Trijicon Accupower 4.5-30x56 Review

[Ledd Slinger]

I received my Trijicon Accupower 4.5-30x56 MOA riflescope with SFP reticle today and wanted to do a full review. At least on the optics, features, and functions.

I am a bit of an optics snob. I scrutinize every optic looking for a flaw in the glass, function, or wherever else I can find one. A riflescope must pass my personal optical evaluation first, or I wont deem it worthy of the time and effort to conduct recoil testing. Some comments in this review are only based on my personal opinions and preferences.


Fortunately the Trijicon did not disappoint. In fact, it is one of the nicest scopes I've looked through optically. Especially impressive considering a 6.5x mag range. That's a long stretch for any scope. The glass is an absolute pleasure to look through. The resolution is razor sharp edge to edge and colors are very true on all mag levels. I did notice a very slight amount of chromatic aberration at the highest powers on objects that were back lighted against the sky. I haven't found a high mag scope that doesnt show at least a very little CA in that situation and some of the cheaper scopes are bad enough that it becomes very annoying. CA was not bad enough on the Trijicon to make me care about it. Didn't even notice it unless I was really trying to find it. The best part was that the glass does not lose any resolution or brightness from 4.5x all the way to 30x. Even at extremely long ranges, the resolution stays ultra sharp. Quite amazing. Even some of the most expensive scopes on the market cannot achieve that. There's usually always a small loss of brightness that's noticeable as a high magnification scope gets close to maximum magnification. If the Trijicon does lose any brightness at 30x, it's so small I personally can't see it. Unfortunately I couldn't get my camera to capture the amazing optics of the scope. Here is one pic that turned out ok, but still doesnt do it much justice. The edges always look out of focus in the pics, but when looking through the optic with the naked eye they are razor sharp.



The MOA reticle is sized and laid out very well in my opinion. It might actually be just a hair too thin for really low light apllications, could get lost on a dark background in waining light, but the scope has a great illumination system with Red AND Green options. However, the thickness of the reticle is very nice for precision aiming at long range. But my favorite part is the unobstructed field of view. The reticle is sized and placed with all posts well away from the edge to leave a lot of clear glass in the FOV.

The dual red/green illumination is just awesome. I've always liked green a lot better than red so that's a huge bonus in my book. Brightness selector has 5 levels for red and 5 levels for green with an off position between each one. Very nice.

Turrets are nice and big with 25 MOA per revolution. Clicks are very nice and solid. All graduation marks on the turret match up perfectly with the position indicator mark. I checked full elevation travel from bottom to top. Dont know if this is normal, but my scope has 122 MOA...Whoa! Thats a LOT more than advertised 100 MOA. The elevation turret is a completely tooless removal design. Very nice! Just unscrew a separate top cap with your fingers and it comes right off. Haven't adjusted the zero stop yet, but I know it will work very well.

Windage turret is capped and marked perfectly as a windage turret should by indicating right and left directions on all the markings. Clicks are nice on the windage turret as well and I like that its capped because I usually just hold for wind on a shot.

Parallax adjustment goes from 20 yards to 1000 yards before hitting infinity and it works extremely well for dialing in razor sharp resolution while eliminating every ounce of parallax error. I really like how the parallax knob is significantly larger than the illumination knob. Makes it easy to know which knob you're grabbing without having to look and eliminates the chance of turning on illumination while adjusting parallax focus.





And then the accessories. It comes packaged with a nice sunshade, lens pen, blah, blah, blah...But the amazing part is the flip up caps. So it already has a set of lens covers on the scope for packaging in the box and a nice full coverage neoprene scope coat... The hummer is that it also comes with Tenebraex scope caps!!! Any of you that are familiar with Tenebraex know that they are some of nicest scope caps money can buy. A set can run anywhere from $80-$100+ depending on where you buy and what you get. The caps even have the Trijicon logo so it's obvious they went the extra mile to contract Tenebraex to make them for the scope line. A+ for Trijicon supplying the scope with such nice caps! Excellent touch





It is a heavy scope, but you aren't gonna get all these features otherwise. Weight of the scope on my scale with the tenebraex caps installed is 37.8 oz.

