06-16-2011, 06:33 PM
I was talking about the Viper PST's. I also bought a 6.5-20x44 Vortex Viper, and have been more than impressed with it.
The Viper PST's have the zero-stop, and great turrets. Illumination is not a deciding factor for me because I don't use it.
There are very few scope makers who have glass that maintains great light transmission in the higher powers...above 10x or 12x, which I rarely shoot at. The ones that have impressed me in the higher powers are USO, Schmidt & Bender, Swarovski, Zeiss/Hensoldt, and March. Of course, we're talking about 4-5x the price of Viper PST's and Sightron SIII's though.
I can't afford to spend $3-$4k for optics for every one of my rifles just yet, so the Viper PST's offer me most of the features I'm looking for, at affordable prices. With the 4-16x50 Viper PST, you can get FFP, and it has 21 Mils of turret travel.
I would mount either of those scopes on an MOA cant anyway for 1000yd shooting, but that wouldn't be for a Grendel anyway, except on perfectly-clear wind condition time envelopes.
My opinion on the higher-power tactical scopes is that they are for the big boy calibers like .338 LM, or cartridges that can reach out 1500yds and beyond. If I'm putting together a rig like that, I will not let cost be a determining factor on the scope selection, so it will get $2500+ glass without hesitation. For a rifle that will be used within 700yds, 10 or 12x is all you really need. I have yet to meet a scope that is under $1k that offers high magnification, especially in the 20x range, that doesn't suffer from light-gathering degradation from the better image in its lower-power settings.
The other thing that leans in Vortex's favor is the fully-transferable lifetime warranty, with no questions asked. For glass and image quality, we would have to put the two scopes side-by-side, but my biggest concern is reliability over glass quality. I've had an S&B PMII take a dump on me while shooting .338 LM day after day, and it was useless after that. I've never seen that happen with a NF yet, or the Vortex's, so a $4200 scope with truly world-class glass, but a broken side focus looks like garbage when you look through it. I'm not sure what Sightron's reliability record is, or their warranty. I know some bench guys that like them for an entry rifle, but without a side-to-side, I still would lean to the PST's for the reliability, zero-stop, FFP, and positive click values.
LRRPF52
The Viper PST's have the zero-stop, and great turrets. Illumination is not a deciding factor for me because I don't use it.
There are very few scope makers who have glass that maintains great light transmission in the higher powers...above 10x or 12x, which I rarely shoot at. The ones that have impressed me in the higher powers are USO, Schmidt & Bender, Swarovski, Zeiss/Hensoldt, and March. Of course, we're talking about 4-5x the price of Viper PST's and Sightron SIII's though.
I can't afford to spend $3-$4k for optics for every one of my rifles just yet, so the Viper PST's offer me most of the features I'm looking for, at affordable prices. With the 4-16x50 Viper PST, you can get FFP, and it has 21 Mils of turret travel.
I would mount either of those scopes on an MOA cant anyway for 1000yd shooting, but that wouldn't be for a Grendel anyway, except on perfectly-clear wind condition time envelopes.
My opinion on the higher-power tactical scopes is that they are for the big boy calibers like .338 LM, or cartridges that can reach out 1500yds and beyond. If I'm putting together a rig like that, I will not let cost be a determining factor on the scope selection, so it will get $2500+ glass without hesitation. For a rifle that will be used within 700yds, 10 or 12x is all you really need. I have yet to meet a scope that is under $1k that offers high magnification, especially in the 20x range, that doesn't suffer from light-gathering degradation from the better image in its lower-power settings.
The other thing that leans in Vortex's favor is the fully-transferable lifetime warranty, with no questions asked. For glass and image quality, we would have to put the two scopes side-by-side, but my biggest concern is reliability over glass quality. I've had an S&B PMII take a dump on me while shooting .338 LM day after day, and it was useless after that. I've never seen that happen with a NF yet, or the Vortex's, so a $4200 scope with truly world-class glass, but a broken side focus looks like garbage when you look through it. I'm not sure what Sightron's reliability record is, or their warranty. I know some bench guys that like them for an entry rifle, but without a side-to-side, I still would lean to the PST's for the reliability, zero-stop, FFP, and positive click values.
LRRPF52