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Rifle Scopes Vortex PST Gen II
- Thread starter AMG04
- Start date
In my quest to find the perfect optic for Michigan deer hunting. This last season I used a 1-8x Trijicon. While that is a great scope, I found myself using 2-3x mostly while in my blind and when at the range zeroing and just playing around I'd find myself wishing it had a little more power at the top end.
With that in mind I picked this bad boy up recently.
http://www.vortexoptics.com/product...-10x32-ffp-riflescope-with-ebr-4-mrad-reticle
We are in the middle of a snow storm today... Conditions suck for a comparison. But I can tell the Nightforce is slightly better than the PST... but its is definitely better than my swfa 5-20 at 10x and my Bushnell 3.5-21x DMR. In person I couldn't see an chromatic aberration with the PST but if you look closely in the blown up Pic's the camera does show the NF as the clear winner, not that I was expecting the PST to beat it.
PST @10x
The fence is about 50 and the recycling bin is about 100 yards
ATACR 4-16x42 @10x
Using my Leupold boresight which has a grid in inches I compared all three scopes over 10 mils and the PST tracked true.
The illumination doesn't go quite as low as my Trijicon 1-8x but it isn't bad at its lowest setting.
Now here's something interesting, with the PST at 2 power it has a wider field of view than both the swfa 1-4x and Trijicon 1-8x with both set at 2 power.
Next I'll have to see how it handles lowlight that I will encounter in the woods while deer hunting. But I'll need to wait for the Snow to melt to do that.
So far I am happily impressed with this scope.
With that in mind I picked this bad boy up recently.
http://www.vortexoptics.com/product...-10x32-ffp-riflescope-with-ebr-4-mrad-reticle
We are in the middle of a snow storm today... Conditions suck for a comparison. But I can tell the Nightforce is slightly better than the PST... but its is definitely better than my swfa 5-20 at 10x and my Bushnell 3.5-21x DMR. In person I couldn't see an chromatic aberration with the PST but if you look closely in the blown up Pic's the camera does show the NF as the clear winner, not that I was expecting the PST to beat it.
PST @10x
The fence is about 50 and the recycling bin is about 100 yards
ATACR 4-16x42 @10x
Using my Leupold boresight which has a grid in inches I compared all three scopes over 10 mils and the PST tracked true.
The illumination doesn't go quite as low as my Trijicon 1-8x but it isn't bad at its lowest setting.
Now here's something interesting, with the PST at 2 power it has a wider field of view than both the swfa 1-4x and Trijicon 1-8x with both set at 2 power.
Next I'll have to see how it handles lowlight that I will encounter in the woods while deer hunting. But I'll need to wait for the Snow to melt to do that.
So far I am happily impressed with this scope.
Not trying to be rude at all, but the PST 2 is definitely a step below the SWFA 5-20 HD in terms of optical quality. I've owned both (still own the SWFA).
The PST 2 beats the SWFA in terms of reticle and features, but I don't even think it's all that close in terms of optical quality personally.
The PST 2 beats the SWFA in terms of reticle and features, but I don't even think it's all that close in terms of optical quality personally.
Thanks. There a varying versions of that photo (even in the Vortex manual) for the same reticle and scope so it was getting confusing. Surprised they changed it as the Gen 1 PST and Razor Gen 2 with that reticle has the full reticle illuminated not just the cross hairs.
When I installed the battery and cut it on I was surprised. Also my diopter ring was extremely tight. Finally got it loosened and it’s smooth after that. Turrets and adjustments are a nice improvement over the gen 1 pst 6-24 FFP. Don’t have enough time behind glass yet.
When I installed the battery and cut it on I was surprised. Also my diopter ring was extremely tight. Finally got it loosened and it’s smooth after that. Turrets and adjustments are a nice improvement over the gen 1 pst 6-24 FFP. Don’t have enough time behind glass yet.
Mine was tight too.. had to get the girlfriends little grippy jar opener to help me hold onto it and get it moving.