All in all, this is definitely one of the nicest scopes I've ever owned or reviewed and no doubt a TON of scope for the money. It was thought out extremely well. Much better than the equivalent Delta Optical Stryker HD scopes. No stone was left unturned with the Trijicon in my opinion. Couldnt be happier with the purchase so far. Next I will be mounting it up in a Spuhr one piece mount to see how it does in a recoil test. That's where the rubber meets the road. Judging by the quality, I expect the scope to hold POA very well under recoil, but can't know for sure until I test it

 

[group therapy]

as usual, excellent review. your reviews are appreciated!!

 

[Ledd Slinger]

Picture of the reticle illuminated in green. Was able to get an angle where the scope blacked out but the camera stayed focused on the reticle. Pain in the butt to do but here it is.



Picture of elevation turret removed. Here you can see how easy it is to remove and reinstall. No tools required at all, not even a coin. Just unscrew the top cap. The black disc still sitting on the turret is the adjustable zero stop.



Scope also comes in a very thick walled durable box with custom cut foam. One of the nicest boxes I've ever seen for a riflescope. Absolutely everything about this optic oozes with top notch quality



Tenebraex scope caps. Soooooooo nice!

 

[Ledd Slinger]

I will also add the Trijicon 4.5-30 is absolutely amazing at cutting through mirage. You can see the mirage slightly, but the resolution remains amazingly sharp. None of my current scopes can compare. The only scope that I know of that could match this feature is a Kahles K1050. Tho between the two, I think the Trijicon may be a little better. Unfortunately I sold the Kahles a while back because I did not particularly like the poor contrast of colors the glass provided in overcast skies or low light so I cannot compare them side by side. For certain competition shooters, this may not be a desirable effect as it does reduce the ability to make accurate wind calls.

For my main use of the Trijicon being hunting where I just need to hit a kill zone, I find the ability to cut mirage very desirable because I want maximum resolution in all conditions. Up to certain distances, the higher resolution on high mag levels can assist me with judging antlers on an animal without having to set up my spotting scope.

 

[Zero333]

Great review !!!

Next time I need a tactical LR scope I know which manufacturer will get my cash.

120 moa sounds normal for this type of scope. At least compared to the 2 LR scopes I have.
My Bush 3.5-21x50 dmr has 34.3 mils ( 115.5 moa ) of total elevation, and my XRS 4.5-30 has 33.2 mils ( 112 moa ). Your new Trijicon has the equivalent of 35.5 mils.

I looked through a accupower 1-8x28 side by side against a 1-6 razor HD-II, and the Trijicon had much better glass at 8x than the razor at 6x.

 

[Ledd Slinger]

Yeah my buddy has the 4.5-27 Razor HD Gen II. Heavy enough to be used as a boat anchor! Lol. Really nice glass in the Razor and nice thin reticles, but glass is not up to par with this Trijicon. To me the Razor just seems like it has a dimmer image with slightly less resolution. Which is crazy because I bought the Trijicon for $1000 less than the Razor!!!

 

[Ledd Slinger]

120 moa sounds normal for this type of scope. At least compared to the 2 LR scopes I have.
My Bush 3.5-21x50 dmr has 34.3 mils ( 115.5 moa ) of total elevation, and my XRS 4.5-30 has 33.2 mils ( 112 moa ). Your new Trijicon has the equivalent of 35.5 mils.

I've always found that good quality scopes have more elevation than what they advertise. But it's not usually a huge amount. The Trijicon really surprised me with having 22% more elevation than the advertised 100 MOA. That's the largest amount of additional elevation vs. advertised amount that I have ever found in a scope.

 

[boltfluter]

Led,

What a great review!! Nicely done! This scope has some really nice features and one of the best layouts I have seen. Very nice turrets, zero stop, illumination, and what looks to be a very nice reticle that is not to busy. I am like you in that I cannot stand a cluttered field of view with lines and crap going all directions. Looks like a nice scope to definitely consider when I need one in this power range. Looking forward to your recoil report. Thanks for your time and effort to make and share this review. Very much appreciated!

