The March 8-80X56 SFP and 6-60 FFP Tracking Scopes

[Turbulent Turtle]

SHOT Show 2026 is next month (I'm using the TT-VPN,) and DEON will be announcing the release of several new products, two of which I would like to discuss here.

First, the official release from DEON:
March Tracking Scopes

I have extensive write-ups on my Facebook page, which I will summarize here. The Bayou shooters have seen me with a prototype of the TS 8-80X56 SFP for several months now. The final product will be the same optically speaking, but the body and the controls have been refined.

In a nutshell, the 8-80X56 SFP model is essentially a Majesta repackaged in a different body with only magnification and focus controls. Internally, the optics have been enhanced to preserve the IQ at 80X from 10 yards to infinity (and beyond.) The tracking scope can be ordered without a reticle (I can see birders flocking to this easy-to-carry light optic), or it can be ordered with your choice from several reticles. For instance, all the existing Majesta reticles can be installed in this Tracking Scope. There is also a new reticle, the MTR-WTD, designed specifically for observation in a team shooting situation. It is designed to help gauge the trace and the mirage river amplitude and velocity.

The March 6-60X56 FFP Tracking Scope is a new design and it will be orderable without a reticle of with the new FML-WBR from the March-FX 5-42X56 Gen 2 PRS; a version of the FML-WBR, or FMA-3, or FML-3, but lowered in the view to 1/3; or the newly designed FML-WTD, also designed for observation and gauging of the trace and the impact.

Just so you understand, these Tracking Scopes are based on riflescopes; they are not spotting scopes. They have a wide-angle view of 25° for the 8-80X56 and 26° for the 6-60X56, but that's not much compared to something like my beloved Kowa 883 with its 35X wide angle lens and 80° AOV. They have reticles and they have extended eye relief, just like riflescopes and they are light and small compared to spotting scopes.

 

[Mulligan]

What does the term "Tracking Scope" actually mean?

CW

 

[Turbulent Turtle]

What does the term "Tracking Scope" actually mean?

CW

As I explained in the opening post, these are not standard spotting scopes; they are built like riflescopes but they do not have the windage and elevation adjustments. What they do have, if you look closely at the pictures, is a tracking mechanism with which you can point the scope very easily within 26° degrees of center, (13° from center in any direction.) Also, they have reticles (if you want one) and the eye relief of a riflescope, unlike the spotting scopes that require you to mash your eye to the eyepiece. The TS do come with tube extensions that make it very easy to get behind and at the proper distance. As you move the scope in the tracking mechanism, it will stay where you point it. It's super easy, and of course, you can lock the tracking mechanism. So to differentiate it from a spotting scope or spotter, they decided to call it a tracking scope. And since there's nothing like this anywhere else, they can give it any name they want. That's what being a pioneer is all about.