I was fortunate enough to visit the Great American Outdoor Show today and got my hands on a number of neat products. I have been in the market for a prs optic and thought I would share my thoughts from today followed by some questions. I’m not going to comment on image quality because they were all seen at an indoor expo center under white light so they basically looked the same under these conditions… I am also being rather picky, narrowing down these options is hard enough and at the cost of these things I think we have the right to be picky. Your mileage may vary.
Leupold mkV: no frills no issues, the button locking turrets are rather interesting, decently tactile and feel good. The mk4 was pretty similar honestly, it seemed a bit smaller in every way, smaller turrets, smaller tube, smaller zoom range, etc but same overall function. I think it will make a good mid range choice
Nightforce atacr f1: obviously a very nice scope, great elevation turret, I did not like that the whole eye piece moves with the diopter adjustment causing the scope cap to spin. The capped windage is whatever but the windage knob sucked on the offering I played with, tactile clicks at 4 or 5 but around 0 was just mush and I kept skipping multiple clicks at a time. Is this normal for these turrets? I know most people including me hold for wind but at the cost and reputation of this scope I’d expect a better windage adjustment?
Athlon Cronus and etr: both had elevation and windage turrets so stiff I was constantly skipping increments, trying to return the etr back to zero I skipped back and forth past it like 3 times before finally giving up and just sitting it back on the table.
Zeiss lrp s3: very nice scope, no complaints out of this one
Leica prs: also a very nice scope, can’t decide how I personally feel about the floating circle instead of a floating dot. It seems more open but maybe harder to pinpoint aim like with a floating dot? The texturing on this scope was quite aggressive, I work construction and do not have soft hands, I loosely gripped the elevation knob to give it a turn and actually hurt my hand. Not like a real cut but one of those “huh, that didn’t feel good”. Once I got a grasp on them though these were my favorite turrets of the day. Everything was very stiff but not too stiff, very audible and tactile, smooth parallax, I did not have trouble with skipping increments like with the Athlon. This scope was at the euro optic booth with a rep from Leica and it was absolutely beat, half the anodizing worn off of the turrets, dents and scratches, this thing had toured around the world and it still functioned famously.
Tract toric UHD: honestly, I loved this scope. The turrets felt great, all the adjustments were smooth but not too easy where you might make a mistake, the reticle was ideal imo, overall a winner. I probably would have bought one of these on the spot less for one thing, the slide locking turrets. These things slide a full 1/8-1/4 inch up and down to lock or unlock and they’re smooth as butter. Problem being smooth as butter is if you put any downward pressure on them while adjusting you can lock it mid twist. I have a gen 2 razor and the slide locking turrets don’t make much a difference bc they are stiff enough you could leave it in either position and forget about it. These stay in place but you could slide it up or down with one finger. I’ve never used a tract at the range, am I over thinking the whole loosely sliding turret lock or could this be a problem on a prs stage?
Does anyone have an opinion on how the Burris xtr pro or Steiner t6xi compares to the Leica prs or the tract toric uhd? I did not get to see either at the show. Also curious how the USO fdn 25x fits in with all these. I might have to take a road trip to euro optic to see all these in person together. Oh woe is me.
P.S. one of the tract owners were at the GAOS and talking to the rep that kept referring to the owners, he mentioned they both used to work for Nikon and when Nikon was getting away from sport optics that’s when they decided to branch off and form tract. Designed in us, made in Japan with mostly schott glass. He said basically the graphite colored scopes are schott glass and the black ones are low glass. They carry a lifetime transferable warranty which I prodded him about, he said as long as you’re not being “one of those guys” that throws it under a truck just to get a new one they are going to take care of you. He said he recently had a guy sit his binoculars on the wood stove as he was lighting it and forget about them, melted the binos, they gave him a new pair. That’s good customer service. I also asked since they’re made in Japan do they have to be sent back there for warranty claims, he said tract is based in Pennsylvania and they have a repair facility in California, so your scope never has to leave the states for any repairs.
Got to play with the vortex impact 4000 as well, it’s sick. The button layout works and the remote control makes it that much better. The digital read out and text is kinda small so if you have aging eyes you may have to squint a bit to see the readout. The screen is very clear and bright tho, it may appear differently when you’re mounted on a rifle vs just holding it in your hands.