Paul

 

[Ledd Slinger]

Thank you for the kind words everyone. I like to be as thorough as possible in my descriptions and trying to think of new ways to improve my reviews all the time. So many optic reviews out there that will leave you hanging and wondering about so many things. Gotta go to a million websites to try and get a decent picture painted. I can't stand that.

 

[Ledd Slinger]

Cold Weather Function Test:

So I left the scope out in the cold all night long. Temperatures dropped well below freezing to about 24 deg F, or -4.5 C. I like to do this so I can check all functions in the cold.

The elevation turret lost some of the hard tactile click feeling, but it retained a really good feel and never got mushy. The click positions all still had a very distinct feeling for indication without having to look at them. Operation of the turret remained very smooth as well. Did not become harder to operate.
I've never seen any scope that didn't lose some amount of feeling in the turret when everything is below freezing temps. Ive seen some nice scopes go from feeling very good to feeling like a cheap Chinese optic. The Trijicon passed this test with excellent results

All other knobs worked very well in the cold too. One thing that surprised me is the magnification zoom ring did not feel any different!!! I've never frozen a scope and not felt at least some resistance in the mag ring even if it was only just when I first moved it. It was as if the Trijicon's mag ring was completely unaffected by the cold. Very nice! I will need to test this again in sub-zero temps when they come around so I can see just how good this really is.

Ive seen a lot of scope functions go to hell in the cold, but the Trijicon passed all cold weather function tests with flying colors

 

[Kracken McGraw]

Great review!
Those red and green lighted reticle adjustments look cool too.
I never looked at a 34 tube before. Does it look a lot larger compared to the 30’s?

 

[Ledd Slinger]

Great review!
Those red and green lighted reticle adjustments look cool too.
I never looked at a 34 tube before. Does it look a lot larger compared to the 30’s?

It does at first. Just the same as when we all started getting 30mm tubes on the market vs. the original 1" tubes (25.4mm). The 30mm looked really big! My first 34mm looked huge to me when compared to my 30mm tube scopes, but I've gotten used to them now. With the growing popularity of long range shooting, it won't be long and 34mm will be the new 30mm. The only downside to 34mm is the extra weight. More built into the erector systems for the extra adjustment, more glass, more aluminum to make the tubes, etc. But for my purposes, I personally feel the extra benefits 34mm tubes provide are worth the compromise on weight.

34mm tubes also provide more tube-to-scope ring contact surface area. I believe this can only benefit the ability of an optic to resist slipping in the rings under recoil. Not that 1" or 30mm have issues when mounted properly, but more contact is better in this regard.

Picture of Trijicon 4.5-30x56 side by side with one of my varmint rifle scopes, Athlon 6-30x56 (30mm tube)
Actual length on Trijicon is 14-1/4" without caps, and exactly 15" with the Tenebraex caps installed.

 

[Ledd Slinger]

Low Light Optical Test:

I could honestly sum up the entire test in one word as "WOW!" But I will explain for those of you who want to know the details

It was a cloudy overcast day so I had to Google search the sunset time for where I'm at in Northwest Montana. Google said 4:44 PM. Ugh... Days are so short right now

I started testing the scope 15 minutes before sunset by looking at a ridge meadow about 500-600 yards away with tall dark/dense pine trees lining the top. The scope literally made everything 'brighter' in the image at all power levels than my naked eyes alone could conceive. Rendered a stunning bright high resolution image that revealed all the details of tree bark and branches within the dark canopy of the trees atop the ridge.

Checked again at sunset, still amazingly bright on all power levels rendering excellent detail even within the darkest shadows of the trees.

Then 15 minutes after sunset. Now I started to notice the 30x view was just ever so slightly dimmer than lower powers, but was still very bright with amazing resolution.

