I suck at this review stuff so I probably left a bunch of stuff out but I tried to cover as much as I could! I'm just an average guy who likes to shoot and hunt a lot and give my viewpoint in that manner.
After much debate and talking to Scott at Vortex Optics and Mike at CS Tactical, I decided to purchase the Vortex PST 2.5-10x44mm (SFP) off of Mike. I chose to go with the EBR-1 MRAD Reticle with Mil turrets.
This scope will be going aboard a LaRue PredatAR 5.56 with a 16" barrel (whenever they ship my pre-order). It is going to be used strictly as a hunting rig, namely for coyotes. So as of right now I am unable to mount and test it but once I get it mounted up I will put it through it's paces and add more to this review.
This is how the scope showed up to me.
This is what came in the box.
It includes a cloth with the Vortex logo on it, an allen wrench for resetting the turrets, the shims for the Zero Stop, a little Vortex pin, a reticle manual and a scope manual, one CR 2032 battery, and a 4 inch 44mm sunshade. One note is that at the front of my sunshade there is a 1 inch skuff mark on it. Not a big deal to me as it will se far worse in the field, but figured I would note this.
I'll begin my review at the rear of the scope. On the ocular side of the scope it utilizes a fast focus eyepiece. It's stiff enough where it should not turn on it's own if it's bumped so once you set it, it should be good to go.
Moving on to the illumination knob. It's positioned at a 45 degree angle off the left side of the eyepiece for ease of operation with your left hand. It has 10 illumination settings. The lowest settings are usable with night vision devices and the higher settings for daytime illumination dependent on the background. The illumination settings are numbered 1-10 with a dot between each setting. This dot is an off setting. Instead of having to start at zero and work your way through each intensity level until you reach the desired one like for instance on an Aimpoint T-1 Micro, you can find the setting or two you like and just turn it to the dot in between them. An example would be if you find that intensity levels 8 and 9 are what you would most commonly use, when you are not needing the reticle illuminated just turn it to the dot between 8 and 9. When you need the illumination feature just turn to 8 or 9 and you are set.
One note to mention about the illuminated reticle is that during the day you aren't going to really see the illumination unless you have a dark background. In no light/low light or with a target that has a dark background the reticle really sticks out. It still retains it's edge and doesn't get all fuzzy when lit. It runs of a single CR2032 battery which is included. I'm not sure how long the battery will last on which intensity settings however. If you do a lot of low light shooting where you will need to use the illumination feature I suggest carrying a spare battery or two.
The power adjustment ring is marked at 2.5x, 3.3x, 5x, and 10x. When starting at the 2.5x and rotating to 3.3x you can feel a click letting you know you are engaged at that power, this also happens as you hit the 5x mark. Likewise this happens when going from high to low power. The adjustment ring has a rubber piece around it. Some might find this cheesy or cheap, but I like it. If your hands are wet or sweaty or even if you have gloves on I think it will aid in being able to adjust the power ring. It also has a fiber optic indicator to line up your power adjustments in low light situations.
The web site says that it has a max elevation and windage of 29 Mils. After twisting the turrets numerous times I found this not to be true. What I recorded was it has 25 Mils from stop to stop in both elevation and windage. Not 100% sure if maybe Vortex had a misprint, if my scope was not made right, or I was half asleep when I was doing this, but I counted 25 Mils, not 29 Mils. Not a big deal to me, but I figured I would chime in and let people know what I recorded before they think they are getting 29 Mils. The turrets have 5 Mils of adjustment per revolution. Each click is 0.1 Mils. The elevation turret is marked 0-5 mils and the windage is marked 0-2.5-0 mils.
The turrets themselves have good audible clicks when rotating as well as having a nice tactile feel. I would not say that they feel mushy or overly hard to turn. They are about middle of the road. I twisted them from stop to stop over 2 dozen times and never found them to start to loosen. They also feature a little fiber optic rod on the top of the turrets to help index them. The turrets are also uncapped, non locking, and are about middle of the road in height as well. Not too tall, not too short, just right in my opinion.
The elevation turret is set up with Vortex's CRS Zero Stop feature. Basically once you have acquired your zero, you remove the elevation turret cap and insert shims (which are included) until you fill up the gap that they are intended to go in. The result is once you have put the turret cap back on you will be able to go below zero part of a revolution and then it will stop. At this point you just turn the turret back to zero and you are zeroed again. While I have not done this yet, I'm anxious to see how this will work. The windage does not have the Zero stop feature.
Here is a video on how the CRS Zero Stop works:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRnU0LK_m1w&feature=channel_video_title
As far as the reticle goes it is the EBR-1 MRAD reticle.