Mine is tight, maybe not as tight as y’all are talking about but I really like it that way because on my razor it is loose enough that it is very easy to knock off with just a little nudge. I continually have to turn my razors back and had to put witness marks so I would be able to dial it back easily.
I won't debate that. My last Nikon was way to loose. Even with a scope cap it turned like butter and I was constantly resetting it.
Got mine out to the range. Not sure if the dial matches the reticle, but that is for another day of testing. I set the zero stop and it works, but the dial isn't at the bottom and line up with the lowest 0 line? Are there washers or something to remove in the cover knob to get it to sit lower?
Those lines are just for reference. Different mounts, cant, rifles, zero will index at diff lines. Use it as a reference. That's what the zero stop is for. Make sure to give yourself 0.5 minimum down adjment
OK, so now I understand the difference between a $1000 and $2000 scope. It seems odd that there isn't a simple shim series or something to get the knob at the correct height. I guess that is why it is a zero 'stop' and not a 'set'.
I think you are misunderstanding how the zero stop works. Even if it were shimmed like you are talking about instead of having a built in zero stop, the turret would still be at the same height.
My old man has a gen ii pst 5-25 x 50 FFp moa. It is mounted on a 24” 5r in .308. Compared to a gen 1 the glass is superior by a large margine. The eye box on max power is more forgiving by a large margin. Basically everything is upgraded by a large margin compared to a gen 1 pst. Time will tell if the durability is upgraded or not as the pst line has lots of problems. The glass is close to my nightforce shv 4-14x50 f1 and also pretty dang close to my genii razor until lower light conditions and then the gap widens a bit. There is not much elevation adjustment at all. My pop’s scope is mounted without any built in cant. In 70 degree weather I can just dial to reach 800 yards with factory fgmm 175. A little cooler temps makes dialing all the way and holding over 1 minute to make the same hits. I really like the scope and sure will consider it when they have been out a little longer and don’t prove to be a problem. If they hold up then there really isn’t a reason to spend double on a razor.
Is the reticle on your PST Gen II crystal clear??
I have a PST Gen II in 3-15x FFP and I'm having some strange issue with reticle clarity. When I'm shooting at 100 or 200 yards, if I turn the parallax to 75 yards it's by far the clearest. I also have a Razor HD Gen II 4.5-27 and I've had absolutely no issues with reticle clarity, rightfully so as the Razor is obviously twice the cost. I've used many scopes including Leupold's, Vortex, Steiner, etc and haven't encountered this before. I'm wondering if I should contact Vortex for a replacement or if there is something I may be overlooking.
I have a PST Gen II in 3-15x FFP and I'm having some strange issue with reticle clarity. When I'm shooting at 100 or 200 yards, if I turn the parallax to 75 yards it's by far the clearest. I also have a Razor HD Gen II 4.5-27 and I've had absolutely no issues with reticle clarity, rightfully so as the Razor is obviously twice the cost. I've used many scopes including Leupold's, Vortex, Steiner, etc and haven't encountered this before. I'm wondering if I should contact Vortex for a replacement or if there is something I may be overlooking.
If you contact Vortex, they will do their best to talk you through any issues you may be having.
Depends on the optic. My ATACR zero stop allows the turret to seat below the rotation lines so that it is always usable to tell if you're on the first or second rotation.
They are defiantly beefier than the gen 1. Couldn’t tell you if it’s in the tube tho. I’ve mounted a handful and swapped them and never saw any issues.
The limited elevation and windage were the main reason I went with a gen I Razor over the 5-25 gen II PST
Are you sure the diopter is set properly?
That was my point. That while the zero stop gives you a reference for the zero, the dial doesn't necessarily tell you what revolution you are on. $2000+ scope do this. My Premier elevation knob zeros for 'zero' and for rotation. The RAZOR has the thing that pops out. I didn't realize that $1000 scopes didn't- and doesn't seem like it would be that difficult.
What are you saying...
. With 10 mils of adjustment on the first turn, a lot of people will never go to '11'. The Zero stop is the more critical function. If you going to be turning multi revolutions, remembering if the third or the fourth hack is the base rev isn't ideal. Like I said, that is one of the differences between a $1000 and a $2000 scope. Obviously it seems it is a distinction with out a difference for most people.