Now 30 minutes past sunset, which is the end of legal shooting light for hunting in Montana. 30x still had great resolution and plenty of brightness to make a shot on an animal against the dark timber background. 4.5x to 25x was extremely bright and highly detailed still making the image through the scope far brighter than my eyes could see. Almost as if the lower light level hadn't even effected the scope at those powers yet. The first thought that came to mind was that the image was still so bright on 25x and lower that it seemed like the scope had an artificial light source illuminateing the field of view. The brightness was simply amazing.

Finally I checked at 45 minutes past sunset. Which is well past legal shooting light. Basically dark out. I started at 4.5x then went to 20x and was blown away at how bright everything still looked. If it was legal, I could still easily locate an animal on the ridge and make the shot. 25x was now starting to dim ever so slightly, but still had plenty of brightness making it fully useable. 30x was getting dim now, but had enough brightness that it could still be used if an animal was first located on a lower power. Tho I personally would use a lower power than 30x at that point. So I turned the scope to the open valley below at a large house that was approximately 3000 yards away, turned the parallax focus to infinity, and the power level back up to 30x. Holy crap! The detail on the house was amazing! With the outside lights illuminating the house, even while at extreme range in very low light, I could see every single detail of the home and even a lady walking in the living room through one of the windows! There was absolutely no loss of resolution whatsoever. So crisp and clear.

So optically, this was one of the best scopes I've tested in low light. Absolutely top notch low light performance. I would honestly put this scope up against other optics of similar mag levels costing twice as much and not be scared in the least to bet money on the Trijicon.

The reticle illumination brightness levels of green could be selected for just the right amount of brightness in all situations. The green illumination worked perfectly on all power levels, but I did notice that my red illumination does not illuminate the bottom half of the vertical post very well on lower levels. Bright in the center and windage posts and tapers off the very dim on the bottom half of the vertical post. So I finally found something that wasn't right with the scope. Not something I would send in for warranty repair, especially since I prefer to dial my elevation with the turret for shots, but something that is definitely not right. My fear of addressing a small issue like this with a warranty claim is that I honestly don't know if I got a scope with absolutely excellent glass compared to some of the other same model Trijicon scopes. So if they sent me a new scope instead of repairing this one and the optical performance wasn't quite the same, I would be very upset.

Other than the small fault on the red illumination, this scope is an absolute power house in low light. VERY IMPRESSED!

 

[simo hayha]

Price

 

[Ledd Slinger]

Price

Best normal street price is through Euro Optic.
The second focal plane reticle models, either MOA or Mil turrets, are about $1720.
The first focal plane reticle models, also with MOA or MIL turrets, are about $1770.

I was fortunate to find this SFP, 1/4 MOA model on clearance at MidwayUSA for $1448 with free shipping.

So not exactly what most would call an 'affordable' scope, but I think it delivers a much higher level of performance than other scopes in the same price point or even scopes costing much more in some cases.

 

[Shiyfire]

Made in japan i assume?

 

[Ledd Slinger]

Made in japan i assume?

Yes, made by Light Optical Works (LOW) in Japan

 

[Ledd Slinger]

Today I completed two full turret correction factor tests on the Trijicon 4.5-30x56 Accupower with my scope checker.

For both tests I checked turret tracking error at 30 MOA, 50 MOA, and 75 MOA. Distance measured with a logger's tape measure to get the exact actual distance. 72" double yard stick used for measuring turret travel.

Through both tests 30 and 50 MOA gave only 0.5% error (half of one percent).

75 MOA gave 0.7% error.

Math Equation:
(Actual distance to target) x (MOA dialed) x 0.01047 = Expected turret travel

(Expected turret travel) ÷ (Actual turret travel) = Correction factor (%)

Scope returned right back to perfect zero every time. Any correction factor under 1% is about as good as a scope can get so needless to say, the Trijicon tracks like a dream

 

[SageRatSafaris]

Amazing review. Hats off.

 

[Ledd Slinger]

Amazing review. Hats off.

Thank you for the kind words. I try to be as thorough as possible. I find it frustrating when I'm researching an optic and reviews leave a lot of questions unanswered. Hope my review gives a fairly clear picture of the features and quality a person can expect with the new Trijicon Accupower 4.5-30x56.