Service Rifle Scopes that I haven't heard discussed.

[GSS]

Thanks for the plug on the parallax calc tool George.

Parallax is irrelevant at distance with most optics that we are using because unless you totally suck your misalignment shot to shot is going to be a fraction of the exit pupil diameter.

You will impart more error from inconsistent head pressure and position break down than from misalignment of the optic to eye.

I have shot optics with parallax set @ 100, 200, 250 and 300. No discernible difference to me.

For the SCATT the vortex with 100 yd parallax can be used as us at 10 meters. You can see a relatively good solid Bullseye. A rear cap with hole helps immensely to force alignment because at 10 meters parallax is like 5 moa each way from center! I actually use the vortex as is to work on standing repeatability.

With the NF I need a front cap. I started with an 1/8th inch hole and opened up incrementally until I could get enough light through the scope to see. Ideally something equal to or slightly larger than the exit pupil diameter is a good starting point. I think I am at like 5/32 or 7/32 or something. It is a balance between light transmission and maintaining as crisp a Bullseye as possible. I use a flood light pointed at my SCATT target to help. I use a rear clear lense with hole for head alignment. More to help repeatable head position than anything else. I say it works pretty well

I agree 100% with the 3 of your statements above that I bolded and underlined.

I haven't done any dryfiring in my basement since going to scope in 2016 but I plan to start soon as our season up her in NH starts late April.

I'm glad to see the Vortex PST's will give a good sight picture at close / basement distance. I can get about a 40 foot straight shot across my basement.

George

 

[tkill]

Trijicon 1-4x24 https://www.trijicon.com/na_en/products/product3b.php?pid=TR24

I earned all my leg points and went distinguished in 2016 with one of these scopes, but with the german #4 reticle. The amber triangle reticle wasn't easy to find the point for precise placement.

This scope tracked very reliably for me. But ultimately the turret knobs were too easy to inadvertly get bumped and moved, and I thought the reticle was too thick.

 

[rminut]

I earned all my leg points and went distinguished in 2016 with one of these scopes, but with the german #4 reticle. The amber triangle reticle wasn't easy to find the point for precise placement.

This scope tracked very reliably for me. But ultimately the turret knobs were too easy to inadvertly get bumped and moved, and I thought the reticle was too thick.

If you say distinguished around here they just think you have grey hair.

You have only 3 posts and so clearly you haven't heard of the KEYBOARD HIGH MASTER which means much more than this Distinguished you speak of. I'm not actually positive but I think after 3500 posts you are a KEYBOARD HIGH MASTER, even if they are just emoji's. I"m sure someone will clear that up any second. That Distinguished award is over 100 years old and computers were not even around then so how good it be? Less than 3000 civilians have done it, so how good could it be? There are more KEYBOARD HIGH MASTERS here and they know all, so much so that they don't even have to shoot a service rifle but can still tell people what is important in your game of service rifle.

You could have just spent your time logged in here instead of loading ammo and practicing and going to matches and earning points. Get your post count up so people will take you serious. Me, i'm working on my count fulltime now since I already went out with rifle and pistol. once I get my KEYBOARD HIGH MASTER (church bells should ring) I will then feel able to inject wisdom into F class discussions without having every laid behind a 45 power scope on a rested rifle.

 

[DR_2297]

Now you tell me...

Signed,

Rifle badge #2297 with no other notable accomplishments to brag about...

 

[Bamban]

Now you tell me...

Signed,

Rifle badge #2297 with no other notable accomplishments to brag about...

Think about how challenging it is to get the badge. Mine is 1234, earned in 1996. Only 1063 between ours, maybe across 20 years. guessing what year you got yours.

 

[marty dabney]

If you say distinguished around here they just think you have grey hair.

You have only 3 posts and so clearly you haven't heard of the KEYBOARD HIGH MASTER which means much more than this Distinguished you speak of. I'm not actually positive but I think after 3500 posts you are a KEYBOARD HIGH MASTER, even if they are just emoji's. I"m sure someone will clear that up any second. That Distinguished award is over 100 years old and computers were not even around then so how good it be? Less than 3000 civilians have done it, so how good could it be? There are more KEYBOARD HIGH MASTERS here and they know all, so much so that they don't even have to shoot a service rifle but can still tell people what is important in your game of service rifle.

