Haven't seen anything out in the real world about this scope so figured I'd offer my first impressions. I remember seeing this scope when Sightron issued their 2020 product calendar but they just now seem to be coming available. Anyway, here's some first impressions.
Glass clarity looks on par with the older S-TAC 4-20 sfp which is to say very good for the price. I have a few other scopes I can eventually get some subjective comparisons with, I'm most interested in comparing it to my Bushy 3-12 LRTSi as they are very similarly sized & configured. Field of view is slightly tighter than the 4-20 S-TAC at equal power which I guess is not surprising given the higher zoom ratio and smaller objective size of the 3-16. FOV reminds me of the Vortex HS-T 4-16 I used to have. In general, the whole S-TAC family seems to be plagued by tighter FOV than the competition. There's the slightest amount of edge distortion a 3x power but when I'm focused on the cross hairs I don't notice it, or at least it's not bad enough to be distracting.
The reticle is a simple but well thought out mil hash. Quarter mil hashes for the first mil up, down, left, and right of center, then half mil hashes after that. The manual says it's .05 mil thickness so does get very thin a 3x but the illumination makes it easy to find POA at low power.
Turret feel is nearly identical to the older S-TAC 4-20 but they are retained by a single T20 torx screw. The windage clicks on this 3-16 do definitely seem softer and easier to turn than the 4-20, still 100% useable and audible though. If I have one gripe about the scope on first impression it's this windage turret. This scope will likely ride on guns I intend to take hunting and if there was an option for locking or covered windage I think this would be the absolute bee's knees for an affordable FFP hunting scope. Another thing to note is that they're 5 mil per rotation turrets. Sort of behind the times compared to much of the competition out there now, but not a deal breaker for me personally.
The zero stop is stupid simple. I know Sightron has had their S-TAC 4-20 FFP out for a year now that shares this same zero stop design and haven't seen any horror stories about reliability, but also haven't done a ton of searching either. I think the SIII scopes can be retrofitted with a similar zero stop.
FYI I got mine through MidwayUSA who seem to be selling them at pretty steep introductory pricing. It's Sightron model number 26017.
I plan on going shooting this weekend so I'll follow up after I get some rounds down range with it.
Glass clarity looks on par with the older S-TAC 4-20 sfp which is to say very good for the price. I have a few other scopes I can eventually get some subjective comparisons with, I'm most interested in comparing it to my Bushy 3-12 LRTSi as they are very similarly sized & configured. Field of view is slightly tighter than the 4-20 S-TAC at equal power which I guess is not surprising given the higher zoom ratio and smaller objective size of the 3-16. FOV reminds me of the Vortex HS-T 4-16 I used to have. In general, the whole S-TAC family seems to be plagued by tighter FOV than the competition. There's the slightest amount of edge distortion a 3x power but when I'm focused on the cross hairs I don't notice it, or at least it's not bad enough to be distracting.
The reticle is a simple but well thought out mil hash. Quarter mil hashes for the first mil up, down, left, and right of center, then half mil hashes after that. The manual says it's .05 mil thickness so does get very thin a 3x but the illumination makes it easy to find POA at low power.
Turret feel is nearly identical to the older S-TAC 4-20 but they are retained by a single T20 torx screw. The windage clicks on this 3-16 do definitely seem softer and easier to turn than the 4-20, still 100% useable and audible though. If I have one gripe about the scope on first impression it's this windage turret. This scope will likely ride on guns I intend to take hunting and if there was an option for locking or covered windage I think this would be the absolute bee's knees for an affordable FFP hunting scope. Another thing to note is that they're 5 mil per rotation turrets. Sort of behind the times compared to much of the competition out there now, but not a deal breaker for me personally.
The zero stop is stupid simple. I know Sightron has had their S-TAC 4-20 FFP out for a year now that shares this same zero stop design and haven't seen any horror stories about reliability, but also haven't done a ton of searching either. I think the SIII scopes can be retrofitted with a similar zero stop.
FYI I got mine through MidwayUSA who seem to be selling them at pretty steep introductory pricing. It's Sightron model number 26017.
I plan on going shooting this weekend so I'll follow up after I get some rounds down range with it.
