OzFclass

Hi Alan
Some while ago we carried out comparison tests here with a variety of scopes on proper optical charts at distance on Dave Macs farm.
Our optical guru Peter Smith; Marty L; Dave Mac and myself.
We reviewed both BR; NXS 12-42; March 8-80 and 5-50 and a couple of spotting scopes.
We all rated them independently and the results were surprisingly consistent.
It would be a good time to revisit this test when the Leupold is available in a few weeks time.
The 1/4 minute windage is NOT ACCEPTABLE. We require a perfect wind zero just as importantly as a perfect elevation setting.
Especially for Team shooting we cannot have mixed 1/8 and 1/4 click value adjustments. It will lead to lost points for sure!
One point I will make is that the new 15-55 NF optics are getting up there with my personal benchmarks - Swarovski and S&B.

I have had experience with a few IOR scopes.
Not a scope I would buy for F-Class shooting.

I have been lucky enough to receive the new leupold scope under sponsorship. It really is an excellent piece of glass. I am currently writing a review, but thought best to pop in here with this bit of info on the windage and elevation differences.

"The reason for the difference is for several reasons. one is that with 1/8th minute vertical adjustments you can better center your shots vertically in the "X" ring water line if your shots happen to be hitting a little high or a little low to give your self the widest possible target to shoot at or in other words the widest possible target in a windy condition. The reason for the 1/4 minute windage adjustment is that no matter how good we think we are I'm pretty sure that most of us can't read wind any closer than a 1/4 minute value."

Linda
I can't read wind changes down to a half minute to be honest.
BUT I do want a perfect wind zero and so do any Team coaches worth their salt.
1/4 minute windage advice has come from the USA Team
It obviously suits them but not everyone.
They may be sponsored by Leupold now instead of NF.
That being the case they will all have the same scope so will not be the problem for them compared to Australia where we are all virtually self sponsored.[/b]

Three BIG reasons Lynda.

A wind coach should never jump from 1/8 to 1/4 minute clicks if he is winding. It is a recipe for disaster. In the heat of the moment you can think you are winding 3/4 of a minute but really putting on 1.5! MADNESS and I can only think it is an influence from the US FTR team to match in with their 1/4 minute scopes. They wind to the nearest minute and hold as you know.

I absolutely beg to disagree that you can't pick wind within a quarter minute. Sure that is true with regards dead wind reading but once you start getting sighters down there then a group centred 1/4 minute off centre will lose some out to the right or left. Our system of coaching REQUIRED we were within 1/8th of each other to work smoothly. When we weren't we knew it and lost points.

The other is confusion on the target - If the coach is winding elevation and windage and has to change thinking and target measurements from one to the other.

Now I ask why not have 1/8 clicks on both.

ADDED:
remember a 60.10 (and Marty's 75.15 at the worlds) requires you don't let the extremes get more than a quarter minute either way. When you take in the fact that most groups are around 0.5moa - the center of this group needs to be perfect. The fact the US were holding to quarters and we were centering to 1/8s is one of the reasons we won but the big reason we SMASHED them on x(v) count.

Hopefully with your new sponsorship you may have some input into the design.....?????? and second release???

Dave,

I think this is a prime example of where someone has not thought through the effect of combining a multitude of small errors. Even if they are correct in saying that no-one can read wind better than 1/4 MOA, by limiting the scope to 1/4 MOA clicks, they are effectively adding the potential for a 1/8 MOA error - and every so often that 1/8 MOA will be the difference between scoring a 6 or a 5. If its easy to improve something in accuracy, then it should be done, even if its only a slight improvement, because in the long run, it will improve scores.

When I get time (from retirement commitments ), I'll run a few 10s of thousands of shots on the simulator and see how scores are affected by changing horizontal clicks from 1/8 to 1/4MOA.

Alan

I am continually amazed that not one scope manufacturer on this planet can provide the following in one package
RELIABILITY
An MOA reticle with vertical hash marks above AND below the horizontal stadia. March get this the closest.
1/8 clicks on BOTH elevation and windage. This Leupold is the first scope I have encountered with varying adjustments!
Quality optics with decent contrast
Reasonable eye relief - my S&B is almost useless because of its short eye relief and now lives on a 223.
I have not rated these in importance but are my requirements for an F Class scope or long range hunting. The only differentiation between those uses is that I can live with a front parrallex adjuster in target work but a side parrallex adjuster is a must for hunting.