Re: Viper PST update from Vortex
You guys are right, this is getting comical.
We have a representative from a company who has expressly asked me not to talk about them in a public forum, posting about what "I" see or saw in an event that happened 20 months ago and hundreds of miles away from him. Better yet, it's in "my" thread where I'm talking about a product "we" sell.
Since I wrote it, I own it, so let's reprint verbatim the offensive passage in it's entirety that I posted in my SHOT Show 2009 report.
<span style="font-style: italic"><span style="font-weight: bold">Carl Zeiss Optronics / Hensoldt</span>: After years of badgering and begging, and even questioning their manhood (sort of), the boys at Hensoldt lined up HDC, LLC to bring the Hensoldt line of long range riflescopes to the US. Basically military grade Zeiss, Hensoldt features 34mm tubes and both FFP and SFP configurations. The initial family of scopes include the 3-12x56, 4-16x56, 6-24x56, and 6-24x72 scopes. Quite frankly I was a bit disappointed with the easily visible chromatic abberation and a touch of internal flare when scanning the ceiling and lights inside the building. No question the overall quality is top rate and the big advantage Hensoldt has over S&B is the oodles of reticle travel (a worst case 58 MOA in the 6-24x50 and a best case 144 MOA in the 3-12x56 SFP model (108 MOA in the FFP model) so long range "dialing in" is easily obtainable. Price will be an average MAP of well over $3K, and availability should be 6 weeks from now in a worst case scenario, so if Hensoldt tickles your fancy, contact us ASAP.
The other super cool Hensoldt product is a military grade spotting scope with illuminated FFP mildot style spotter reticle and bulletproof construction and Picatinny accessory rails...but quite expensive at around $4500......
<span style="font-weight: bold">Nathan Hunt, President of HDC</span>, was great to meet and seems to be a fine fellow, so it's time to realize that there are more top shelf choices in riflescopes than ever before...</span>
To be fair, I went and got Ilya Koshkin, from Optics Talk, to look at the scopes and what I was seeing, to confirm whether or not CA was in play here, and it was. I set the parallax correctly at high magnification and low. The purple halos were not visible to the naked eye. Where is the reference to haloing "around the field of view"? Like I don't know what a scope tube and tunnel vision is. I've only been doing this for going on eight years now.
Why would I say "contact me ASAP" if interested in Hensoldt? Because before SHOT, Nathan called me to see if I'd be interested in being a Hensoldt dealer. I wanted to gauge interest. <span style="text-decoration: underline">After</span> my above post, the door was slammed shut, and that was that. So all you guys who are saying sour grapes is what I'm writing above, my report was fresh off the showroom floor, before the drama. Just calling it like I see it, as always.
Yes, SHOT Show is a tough venue to judge optics, especially at the new Sands Venue, but that can't stop me. I've got a job to do. However, the general pattern is optics that shine indoors in a dimly lit venue generally do pretty well outside in the real world. Leica hunting scopes and Sightron SIII scopes come to mind from last year as well as the usual suspects every year.
Now, after all the animosity generated from my 2009 SHOT report, here is verbatim, what I wrote about Hensoldt in my 2010 SHOT report:
<span style="font-style: italic"><span style="font-weight: bold">Hensoldt</span>- Ironically, Hensoldt was located right next to Premier for the show (delicious irony for Sniper's Hide members). Both manufacturers were stuck in a ballroom which really didn't do the scopes justice, no way they could stretch their legs, so to speak. I reported last year about purple halos around the point sources of light when looking through the scopes in Orlando, it is apparent to me that the light source definitely had a role to play, as I could not induce this type of chromatic aberration in the current environment. To be sure, Hensoldt does have an "easy" sight picture with "zero" tunnel vision effect, very sweet glass and highly advanced optical systems. For the money, the knobs lack a zero stop and they are nothing special, and the choice of reticles is pretty limited. But the quality is there and Ilya feels these are close to perfection as can be had. No doubt they belong in the top tier of the tactical scope world.
The Spotter 60 has resolution and contrast that is off the charts, but it is $5K+.
For those that have the coin, and are comfortable with the features, Hensoldts won't disappoint. But for "working class" folks the value really isn't there, IMO. </span>
So there you have it.
Unfortunately, we seem to be a society that doesn't speak the truth, doesn't want to hear the truth, nor seek the truth anymore. For those of you on the fence, all I ask is that you seek out my SHOT reports and actually READ them, before arriving at your conclusions. A few are collected on my website for easy reference. These are my words, in writing, for all the world to see. I've done this a service to my customers and the shooting community since like 2003 or 2004, every SHOT trip. Get it from the source, not through "Hear-Say" from some clown that has no idea what he is talking about.
FWIW, I won't be reporting on Hensoldt optics for SHOT Show 2011, not because I have no interest, because I do, but because Nathan has stated that if I visit "his" booth this year I'll be asked to leave. Imagine that, an authorized Carl Zeiss dealer, not allowed to visit the Hensoldt booth. In the interest of civility and courtesy, I best avoid that situation. I do find such behavior very unprofessional. YMMV.
This industry is very small and it's difficult not to cross paths as we go about our daily business, as this thread blatantly shows. But, since my 2009 SHOT report on Hensoldt seems to have generated such an ugly history with HDC, with fallout that continues 20 months later, let's try this:
HDC, stay out of my business and I'll stay out of yours. Stay out of my threads and posts and I'll stay out of yours. Don't have you or your reps post about me and I won't post about you. We'll just agree to disagree, and move on. Let's carry ourselves like men. Fair enough?
Back to our original scheduled thread....
I've heard rumors that the PSTs will be here in about 6 weeks, but I've yet to confirm that with Vortex. We've received very few cancellations to date, as there still seems to be no real competition for the scope in its price point.
Thanks for your time.
Scott