You could have just spent your time logged in here instead of loading ammo and practicing and going to matches and earning points. Get your post count up so people will take you serious. Me, i'm working on my count fulltime now since I already went out with rifle and pistol. once I get my KEYBOARD HIGH MASTER (church bells should ring) I will then feel able to inject wisdom into F class discussions without having every laid behind a 45 power scope on a rested rifle.

you shouldn't even be loading ammo.get someone else to do it so you can dry fire more

 

[DR_2297]

Think about how challenging it is to get the badge. Mine is 1234, earned in 1996. Only 1063 between ours, maybe across 20 years. guessing what year you got yours.

2016...

 

[DR_2297]

The first optic I bought for my SR in late 2015 when the change was announced was a Leupold VXR w/ firedot circle reticle. I sent it to Leupold and had M1 turrets installed and parallax set @ 300 yards.

I proceeded to cut 26 leg points over a 3 month period culminating @ Perry with a 486. I never had a functional issue with the optic and it served me well. The only thing I didn’t like was the heft of the reticle. Running the firedot on a low setting was the way to go. The circle was useless (too large)

I have a Vortex PST that sits on my NTIT upper. The reticle is nice for HP. Dot easy to focus on. The illumination is non existent in the daylight. Blood red at best. It performs flawlessly except in cold weather where it lags like a mofo. I won the Toledo Area HP Rifle League SR and 2nd overall shooting this optic in winter of 2017/2018. I had more than a couple of matches where the only points I dropped (3-4) was on my feet in a match. It is a solid choice. The 1/2 min adjustments are fine.

Last Spring I bought a WOA FX2. I really liked that optic and shot it a lot. The small dot was fantastic to focus in on. I put up some stellar scores with it, winning a few matches, earning my HP HM card (XTC). But I had an issue that developed where the elevation zero wandered a solid 1.5 moa and reared its ugly head @ Perry in the OHP Match. I was on pins and needles the rest of the week. It sucked. I validated the zero shift @ 600 back at my home range. The thing worked great if you weren’t cranking elevation (IE reduced course stuff).

So After Perry in broke everything down, sold it all off piece by piece, built two completely new rifles with NF SR2 optics. I still have the PST on my IT upper and plan to keep it.

The point is, after you shoot optic for a while you will find what you like and don’t if you try a few different choices. Eventually you will settle on what works best for you.

 

[GSS]

So that is this scope> https://athlonoptics.com/product/helos-btr-1-4-5x24-atsr3-sfp-ir-moa/

Libertyman,
How is your scope search / purchase decision going? Have you ordered anything yet?

The person on USNM with some inside info posted more info recently. ( I pasted it in below)

For me and the majority of Service Rifle shooters I know the illumination is a non issue as many of us don't use it even if we have it. But there is also a good number of people that like it and it helps them. Like reticle design, personal preference applies/

This new Athlon option looks very promising and if I were in your position I would be struggling with waiting for these to be available or just buying one of the previously proven options that have been mentioned and discussed in this thread.

George

---------- pasted text from USNM --------
On 1/22/2019 at 3:22 PM, MingTheMerciless said:
With that said, this morning in my inbox I was told by the owner of Athlon that they discovered the first batch of product about to be released has an issue with illumination. It creates a dual image on the reticle. So they are getting that fixed and expect a month or two delay in release. Display is perfect with the illumination turned off. Yes I asked if they are stuck with them, offer what he has at a discount since illumination means nothing to a SR shooter..

So looks like taking the lid off these was a bit premature. On the plus side they are waiting and doing it right.

-----

So as mentioned above, Athlon's initial production run was found to have a flaw before it hit any shelves: Use of illumination created a shadow image. No illumination and its perfect. Troubleshooting is in progress and release of the scope is delayed at least a month or two.

As I mentioned above, since illumination is not useful to us, I asked about getting some of these early models out to shooters quickly (so they could get ready for Creedmoor Cup etc.) at a discount. The response I got (the owner of Athlon is my contact) was this:

Athlon will disable the illumination of the scope and send four of them out to shooters to review independently, treating the scopes as first round test products and soliciting feedback on everything else but illumination. Secondarily, if the scope is liked without illumination, production will move forward with the illumination feature removed. Shooters receiving the scopes are asked only to provide honest feedback and to promise never to sell them as they're provided at no cost etc.

One of those four scopes is going to me to compare against the prototype (which at some point I'm going to need to give back, I'm sure). The others have found homes in this community and if this goes as planned, we can all look forward to some solid vetting before anyone plunks any money down.
---- end pasted text ---

 

[shooterm1]

Any updates to this thread?

 

[M14AMU]

Yeah! Glad I quit when I did!!