scopes

[bruce moulds]

for some time now, flurite glass scopes are moving onto the market.
these scopes claim better optics.
the first of these brands was march, now followed by nightforce.
an incident at a flyshoot got me thinking about scopes and what we really need.
this incident occurred when one shooter was obviously shooting way above the batting average, and a beginner using the same rifle was holding way better vert, although had a bit more wind in the group.
the good rifle was equipped with a weaver t series scope and all the others were nightforce or march.
when the shooter of the good rifle claimed to do well due to being able to see bullet holes, all the other shooters were astounded.
a big round robin looking through all the scopes ensued, and sure enough, the marches and nightforces were no better than each other, or the weaver.
it has been suggested that the weaver, with a 40 mm front lens is like a stopped down bigger scope, and this helps visual clarity in mirage.
a friend has a 10 to 60 march, and i cannot see any better through it than my old br model, but i have old eyes.
i try to make all my shooting systems idiot proof, because i am bordering on an idiot.
my jewell triggers are all set at just under 8 oz, and have a tiny bit of creep.
i flsize each time.
anything to avoid thinking about other than surprizes, and focusing purely on the job in hand.
for me, i think most of the better scopes are optically good enough, and running out and buying a new scope is probably a waste of time. would probably become more formidable spending the money on powder and bullets and shooting in the wind.
i do however want reliability and consistency. another thing not to think about.
i have also decided that , particularly for team shooting, 10 moa per turn is a good thing. rarely woud there be a need to go more than 1 turn for wind except at long range. 10 is a natural number to remember, so when a coach is coaching, winding, plotting and recording sight settings, less thinking is required.
1/8 min clicks are pretty important to me.
i hate fiddling with turret caps.
we are starting to narrow things down here.
about all that fulfills this criteria is the nxs 8 - 32 with the 1/8 option.
that said, two of the most dangerous competitors on a rifle range use weaver t36 &/or 1/4 min click leupolds.
keep safe,
bruce.

[aaronraad]

I alway thought the Shepherd Scopes with duel reticle would have legs in F-Class is the magnification was a bit higher.

http://www.shepherdscopes.com/company.asp

[DannyS]

G'day Bruce,,re your comment about scopes,,almost any good quality scope, should give good results.
Some,,are just nicer to use. I can read the turrets on my March, without glasses. Dialing up and down is also very easy.,oh and the optics are very nice, did I mention the optics are very good?

However, at the end of the day,,you still have to be able to read the wind. Haha

[macguru]

The ED Glass (Fluorite Glass in some elements) in a March has better colour contrast than the others. (I know there is a new nightforce as well) (1) This better colour contrast is due to low dispersion, ie all the light frequencies are focussed closer together by the lens set because the differing velocities of light in glass are nulled out by combinations of chemically different glasses. This means you can see coloured spotting disks better and generally see better under certain lighting conditions, but not others. It does not hold true all the time, but i have seen this in practice and it matters if you have slight colour blindness and some colours appear washed out (me), (2) and yes, sometimes a smaller aperture scope or a fixed focal length one may seem sharper .....

In the same way,(1) ED refractors are better for star photography, and (2) fixed focal length camera lenses are usually sharper than zoom lenses

[macguru]

Oh, and you can buy 3 Sightron 8-32 1/8 click scopes for the price of one nxs 8 - 32 with the 1/8 option...........

I suspect the latter nightforce is more rugged, but at a price....

[DaveMc]

I am no expert on this but you have to understand what you are getting with ED - Better colour and brightness and less chromatic aberration - not necessarily better resolution - you also need to run proper resolution comparisons to really compare. And compare apples with apples. If you stop down a scope to 40mm on a bright day (or objective of that size) - do the same to all. It gets exponentially harder to maintain optical quality with larger diameter. You also increase the F ratio, allowing better depth of field and other optical qualities.

Larger diameter objectives let in more light (and allow more magnification) but this can be at a cost unless done very well. Most of these companies do do it very well but even within a manufacturer there is variation in lens quality.

But yes Bruce I agree the 10 minute a turn turrets are great