, I used to not like when the mag ring on an optic was the whole objective, like the Vudu, but have grown to love and actually want that feature on my LPVOs. When running with a rifle, I don't want a throw lever digging into my back and its far easier to just grab anywhere and start cranking.

Things that need to be changed

• I wish every scope company would make their illumination knobs turn off between every brightness level. I don't want to have to dial illumination from OFF all the way up through 6. I want OFF, 1, OFF, 2, OFF, 3 and so forth. I will leave it OFF next to the illumination I prefer.
• Why doesn't it have an auto-off? This can be done, but it has to go back to Germany. I didn't want to do that.
• The elephant in the room of course...the price.

 

[cjs88]

Wow. Wasn't expecting such a thorough answer, appreciate it. I'd like to get one one day a way down the road but, yeah, that price is nuts. Maybe one day...can't afford anything like that now.

 

[RKBArmory]

@Burdy Thank you for letting us know this. Dealing with a manufacturer that is not in the U.S. can be a pain. I'm glad your experience went smoothly.