So I bought one of these things to see what the hype is about, people are constantly comparing them to scopes costing $2K (and even more) claiming they’re as good or better. My only experience was shooting with one once on someone else’s rifle and I wasn’t very impressed. I tried to order one back in November but it was cancelled by the vendor with no explanation as to why. I came across one for under $800 delivered from another vendor so I decided to give it another try. I received it this morning and it’s indeed what it was supposed to be and not a refurb or blemished model like some retailers sell for similar pricing which I thought it might have been and misadvertised.
I bought it to go on a 22 bolt gun but decided to mount it up on my Seekins 223 DMR that’s a known good shooter to test it out first.
My initial thoughts are that it’s not bad but IMO comparing it to a $2K optic is a pretty exaggerated conclusion.
The glass is better than the other sample I was behind and I can’t see any noticeable CA in it so far but I’ve only been checking it out for a couple hours so far and at my house where it can only look at stuff to about 600 yards. The eyebox is generous and doesn’t do any weird stuff or have distortion if you move your head around a little. FOV is very good too. SCR 2 reticle is a great design and this illuminated version is very good on the low end and I can tell it would make a great crossover options.
The bad… There’s noticeable flaws in the overall build quality that is common with budget types scopes, and yes that is what these are. The knurling is absolute cheese grater status, I can’t imagine how bad the US made models that are supposedly worse must be.
The most noticeable thing is the play in the elevation turret, it has .05 mil of play so when you’re dialing up it basically goes half way to the next mark on the turret than what your actually on, you rotate back a little and can feel the detent. It’s honestly pretty bad and I would describe as very sloppy. Other than that the elevation feels nice, great tension, feel of the clicks, and audibility. If it wasn’t for the slop that’s on the extreme side I’d give it a 10/10 but the slop is bad enough I’d say it’s a 5/10.
The windage turret is stiff and mushy at the same time and almost non audible and you can barely feel the clicks. If I was going to put the external knob on I would care but I don’t dial wind so as long as it tracks to zero it I couldn’t care less what it feels like. Some people are very picky about their windage turrets but I’m not. If it cost twice what it did then I’d expect it to be better. It did come with the extra windage turret.
The parallax is stiff but not as stiff as the other sample I used. It’s acceptable but could be better. It’s not smooth at all when turning it and feels different throughout its revolution. The illumination knob cap sticking out beside it is like a circular saw blade. Really dumb design.
The magnification ring isn’t too stiff, I’d say just a little stiffer than just right so it’s not bad as far as that goes and better than the other sample I used which was very stiff. It’s pretty rough though. It feels almost gritty when turning it and it’s not an even tension throughout the range, it gets easier and stiffer as your turn it much like the parallax. I’ve worked it a good bit thinking maybe grease needed to be dispersed around in the erector but it hasn’t made a difference.
Overall for what I paid it’s not bad so far. This thing absolutely is not on par with a MK5, NX8, ATACR though that they constantly get compared to other than having a nice eyebox and maybe the glass being close (definitely not superior). On every sample of those mentioned optics I’ve used they have all had great feeling turrets with no play, proper tension on the controls and were smooth.
I’ll be shooting it tomorrow at the local range and will have it at a 1000 yard range in the next couple weeks to see how it tracks and how the glass holds up through mirage and heat and how the DOF is. I’ll update this thread with any problems and periodic updates at probably the 6 month and 1 year mark. I plan to keep this thing long term to see how it holds up to see if it has better reliability than the other Phillipino optics that I’ve had which has been pretty disappointing.
I bought it to go on a 22 bolt gun but decided to mount it up on my Seekins 223 DMR that’s a known good shooter to test it out first.
My initial thoughts are that it’s not bad but IMO comparing it to a $2K optic is a pretty exaggerated conclusion.
The glass is better than the other sample I was behind and I can’t see any noticeable CA in it so far but I’ve only been checking it out for a couple hours so far and at my house where it can only look at stuff to about 600 yards. The eyebox is generous and doesn’t do any weird stuff or have distortion if you move your head around a little. FOV is very good too. SCR 2 reticle is a great design and this illuminated version is very good on the low end and I can tell it would make a great crossover options.
The bad… There’s noticeable flaws in the overall build quality that is common with budget types scopes, and yes that is what these are. The knurling is absolute cheese grater status, I can’t imagine how bad the US made models that are supposedly worse must be.
The most noticeable thing is the play in the elevation turret, it has .05 mil of play so when you’re dialing up it basically goes half way to the next mark on the turret than what your actually on, you rotate back a little and can feel the detent. It’s honestly pretty bad and I would describe as very sloppy. Other than that the elevation feels nice, great tension, feel of the clicks, and audibility. If it wasn’t for the slop that’s on the extreme side I’d give it a 10/10 but the slop is bad enough I’d say it’s a 5/10.
The windage turret is stiff and mushy at the same time and almost non audible and you can barely feel the clicks. If I was going to put the external knob on I would care but I don’t dial wind so as long as it tracks to zero it I couldn’t care less what it feels like. Some people are very picky about their windage turrets but I’m not. If it cost twice what it did then I’d expect it to be better. It did come with the extra windage turret.
The parallax is stiff but not as stiff as the other sample I used. It’s acceptable but could be better. It’s not smooth at all when turning it and feels different throughout its revolution. The illumination knob cap sticking out beside it is like a circular saw blade. Really dumb design.
The magnification ring isn’t too stiff, I’d say just a little stiffer than just right so it’s not bad as far as that goes and better than the other sample I used which was very stiff. It’s pretty rough though. It feels almost gritty when turning it and it’s not an even tension throughout the range, it gets easier and stiffer as your turn it much like the parallax. I’ve worked it a good bit thinking maybe grease needed to be dispersed around in the erector but it hasn’t made a difference.
Overall for what I paid it’s not bad so far. This thing absolutely is not on par with a MK5, NX8, ATACR though that they constantly get compared to other than having a nice eyebox and maybe the glass being close (definitely not superior). On every sample of those mentioned optics I’ve used they have all had great feeling turrets with no play, proper tension on the controls and were smooth.
I’ll be shooting it tomorrow at the local range and will have it at a 1000 yard range in the next couple weeks to see how it tracks and how the glass holds up through mirage and heat and how the DOF is. I’ll update this thread with any problems and periodic updates at probably the 6 month and 1 year mark. I plan to keep this thing long term to see how it holds up to see if it has better reliability than the other Phillipino optics that I’ve had which has been pretty disappointing.
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). Oh well, the warranty service is so far an excellent experience.