PST Gen II came in today. The Zeiss V6 is off on repair for tracking so i didn't get to compare the two but did put it up against scopes double it's price, namely the Mark 5HD and my SN-3. It's impressive for the money IMHO. Reminds me a lot of the LRHS but better edge to edge clarity also a more forgiving eyebox. It does have a slight blur around the edge of the image but nowhere near what the HDMRII/DMRII has. Contrast was better than the HDMRII/DMRII of the two i've seen. Does lose a little bit at 25x. I haven't gotten to check it for CA yet but i plan to. Thus far i'm expecting very little. Turrets feel great, parallax is nice and stiff, illumination is very stiff though.
Contrast compared to the Mark 5 & USO SN-3 is a bit washed by comparison but considering the price still good.
I'll try to do a more detailed review if i can get some extended time behind it in the coming days
Contrast compared to the Mark 5 & USO SN-3 is a bit washed by comparison but considering the price still good.
I'll try to do a more detailed review if i can get some extended time behind it in the coming days
Top to bottom my 5x25 has I believe 82 moa elevation adjustment, I know it's not rated at that, but that's what it has. What are you guys seeing in yours total?
Not real sure what you’re complaining about. The scope is just like hundreds of others like it. Maybe you can use a sharpie to make it appear how you think it should look. Pretty sure that when you go past 10mils, it’ll be VERY obvious as the turret will be setting very high and you’ll likely have the 2 visible or almost visible.
Either black out the lower marks with a sharpie or get used to seeing where your turret cap sets when one the first rev and second rev. It’s certsinly not an issue with the scope design
Just trade my 1-8x and picked up a PST Gen 2 5-25x w/ the new EBR-7 reticle in MILs. I noticed that compared to my 3-15x PST Gen II from a few years ago, the turrets have noticeably improved.
My only gripe about these scopes is the turret lining up with the hashmarks
My only gripe about these scopes is the turret lining up with the hashmarks
Have you used the zero stop yet? You can line up the hash marks. Or just take off turret cap and line it up.
I really like the new 7C reticle with the center dot.
Yeah, I have the zero stop engaged. I think my OCD may just be getting the better of me. I actually found a way to line it all up, but it was kind of a pain in the ass. I dialed something like 5 mils on the turret by counting clicks. Then I lined up the hash marks at the 5 mil mark instead of at 0. Found that got me better results
you mean @ 0.5mils? Usually you should leave yourself -0.5 mils for closer than 100yard (zero) shot. the Razors G2 are set like this.
If you can bare the leupold reticle choices it’s the better optic across the board imo. The leupold competes way above its price line as far as IQ is concerned. It’s got a tight eyebox and narrow Fov on the high end but i loved that scope. Low light performance was great, resolution was great, as was edge to edge clarity, CA control was okay better than the Kahles k624i. The only real issue with the mark 5 is leupold has no good reticles that don’t require an up charge.
Did you ever own or use the 3,6-18 Mark 5?
I'd quite like one for a cross over hunting scope, but reviews seem to suggest it's a considerable step down in performance from the 5-25. Thinking the 3-15 PST may be just as good.
Recommending the 3.6-18 is really hard because of the odd 35mm tube and lack of a decent reticle. The scope had a lot of CA, much more than the PST II 3-15 and the 3-15 bested my Mark 5 optically. If Leupold would come out with a good .2 mil hash reticle and improve optical performance and get rid of their foolish illumination up charge, they’d have a real winner as the Mark 5 has done of my favorite turrets. But that’s a lot to ask for Leupold who’s shown they struggle to get our sport. For about the same price I’d recommend the Burris XTR III 3.3-18 which is very impressive. The PST II is a great scope for the price you can get them these days.
Thanks, I actually like the TMR for a hunting scope, but I love the FOV on the PST and if it's better optically and no 35mm tube, think I'll stick with the PST and save my pennies.
Cheers
