I would really like to hear your impressions of the 5-20 HD. I have wanted to jump on one but the reviews are few and far between so I have waited. I hear they are considerably nicer than the standard models not just in image quality but also the turrets are considerably nicer from an ergonomic perspective. No real improvement in tracking but better control and more positive click feeling.
I have owned three or four of the SSHD's over the past years. If you go back and look at my old posts, you will see that I was a huge SSHD fan. Those scopes are built like brick shit houses, they tracked well, returned to zero, and offered a decent reticle to boot. The glass is outstanding, particularly when you start comparing it to other optics in that price range. At the time, G1 Razor's were running 2k retail, and I didn't think there was even a comparison worth doing. I believed the SSHD's just had them licked in every department except tube diameter and reticle options.
Now, here's my beef with SWFA, it two different beefs, actually: 1) reticles - they don't offer any other reticle options. With the ever-increasing excitement for reticles of the Christmas tree-type designs, combined with the great glass and durability of their optics, you'd think that SWFA would have done a little bit of development in that department. In fact, I sent the head shed over there a message on here many many moons ago where I asked him if they would be offering different reticle options. I got back, "no plans to make any other reticles available," or something to that effect. 2) Prices - they should consider lowering their prices. Although the 5-20 SSHD is a great optic, it's got so much competition these days, that nobody is spending 13-1500.00 (non illum/illum) on them. They're still trying to sell their damn 1-6x for almost 1k. You've got G2 PST's, XTR II's DMR II's, etc... and some of them are a couple hundred dollars less than the SSHD's.
Long story short, Nik, if you have the opportunity to gran a 5-20 at a decent price, get it. It will serve you well. They appear to hold their value fairly well, so if you grab it and end up not liking it, toss it on the EE. My first "awesome" scope was a 4-16 PST when they first came out. I got into the SSHD some time after that and felt like I was running S&B! HAHAHA!!!