The fine (main) crossshairs are supposed to subtend to 0.04 Mils while the heavy (outer) crosshairs subtend to 0.75 Mils. It has 2 Mils of hold under divided into half mils and 8 Mils of hold over divided into half mils for a total of 10 Mils of measurement from top to bottom. From dead center you have 8 Mils of hold left or right for a total of 16 mils edge to edge on the fine crosshair with a gap of 0.7 mils between the fine crosshair and the heavy crosshair. The first two mils left and right are broken into half mils and after are in 1 mil increments. The reticle is numbered ever 2 mils on the elevation and windage lines.
Link to the EBR-1 MRAD Reticle info (in .pdf form):
http://www.vortexoptics.com/uploads/web_manual_rfl_viper-pst_210s1-m.pdf
Other notes to make are that it has no parallax adjustment and is set from the factory at 100 yards. The tube size is 30mm. Eye relief is listed as 4 inches. The objective lens is 44mm. Magnification is 2.5-10x. It is a second focal plane scope. Field of view is listed as 47-10.9 feet @ 100 yards. Weight is 18.4 ounces.
Here is a link to the product manual (in .pdf form):
http://www.vortexoptics.com/uploads/web_manual_rfl_viper-pst_2-0.pdf
The price I paid for this scope was $599.99 and I will say, for this price point, I am truly impressed with the quality of the glass, the reticle, and overall robustness of the entire package. I have no doubt that this scope could take some serious abuse. None of the pictures that I took today do the glass and reticle justice. I'll make the excuse of using a point and shoot, poor lighting, and a nasty day outside in it's defense.
I'll try and post a more in depth video review and get better pictures as time permits.
I feel people that would be best served by this scope would be:
A: Someone who owns multiple high end optics and looking for something a little cheaper to throw on a new rifle.
B: A hunter who wants a quality optic that he can thrash around through the outdoors without feeling bad about scratching or denting a $2,000 optic.
C: Someone who is wanting to get their feet wet in the world of high end optics without going for broke their first time out.
I would like to thank Scott and Vortex Optics for his great customer support and expecially would like to thank Mike at CS Tactical for helping me select this optic.
Any of you on the fence about this line, I say go for it!
For further spec and information regarding this model here is a link:
http://www.vortexoptics.com/product/vortex-viper-pst-2-5-10x44-riflescope-with-ebr-1-mrad-reticle
After much debate and talking to Scott at Vortex Optics and Mike at CS Tactical, I decided to purchase the Vortex PST 2.5-10x44mm (SFP) off of Mike. I chose to go with the EBR-1 MRAD Reticle with Mil turrets.
This scope will be going aboard a LaRue PredatAR 5.56 with a 16" barrel (whenever they ship my pre-order). It is going to be used strictly as a hunting rig, namely for coyotes. So as of right now I am unable to mount and test it but once I get it mounted up I will put it through it's paces and add more to this review.
This is how the scope showed up to me.
This is what came in the box.
It includes a cloth with the Vortex logo on it, an allen wrench for resetting the turrets, the shims for the Zero Stop, a little Vortex pin, a reticle manual and a scope manual, one CR 2032 battery, and a 4 inch 44mm sunshade. One note is that at the front of my sunshade there is a 1 inch skuff mark on it. Not a big deal to me as it will se far worse in the field, but figured I would note this.
I'll begin my review at the rear of the scope. On the ocular side of the scope it utilizes a fast focus eyepiece. It's stiff enough where it should not turn on it's own if it's bumped so once you set it, it should be good to go.
Moving on to the illumination knob. It's positioned at a 45 degree angle off the left side of the eyepiece for ease of operation with your left hand. It has 10 illumination settings. The lowest settings are usable with night vision devices and the higher settings for daytime illumination dependent on the background. The illumination settings are numbered 1-10 with a dot between each setting. This dot is an off setting. Instead of having to start at zero and work your way through each intensity level until you reach the desired one like for instance on an Aimpoint T-1 Micro, you can find the setting or two you like and just turn it to the dot in between them. An example would be if you find that intensity levels 8 and 9 are what you would most commonly use, when you are not needing the reticle illuminated just turn it to the dot between 8 and 9. When you need the illumination feature just turn to 8 or 9 and you are set.
One note to mention about the illuminated reticle is that during the day you aren't going to really see the illumination unless you have a dark background. In no light/low light or with a target that has a dark background the reticle really sticks out. It still retains it's edge and doesn't get all fuzzy when lit. It runs of a single CR2032 battery which is included. I'm not sure how long the battery will last on which intensity settings however. If you do a lot of low light shooting where you will need to use the illumination feature I suggest carrying a spare battery or two.
