I've never owned a March scope but have owned a few Nightforce BR's, a Leupold and a 10x50 sightron on my bench guns. Is the glass in the March better then the Leupold?
My dilemma is this: I had a new 30Br built at 13.5lbs with the Leupold 45 comp. The glass in the Leupold sucks compared to my Nightforce and even the Sightron. I want to get the Leupold off the gun but am hesitant to drop the coin on the March and I've heard the new fixed power Nightforce doesn't have great glass either. I need some real opinions from people that have used all of these scopes!
Hey Scarab,
Regarding glass quality, any of the newer scopes with low-dispersion ED glass are going to look outstanding. NF Comp, March, etc. I've always found Leupold glass to be of very good quality. That said, the mechanical components of a scope are far more important than how the glass looks when competing for score or group. A good scope should track repeatably and precisely....every time. It should hold poi always. The only two companies I personally know meet this standard are Nightforce and March...and I have experience with a few of the other ones.
Leupolds have good glass, but spend way too much time in the repair shop. I've heard great things about Sightron in terms of reliability, but have no experience with them.
Now, anything that is mechanical and made by man is going to fail eventually, so it's always a relative comparison. NF and March are top of the pile in my experience and the models with ED glass will be as clear as anything out there. Personally, I prefer the March tactical scopes because they are a little lighter than the NF and have superbly labeled windage turrets. They are clearly and simply labeled which really helps on the windy days at 1,000 yards when you have 9 or 10 minutes on your scope.
Another company I have experience with is IOR-Valdada: owned three of their scopes over the years. I don't own IOR scopes anymore: poor quality control in my experience. Beautiful glass though...
Also, I had to send a March scope in for service recently. The 1/4 MOA reticle dot was smaller than advertised. I'd like to commend Shiraz and his team for the outstanding service. It had to be sent to Japan so they could replace the reticle. Everything was handled promptly and professionally and I had the March folks contact me twice by email to ask how I wanted to handle certain details: their English was surprisingly good! They also replaced my magnification ring which I had originally sanded down for clearance. I did not need the extra clearance any more and the factory was kind enough to put a new ring on at no charge....great people.
Now, if the March or NF are out of your price range, the Weaver T-series are another brand that track flawlessly! They are a little less expensive.
