Going to purchase top tier 5x 25 scope narrowed down to tangent theta and zero compromise, need help deciding. Replacing Schmidt. Does anyone have advice?
Top tier scope choice
- Thread starter J7993
- Start date
I’m to poor to participate in this thread.....
ZCO is out since its a 5x27
Seriously, pick the reticle you like and you won't go wrong!
They are both extremely close. It depends what features matter to you. The Theta is a better overall scope, but is it almost $1200 better? You need to decide that.
I’ve tried to educate the Hide, but you continue to wallow in your wilful ignorance.
Once again, ZCO is for chumps and TT is for zero-skill posers. Don’t be an ignorant fanboi who dies on Day-1 of the Boog.
This is what you seek. Survival guaranteed.
Once again, ZCO is for chumps and TT is for zero-skill posers. Don’t be an ignorant fanboi who dies on Day-1 of the Boog.
This is what you seek. Survival guaranteed.
@J7993 ZCO imo. I have owned or still own nearly every brand of optic and honestly have found that I prefer my ZCO above the others. Are there better scopes? Tough to quantify honestly. I would say that most humans lack the visual acuity to discern any true differences in optical quality so it becomes a Ford vs. Chevy argument too often. There are going to be differences in the look and feel and things like tactile feedback etc... these things when you are talking high end optics often boil down to personal preference.
I like the ZCO for all of the standard reasons, amazing optical quality and resolution, perfect tracking, love the turret tactile feedback and layout for tracking your input, amount of movement in the erectors, and one more very important feature... Service is right here in the USA, and they have an available presence here on The Hide. Sooo refreshing to deal with a company that has and understands customer service versus one that is busy using Covid as an excuse to not perform... Mind you not pointing fingers at any company in the industry just thinking about the changes in daily life... YMMV just my $0.02
By the way, beautiful English Mastiff in your avatar, I miss mine (had 4) every day
I like the ZCO for all of the standard reasons, amazing optical quality and resolution, perfect tracking, love the turret tactile feedback and layout for tracking your input, amount of movement in the erectors, and one more very important feature... Service is right here in the USA, and they have an available presence here on The Hide. Sooo refreshing to deal with a company that has and understands customer service versus one that is busy using Covid as an excuse to not perform... Mind you not pointing fingers at any company in the industry just thinking about the changes in daily life... YMMV just my $0.02
By the way, beautiful English Mastiff in your avatar, I miss mine (had 4) every day
Feel free to give us a call at 916-670-1103 and I'd be happy to go over the pros and cons with you
I think you should choose ZCO. 
. I'm always here, shoot me a PM if you have any specific questions. More than willing to chat with you on the phone as well.
. I'm always here, shoot me a PM if you have any specific questions. More than willing to chat with you on the phone as well.
ZCO unless the TT reticle is worth 1K to you. I have the MPCT3 - worth checking out the write-up on it.
If you can go to your local range and ask to look through as many scopes as you can. Every scope will look a little different to every person. I shoot with prescription glasses and to my eyes NightForce don't look as good to me as the Vortex Gen 2. I have looked through a lot top tier scopes and to my eye S&B, TT, Kahles look the best to my eyes. Find the one that fits you eye the best. Good shopping
As others have already mentioned, both are at the top of alpha class scopes. Does TT have "better" turrets, one could argue along those lines but it really comes down to personal preference as ZCO has great turrets. I've had both scopes, the ZCO 4-20x50 and the TT 5-25x56, I am very picky about reticles and I like the Gen 3XR more than any of the ZCO reticles so I have the TT still; however, if ZCO were to come out with a reticle similar to the Gen 3XR, I would sell my TT to get the ZCO (if that tells you something) as I am not a turret purest and a turret that gets me where I want to go is sufficient as long as it is repeatable and tracks properly (which both TT and ZCO have an excellent track record for). I will say this, the numbering on the TT turrets is tiny and meant for 20 year old eyes, but for 50(ish) year old eyes they stink, love the large bold numbering on the ZCO turrets much much better. The ZCO's are lighter and shorter than the TT but have outstanding DOF and eyebox, the image through the ZCO seems bigger while the TT has a slight advantage in FOV (comparing 5-27 vs 5-25).
