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DEON announces the March-X 8-80X56 HM WA X "MAJESTA" with videos

Turbulent Turtle

F-TR competitor
Looks great but ...Why so heavy? Wont work for FTR. :( or wil the non-illum be much lighter?
And why locking turrets?
 
The MSRP is listed at the website and it's $4,550. Yes, it is heavier than the 10-60X56 HM. It is not comparable to the existing March-X 8-80X56 except for the magnification range and the objective lens diameter.

One request from me: If you're going to come here for the sole purpose of complaining and criticizing every detail, why don't you take up bowling and spare us?

My answer will always be: it's DC, not AC. (It's designer's choice, not Anybody's choice.) The alternate answer is: This riflescope is not for everybody.

Now, on with the discussion.

One of the main aspects of the Majesta is the High Master Lens system and its inherent capacity to retard the deterioration of the IQ in "mirage" conditions. I started writing about this on this site almost 3 years ago in a long running thread. I described my first tentative observations, and then wrote more about them and communicated them to DEON. There was a lot of pooh-poohing going on at first but over time more people noticed the same effect and also communicated them to DEON. This culminated in a note at the DEON site in which they told the story and their initial hypothesis to describe this. DEON was able to further enhance the resistance to shimmer in the Majesta. Tim Vaught used a prototype of the Majesta when he won the US Nationals F-Open LR a couple months ago. He was running the Majesta at 75X to 80X for the entire LR championship. The Majesta held up against the IQ-degrading onslaught of the Phoenix mirage.

The March-X 10-60X56 HM is already famous for its mirage performance, the Majesta is a good step up from that. This does NOT mean that the mirage is not affecting the IQ of the riflescope. What it means is that even in bad mirage, the Majesta presents a shootable target at 80X. The IQ will not win any bird picture contest, but you can identify the rings and shoot for score.

We'll talk more about that later on.

The other big aspect, another first, is the use of the Wide-Angle eyepiece in a long range, high magnification riflescope. Regular eyepieces present a 20-degree view at the eyepiece, the Majesta's wide-angle eyepiece presents a 25-degree view. This represents an increase of 25% in the FOV, and because there is a square in the formula, this translates to a 56% increase in the viewing area of the riflescope. After all, we don't shoot in one dimension. I refer to this as shooting in IMAX, except that the FOV difference is much more pronounced in the wide-angle eyepiece. You get a bigger, magnified picture of the target area. When going back to a regular 20-degree eyepiece, I am shocked by the tunnel vision of these regular eyepieces. All the folks who have looked through the Majesta come away from it with the same look in their face. It's like an epiphany.

One of the benefits of the Majesta is the ability to discern the faintest mirage in the eyepiece and have a large enough FOV to see the condition changes in the riflescope and adjust to them without having to go back to the spotting scope.

Intermission.

EDITED to fix a badly formed sentence.
And some typos.
 
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I watched as Tim dutifully returned that scope he used, to you at a Bayou match. Seemed to be done by him slowly enough that you just might mumble the words, “well, just hang on to it for the time being.”
 
The combination of high zoom ratio, high magnification, wide-angle eyepiece and the enhanced shimmer protection add up to a larger and heavier riflescope compared to the svelte, yet powerful March-X 10-60X56 HM. As I dug more into the use of the wide-angle eyepiece and the challenges it presented to the overall design, I evolved a new appreciation for the genius of the lens designer. And then to further enhance the shimmer (mirage) protection was just brilliant. I'll take the 8-ounce hit in my rig for that riflescope.

The knobs are the culmination of years of evolution, and they are superb. March scopes have always had great knobs, but these latest ones are something else. I received a test rig with these knobs about a year ago and I was struck by the simplicity and elegance of the design. The tactile feedback of the knobs turning is just right. The knob turns easily but you have to actually turn it. It's very distinct and difficult to describe but that's the knob you want. The locking mechanism is simple and very well done.

The engraving on the knobs is bigger than usual, which is good for older people like me and many others who shoot F-class and for that I am thankful. I think we are going to see a lot more of these knobs on various DEON offerings.

I'll cover a few more things and then we'll get to the reticles.

The main tube is a 34mm OD with 4mm thick walls. This makes the tube immensely strong and prevents any deviation due to heat, cold, or knock. The body starts life as an ingot of aluminum, but not the cheap stuff like 7075 or 6061. The ingot is completely machined to produce the body and is never extruded. The body of the scope is purged of air and filled with argon instead of nitrogen. As the chief engineer at DEON explained to me, the use of argon (1% of the atmosphere) instead of nitrogen (78% of the atmosphere, is for longevity. Argon is a noble gas, and the atom is much bigger than the nitrogen molecule, so it is much less prone to leak out of the riflescope over the years. Thick walls, expensive machined aluminum, and argon; when you're paying that much for a riflescope, you want it to last a good long time.

I think I forgot to mention earlier that the High Master Lens system uses 2 Super ED elements, the two big lenses at the objective. Super ED is more expensive than regular optical glass, or even ED glass. The Abbe number of Super ED glass is almost the same as pure fluorite crystal glass; in fact, it contains a lot of fluorite crystal glass. This takes care of CA (chromatic aberration.)

The wide-angle eyepiece is also a fast focus design to easily adjust the diopter setting, which you then lock in with a lock ring.

DEON really went all out for this riflescope design. To celebrate this and to underline the years of design that went into it, DEON came out with a new finish for it, and gave the riflescope a name. The name is Majesta to highlight the majestic view it presents to the user. The finish is dark gray with black knobs and controls for accent.

Next, I will talk about the reticles for the Majesta, and another first in the industry: an F-class reticle.
 
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I'm thinking of upgrading my golden eagle to this scope for my F open rifle when they come out.
 
I can only dream, but that sounds like a mighty fine scope.
Dreamed for many years of owning a March of my choosing. During
those years I bought maybe 14 other scopes for various reasons. I blew
a lot of coin and still did'nt own a March. Well I finally solved that
problem. I got rid of some inventory and bought the High Master. It's
kind of like a heavy smoker that can't afford a carton of cigarettes but
will buy the more expensive pack every day.
 

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