Rifle Scopes SWFA 20x42 SS question

[mosin46]

for anyone who has used/uses the above scope,my question is-for the rather small exit pupil,has this been an issue on,say,a mildly overcast/darkish day? to clarify: 42div x 20 = 2.1,i use my 56mm obj 34mm tubes @ 20x which = a 2.8mm exit. i'm not really experienced enough to be able to decide if that is a significant difference in the real world. at 56 div x 24x =2.3. will experiment but asking other's input. tx for replies.

 

[Bender]

Yes. It’s dark and vary narrow field of view. The 10x is best. 12x is max recommendation for a fixed power imho.

 

[Darayavaus]

I't not going to be a problem under "mildly overcast" conditions. It's certainly not going to be S&B or Zeiss bright, but then again, that is not what the 20x42 is designed for. I have a few of them in different magnifications, and they perform better than their price would suggest. For me, I used the 20x42 for target shooting at 500 meters and never had any issues. Seriously, for so little money they are the equal of the high dollar Leupold fixed power target scopes IMO.

 

[Darayavaus]

Yes. It’s dark and vary narrow field of view. The 10x is best. 12x is max recommendation for a fixed power imho.

10x is a good sniper scope. But for someone punching distant paper, it's not so important to have a wide field of view. In fact, more magnification is useful. Leupold used to make a ton of 24x and 36x benchrest scopes, then for a while they made 35x and 45x competition scopes. Those can still be found for $1000 to $1200 bucks. Personally I think the SWFA does everything the Leupold could do, even if it is in a clunkier and less elegant looking package.

 

[bfm1851]

Had both a 10x and 20X SS scope. The 20x was noticeable darker and much more touchy with eye relief duh.

 

[408w]

I have no issues with my 20x for shooting steel or whatever. Not as bright as some of my other optics that cost 5-10x what the swfa does. I would not be concerned if it were me.

 

[Rancid Coolaid]

Beware of mirage. I see you list Florida, which has some heat. In high mirage, 20X sucks balls. And with a fixed 20X, you might as well just point the gun in the general direction and hope for the best.

I've run every SS scope (except the 1-6X) and the fixed 20X and 16X are my least favorite. For the money, they are great; but the application is incredibly narrow, and it doesn't take much to push your "need" out of their capabilities zone.

 

[mosin46]

thanks for all that input. just considering as right now price is a huge deal for me.

 

[Rancid Coolaid]

At what range - or at what target - are you shooting that you need 20X?

Often 10X is enough to get most jobs done. When you can't go for top-tier glass, I would recommend avoiding high magnification; but that's just me.

 

[SmartDonkey]

Those scopes are not a good option.... After reading all the reviews I purchased a 16x and a 20x. The glass was very dark and the eye box pathetic. They have a reputation of tracking very well- but I couldn't get rid of mine fast enough.

When I bought them they were around $300... if that's still the case I wouldn't even look at them. I'd buy a Vortex 6.5-20x44 for $300 from midway (and get free rings right now) way before them.....

*Also, don't trust the high review scores. I wrote a negative review of both scopes and they never published them.... They must only publish the reviews they like.

 

[alfmoonspace]

10x SS.

20x sucks.

 

[Darayavaus]

thanks for all that input. just considering as right now price is a huge deal for me.

I saw one recently over in the classifieds in LRH. it's either a 16 or 20. I was skimming through & dIdn't look closely at the details.

and with all this talk of how terrible they are, I just took out my 10x and 20x. It's really dark and stormy today. No problems. You guys had me convinced I wouldn't be able to see anything, but I could see fine. Took out one of my fixed 12x leupolds too. That was just about the same image. Go figure.

 

[Rancid Coolaid]

and with all this talk of how terrible they are, I just took out my 10x and 20x. It's really dark and stormy today. No problems. You guys had me convinced I wouldn't be able to see anything, but I could see fine. Took out one of my fixed 12x leupolds too. That was just about the same image. Go figure.

Could you point to the part where someone called them terrible?

It is a specialized tool for a specific application. If that is the application at which it must function well, great, go for it; if it isn't, don't expect great results.

And if anything said in this thread made you think a 20X on an overcast or stormy day would prevent your seeing "anything", there are other issues you should be addressing.

 

[Gohring65]

The 20x gave me bad eye strain. It was uncomfortable to shoot after a while.

 

[Darayavaus]

Could you point to the part where someone called them terrible?

It is a specialized tool for a specific application. If that is the application at which it must function well, great, go for it; if it isn't, don't expect great results.

And if anything said in this thread made you think a 20X on an overcast or stormy day would prevent your seeing "anything", there are other issues you should be addressing.

yes, all up and down the thread in various different ways. "20x sucks" is 2 posts above yours.

the 20x is fine for specific applications. I would not want one in combat or for hunting, but off a bench the SS is as good as other more expensive fixed power scopes.

Obviously everyone has their own personal biases. If I remember correctly from your past posting, you hate Leupold as much as I do. But other people will like them, so personal opinion only goes so far.

 

[SmartDonkey]

Yeah... I hadn't said it-..... but the 20x does suck.

Obviously Darayavaus had a different experience and received a better scope than the ones I got. So the question is, Did he get a good one? Or did I get bad ones? If most of them are good and a few bad ones show up then that is understandable. I'm more inclined to believe that most of them are poor with a few good ones floating around.

All I can tell you is as soon as I looked through them I was disappointed. A good scope makes it look brighter than it actually is, these do the opposite. A good scope has a forgiving eye box- these had one spot you could see- and if you moved a tiny bit it went black.