One other thing, Gebhardt has an active presence on the Hide and he will treat you right, great to talk with and work with, as well as CS Tactical who also has an active presence on the Hide (and is a ZCO dealer). I haven't had to use TT warranty (but generally hear great things), but if you live in the states, ZCO can warranty and repair with uber fast turnaround right here in Idaho which is a huge plus in my book.
One other thing, Gebhardt has an active presence on the Hide and he will treat you right, great to talk with and work with, as well as CS Tactical who also has an active presence on the Hide (and is a ZCO dealer). I haven't had to use TT warranty (but generally hear great things), but if you live in the states, ZCO can warranty and repair with uber fast turnaround right here in Idaho which is a huge plus in my book.
Really depends on what features are more important to you and what reticles you prefer.
I spent an hour at the range the other day comparing my Kahles 525 to the tangent and the zcomp all side my side out to 600m.
Unexpectedly I preferred the tangent but the two scopes were pretty dam close in terms of performance and I like my Kahles more after the experience than when I went into it. The Kahles wasn’t as far behind as I expected it to be. Maybe that was because of the shorter distance I was looking at but they didn’t totally crush it in terms of performance. They were convincingly better but not by as much as I expected.
I preferred the tangents turrets. They really are quite nice. Everything about them, the spacing, the clicks, the sound. Numbers could be bigger though.
I preferred the image of the tangent. It was marginally better than the zcomp but I preferred the colours and contrast. Both great edge to edge in terms of ca and resolution.
Running them on barricades I thought the eyebox was better on the tangent and surprisingly the image wasn't as much bigger on the zcomp as I expected.
Everything else was pretty much a wash.
Anyways I agree with pretty much everyone, just pick the reticle you prefer and run with it. It’s not like you’d be disappointed in either. Although I preferred the tangent, unfortunately I think I’ll end up going the zcomp because of price. Just because here they are a few hundred dollars apart here and the tangent is $2000-2500 more, which is outrageous.
I spent an hour at the range the other day comparing my Kahles 525 to the tangent and the zcomp all side my side out to 600m.
Unexpectedly I preferred the tangent but the two scopes were pretty dam close in terms of performance and I like my Kahles more after the experience than when I went into it. The Kahles wasn’t as far behind as I expected it to be. Maybe that was because of the shorter distance I was looking at but they didn’t totally crush it in terms of performance. They were convincingly better but not by as much as I expected.
I preferred the tangents turrets. They really are quite nice. Everything about them, the spacing, the clicks, the sound. Numbers could be bigger though.
I preferred the image of the tangent. It was marginally better than the zcomp but I preferred the colours and contrast. Both great edge to edge in terms of ca and resolution.
Running them on barricades I thought the eyebox was better on the tangent and surprisingly the image wasn't as much bigger on the zcomp as I expected.
Everything else was pretty much a wash.
Anyways I agree with pretty much everyone, just pick the reticle you prefer and run with it. It’s not like you’d be disappointed in either. Although I preferred the tangent, unfortunately I think I’ll end up going the zcomp because of price. Just because here they are a few hundred dollars apart here and the tangent is $2000-2500 more, which is outrageous.
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I prefer the saturation and contrast of the ZCO glass over the TT. TT has a larger FOV. Glass clarity is similar. I have a few extra ZCO shipping next week
Between the TT and ZCO its a toss up. I would put these scopes in a class by themselves. I own both have lots of time behind both. I migrate to the TT for some reason. Tool less zero I assume because I do switch it between guns often. There is not a right or wrong answer.
Tool less zero is a sweet feature, not to have to remember you put that tiny allen wrench, plus on a switch barrel rifle like my AI it really comes in handy...
In the scope of things it doesnt seem like a huge deal to have to get out an allen wrench and do this but setting zero is the biggest pain in the ass for me on most scopes.
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