Did anyone else get to see anything cool at the outdoor show? Varying opinions on the optics discussed? Is the ease of movement in the tract locking turrets as big a deal as I’m making it out to be? Am I just crazy? Maybe, but maybe it's maybelline.
Thanks,
Chase
Leupold mkV: no frills no issues, the button locking turrets are rather interesting, decently tactile and feel good. The mk4 was pretty similar honestly, it seemed a bit smaller in every way, smaller turrets, smaller tube, smaller zoom range, etc but same overall function. I think it will make a good mid range choice
Nightforce atacr f1: obviously a very nice scope, great elevation turret, I did not like that the whole eye piece moves with the diopter adjustment causing the scope cap to spin. The capped windage is whatever but the windage knob sucked on the offering I played with, tactile clicks at 4 or 5 but around 0 was just mush and I kept skipping multiple clicks at a time. Is this normal for these turrets? I know most people including me hold for wind but at the cost and reputation of this scope I’d expect a better windage adjustment?
Athlon Cronus and etr: both had elevation and windage turrets so stiff I was constantly skipping increments, trying to return the etr back to zero I skipped back and forth past it like 3 times before finally giving up and just sitting it back on the table.
Zeiss lrp s3: very nice scope, no complaints out of this one
Leica prs: also a very nice scope, can’t decide how I personally feel about the floating circle instead of a floating dot. It seems more open but maybe harder to pinpoint aim like with a floating dot? The texturing on this scope was quite aggressive, I work construction and do not have soft hands, I loosely gripped the elevation knob to give it a turn and actually hurt my hand. Not like a real cut but one of those “huh, that didn’t feel good”. Once I got a grasp on them though these were my favorite turrets of the day. Everything was very stiff but not too stiff, very audible and tactile, smooth parallax, I did not have trouble with skipping increments like with the Athlon. This scope was at the euro optic booth with a rep from Leica and it was absolutely beat, half the anodizing worn off of the turrets, dents and scratches, this thing had toured around the world and it still functioned famously.
Tract toric UHD: honestly, I loved this scope. The turrets felt great, all the adjustments were smooth but not too easy where you might make a mistake, the reticle was ideal imo, overall a winner. I probably would have bought one of these on the spot less for one thing, the slide locking turrets. These things slide a full 1/8-1/4 inch up and down to lock or unlock and they’re smooth as butter. Problem being smooth as butter is if you put any downward pressure on them while adjusting you can lock it mid twist. I have a gen 2 razor and the slide locking turrets don’t make much a difference bc they are stiff enough you could leave it in either position and forget about it. These stay in place but you could slide it up or down with one finger. I’ve never used a tract at the range, am I over thinking the whole loosely sliding turret lock or could this be a problem on a prs stage?
Does anyone have an opinion on how the Burris xtr pro or Steiner t6xi compares to the Leica prs or the tract toric uhd? I did not get to see either at the show. Also curious how the USO fdn 25x fits in with all these. I might have to take a road trip to euro optic to see all these in person together. Oh woe is me.
P.S. one of the tract owners were at the GAOS and talking to the rep that kept referring to the owners, he mentioned they both used to work for Nikon and when Nikon was getting away from sport optics that’s when they decided to branch off and form tract. Designed in us, made in Japan with mostly schott glass. He said basically the graphite colored scopes are schott glass and the black ones are low glass. They carry a lifetime transferable warranty which I prodded him about, he said as long as you’re not being “one of those guys” that throws it under a truck just to get a new one they are going to take care of you. He said he recently had a guy sit his binoculars on the wood stove as he was lighting it and forget about them, melted the binos, they gave him a new pair. That’s good customer service. I also asked since they’re made in Japan do they have to be sent back there for warranty claims, he said tract is based in Pennsylvania and they have a repair facility in California, so your scope never has to leave the states for any repairs.
Got to play with the vortex impact 4000 as well, it’s sick. The button layout works and the remote control makes it that much better. The digital read out and text is kinda small so if you have aging eyes you may have to squint a bit to see the readout. The screen is very clear and bright tho, it may appear differently when you’re mounted on a rifle vs just holding it in your hands.
Did anyone else get to see anything cool at the outdoor show? Varying opinions on the optics discussed? Is the ease of movement in the tract locking turrets as big a deal as I’m making it out to be? Am I just crazy? Maybe, but maybe it's maybelline.
Thanks,
Chase