The power adjustment ring is marked at 2.5x, 3.3x, 5x, and 10x. When starting at the 2.5x and rotating to 3.3x you can feel a click letting you know you are engaged at that power, this also happens as you hit the 5x mark. Likewise this happens when going from high to low power. The adjustment ring has a rubber piece around it. Some might find this cheesy or cheap, but I like it. If your hands are wet or sweaty or even if you have gloves on I think it will aid in being able to adjust the power ring. It also has a fiber optic indicator to line up your power adjustments in low light situations.
The web site says that it has a max elevation and windage of 29 Mils. After twisting the turrets numerous times I found this not to be true. What I recorded was it has 25 Mils from stop to stop in both elevation and windage. Not 100% sure if maybe Vortex had a misprint, if my scope was not made right, or I was half asleep when I was doing this, but I counted 25 Mils, not 29 Mils. Not a big deal to me, but I figured I would chime in and let people know what I recorded before they think they are getting 29 Mils. The turrets have 5 Mils of adjustment per revolution. Each click is 0.1 Mils. The elevation turret is marked 0-5 mils and the windage is marked 0-2.5-0 mils.
The turrets themselves have good audible clicks when rotating as well as having a nice tactile feel. I would not say that they feel mushy or overly hard to turn. They are about middle of the road. I twisted them from stop to stop over 2 dozen times and never found them to start to loosen. They also feature a little fiber optic rod on the top of the turrets to help index them. The turrets are also uncapped, non locking, and are about middle of the road in height as well. Not too tall, not too short, just right in my opinion.
The elevation turret is set up with Vortex's CRS Zero Stop feature. Basically once you have acquired your zero, you remove the elevation turret cap and insert shims (which are included) until you fill up the gap that they are intended to go in. The result is once you have put the turret cap back on you will be able to go below zero part of a revolution and then it will stop. At this point you just turn the turret back to zero and you are zeroed again. While I have not done this yet, I'm anxious to see how this will work. The windage does not have the Zero stop feature.
Here is a video on how the CRS Zero Stop works:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRnU0LK_m1w&feature=channel_video_title
As far as the reticle goes it is the EBR-1 MRAD reticle.
The fine (main) crossshairs are supposed to subtend to 0.04 Mils while the heavy (outer) crosshairs subtend to 0.75 Mils. It has 2 Mils of hold under divided into half mils and 8 Mils of hold over divided into half mils for a total of 10 Mils of measurement from top to bottom. From dead center you have 8 Mils of hold left or right for a total of 16 mils edge to edge on the fine crosshair with a gap of 0.7 mils between the fine crosshair and the heavy crosshair. The first two mils left and right are broken into half mils and after are in 1 mil increments. The reticle is numbered ever 2 mils on the elevation and windage lines.
Link to the EBR-1 MRAD Reticle info (in .pdf form):
http://www.vortexoptics.com/uploads/web_manual_rfl_viper-pst_210s1-m.pdf
Other notes to make are that it has no parallax adjustment and is set from the factory at 100 yards. The tube size is 30mm. Eye relief is listed as 4 inches. The objective lens is 44mm. Magnification is 2.5-10x. It is a second focal plane scope. Field of view is listed as 47-10.9 feet @ 100 yards. Weight is 18.4 ounces.
Here is a link to the product manual (in .pdf form):
http://www.vortexoptics.com/uploads/web_manual_rfl_viper-pst_2-0.pdf
The price I paid for this scope was $599.99 and I will say, for this price point, I am truly impressed with the quality of the glass, the reticle, and overall robustness of the entire package. I have no doubt that this scope could take some serious abuse. None of the pictures that I took today do the glass and reticle justice. I'll make the excuse of using a point and shoot, poor lighting, and a nasty day outside in it's defense.
I'll try and post a more in depth video review and get better pictures as time permits.
I feel people that would be best served by this scope would be:
A: Someone who owns multiple high end optics and looking for something a little cheaper to throw on a new rifle.
B: A hunter who wants a quality optic that he can thrash around through the outdoors without feeling bad about scratching or denting a $2,000 optic.
C: Someone who is wanting to get their feet wet in the world of high end optics without going for broke their first time out.
I would like to thank Scott and Vortex Optics for his great customer support and expecially would like to thank Mike at CS Tactical for helping me select this optic.
Any of you on the fence about this line, I say go for it!
For further spec and information regarding this model here is a link:
http://www.vortexoptics.com/product/vortex-viper-pst-2-5-10x44-riflescope-with-ebr-1-mrad-reticle
