Re: SS 5-20x50 HD is in hand ... New Pictures are
The glass is very good at any price, and this focus on glass is sort of silly if you ask me. Sure there are low end scopes out that clearly have poor glass, and even a few "better" scopes that have some cloudy, murky glass, especially after use. The coatings are subject to environmental effects and break down quicker than others... however this is not one of them. Having consistently used the SS-HD over time under harsher than normal conditions, they still hold up well in the glass department. The 3-9X and 10XHD both still hold up well after these years of being on the range with them. The glass mantra is old and tired.
The real meat and potatoes is, and will always be the internals. However accurate they are, and how well they hold up to repeated use. The SS-HD has shown SWFA did it right, they considered this, along with making sure the eye relief and eye box was worthy of a tactical scope and not nearly as critical as a lot of scopes out there. (the new March I have comes to mind) To me, this leads to the mechanics and the design of the scope. Whether it was done right or not.. the very best scopes, track accurate, as well have accurate clicks further out in the adjustment range, they are not subject to losing trends as the adjustments are dialed in. This is why IOR has the bad reputation here they do, great glass, terrible internals over the years that lead to multiple generations of the same scope to fix problems.
Anyone can look at a scope and give an opinion, and out of the box most look great, but how do they look 1 year from now after being used, wiped on, subject to rain, sun, wind and sand... do they maintain their quality, are the coatings holding up to use. Sure there are a few things that can be considered negative and it takes a mildly educated eye to note whether the edges suffer from distortion, or color aberrations, this can be considered important to a shooter, but really if the eye box is unforgiving the scope is but little use to a shooter who shoots in any other position by prone, or from a bench. If you only shoot in one of two ways, few notice the problem, but if you go from prone to kneeling, to sitting, back and forth, the critical nature of a poor design becomes clear. The SS-HD doesn't suffer from this...
The adjustments are solid, the glass is excellent, the design is well made and well thought out, and it's size and overall design are very traditional, not overly heavy or long like others trying to create a design that works.