First impressions on Burris XTR II 5-25x50 SCR MIL

[mike278]

Just got this thing and mounted it on my rifle. This is my first experience with a first focal plane scope, so one of my observations may receive a lot of "no duh"s. That observation being that at the lowest magnification, all those tiny lines disappear. Could just be my old eyes, but I seem to need to crank the magnification up to around 8-9x before the reticle becomes even remotely useful. I'm not saying it's a design flaw, as they have to make it that small so that it doesn't look like a telephone pole at maximum mag. This is a 5x zoom scope. I can only imagine it is even more so on one of the new 6x zoom scopes (like Sig). Another observation that I imagine has to do with the first focal plane is that when the illumination is turned on, the center part of the reticle seems to have a lot of parallax. This seems to be from the light reflecting off the reticle. Again, not really a design flaw, just a heads-up. As far as the scope goes, I was worried it would be a real monster. It's actually not too large. Definitely larger than my 3.5-10x40 Luepold, but not excessively so. On that note, I got the XTR 34mm MED rings with it. Still has plenty of room between it and the barrel with EWG 0 degree base on a Savage FCP. The optics seem clear and sharp, but that seems to drop off a bit when you go past 20x. I love the SCR reticle, but the part that's broken down into .1 mil grads is probably taking it a little too far. The .2 mil grads are enough for most people (YMMV). Haven't taken it to the range yet, but I've never heard anything bad about the turret operation (other than a slightly mushy feel until they are broken in). Just wanted to put my thoughts to paper (or pixel) before I fall too madly in love with it that nothing could tarnish its performance. Please don't take any of my remarks as a knock on this scope or some sort of "I wish I woulda" statement, just a first impression.

 

[krumfola]

Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this scope. I've been looking hard at the XTR II as well but I've never had an FFP. My biggest concern is the usefulness of the reticle at lower magnification. I think that it would be almost entirely useless at the lower magnifications were it not for the illumination. I'm curious to see what other users have to say about it.

At this point, the PST is the only alternative that I have considered. If anyone has other options with the same features and in the same price range (sub $1000) as the XTR II or PST, please let me know.

 

[Wjesswheel]

Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this scope. I've been looking hard at the XTR II as well but I've never had an FFP. My biggest concern is the usefulness of the reticle at lower magnification. I think that it would be almost entirely useless at the lower magnifications were it not for the illumination. I'm curious to see what other users have to say about it.

At this point, the PST is the only alternative that I have considered. If anyone has other options with the same features and in the same price range (sub $1000) as the XTR II or PST, please let me know.

I have an xtr2 8x40 and used the 5x25, what are your intended use for the scope. i can see my reticle usable down to about 12, my 17 year old sees it down to 8. I never run my 3x9 scopes anywhere but 9. My scope returns to zero perfect, dials perfect. Works pretty much exactly as it should. The etched hashes on the glass are spot on. Zero stops work great. I use it to shoot 100 yard benchrest between 15 and 30 depending how iam seeing.i have awful vision . I also shoot 1000 yards with and it does just fine. With a 200 yard zero I can shoot out to 1000 with just reticle. Glass is pretty good. I have seen better glass on some night force scopes, also seen some night forces that werent any better.

Guess Iam wondering what you want to use it on 5x. I try to always use mine at the highest power I can use it on. I have shot coyotes at night in the snow out to 300 with it on 25x. and the lifetime warranty is unbeatable. I really like mine, just started shooting long range about 3 years ago and thought the extra 1200 for a nightforce would be better spent on other things like learning to reload and buying equipment. I also recently shot a friends pst on a 204 savage and it had the best glass I have ever looked through (super crisp, bright) including all the nightforce leupolds scopes I have seen. It a little over the 1000 dollar price but the sell every once in awhile on her for 8 or 900 dollars. I would definetly recommend one.

 

[krumfola]

Thanks for your input. Since I made this post, I picked up a 4-20x50 XTR II and I'm waiting on rings to come it so I can mount it. I was thinking of low power if a deer/coyote were to pop out inside of 100 yards in the fields were I hunt. I'll report back once I get a little time behind it.

 

[mike278]

Just a follow-up to the original post, I finally made it to the range. Gotta say I love the zero stop. Happy to report that with the scope outside and the parallax dialed in for 100+ yards the issue with the illuminated part of the reticle wandering went away. The image still seems a little hazy when I crank the magnification all the way up, but it's usable. I don't really hunt anymore, around here there's not enough shooting involved with hunting (no prairie dogs). All this scope will be used for is punching paper. I wanted to try an aperture I made from an unused lens cap with a .5 inch hole drilled in the center to see if that would clear things up, but it was really dark and overcast today. Darn the bad luck, I'll have to go back to the range on a sunny day. The scope tracked true, and the .1 mil stadia lines I thought would't be useful came in handy getting zeroed. Another nice thing about this scope is that I didn't have to "hunt" with the parallax knob. The 100 mark worked great for image focus and parallax at 100 yards, same for 200 and 300. Overall very satisfied with the scope.

 

[mike278]

Thanks for your input. Since I made this post, I picked up a 4-20x50 XTR II and I'm waiting on rings to come it so I can mount it. I was thinking of low power if a deer/coyote were to pop out inside of 100 yards in the fields were I hunt. I'll report back once I get a little time behind it.

I'm really interested to see if the 4-20x has the same fade-out at the highest magnification. Looking forward to a full report when you get it mounted.