Looking for first hand experience on Siii, And Viper Pst

TacShooter

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Hey everyone, been reading CGN for quite sometime now and I love the great info and high knowledge base on this site. So I decided to join the club.

So the big question I have is...

I recently bought a Savage mod 10 BA, At the time I was a little strapped for cash and bought a Millett Trs-1. Not a bad scope for the money... But not nearly what I want on top of my BA.
So the old Millett is going onto my coyote gun which I plan to purchase come income tax time lol. Which will be a SPS tactical in .223. I think it will make a great varmint scope.

But down to the nitty gritty... So the two scopes i have been researching for quite some time now (Sightron Siii 6-24x50 Lrmd/CM And the Vortex Viper Pst 6-24x50 Mil/Mil), but have had too many threads that were inconclusive in my mind to get a definitive answer. Since none of the local shops carry either vortex or sightron, i will need to result to buying online, and not have the opportunity to personally check out the scopes for myself. Any Experience with either of these scopes would be greatly appreciated, Thank you.

Uses:
Mounted on The Model 10 BA
Target shooting out to 1k (Mainly known distance shooting, But the possibility of unknown distance shoots when available.)
Plus any possible competitions that are available to me in my area.
maybe the odd deer hunting trip if i feel like carrying it around lol.

Other points:
I am open to other suggestions that may be superior to these scopes within the $1000 price range, But it would need to be available in Mil/Mil.
I was pretty much sold on the Pst, until i started reading a lot about the Siii and so many people comparing the glass to the Nightforce scopes. But i really like the idea of a zero stop, don't really care about the illum so much but the pst's reticule is very nice. FFP is something i would like to have but its realistically not needed, i could get by with SFP. Zoom must be no higher than 20-24.

I wrote down pretty much most of what i can think of right now, if there is any info i could include that might help just let me know.

Thank you for your time.
 
I was in your exact situation about 9 months ago. There were things about each scope that I really liked. But in the end, I found that the PST was more geared toward my needs and wants.

Pros of the SIII:
- clear glass
- repeatable turrets

Pros of the PST:
- FFP
- Excellent turrets
- Excellent reticle
- Very good glass
- Unbeatable warranty, should you need to use it

From the feedback I received, the glass between the two scopes is a toss-up, depending on whether you get a good sample of the PST or not. Erector repeatability is well-established with the SIII line, and I've also had nothing but excellent experiences with a couple PST's, as far as tracking, RTZ, and click value goes.

I don't think you can go too far wrong with either scope. You might also want to check into the Bushnell HDMR, which is supposed to be a bit better than either of the other two by a little bit, but it's in the $1300-1400 range. I personally thought the HDMR has turret adjustments that were a little more squishy than the PST's I've owned and used, and I wan't a huge fan of the reticle options. The glass is good, though, and it is an FFP scope.
 
I own the PST and have used the SIII multiple times (32x model)

Pro PST:

- Turrets
- Glass is good
- repeatable
- Slightly cheaper
- "looks" tactical. Lol

Cons PST:
- I do believe quality or craftsmanship. I've seen people with a few issues, and I kinda have an issue. I have yet to replace it.

Sightron PRO:
- Glass is better
- Fit and finish, quality.
- Reticle is slightly better then my MOA one (when comparing MOA/MOA from both scopes)

Cons:
- Dated looking (Tacticooool guys need to know this)
- Turrets aren't quite as good, but still great.


I think both are great options for the price. I don't think you can really go wrong with either. I do think overall, the Sightron warrants the extra cost in glass brightness and quality, but that being said I still enjoy my Viper PST.

As for my background, I'm relatively new to shooting, and I have not used cheaper, or more expensive scopes. I have done quite a bit of research and had a few outtings behind the Sightron to compare to the PST I own. The owner of the sightron also owns a PST as well.

EDIT: One more note. Admittedly I don't own the gun and it wasn't set-up for me, but I found the Sightron has a sensitive eye relief. You have to be aligned perfectly and at the right distance, whereas my VIPER appears to be a bit more flexible.

Hopefully others can back that claim..
 
As I've said many times the Siii is the best value out there in the $1K range. I've used a few PST's and I am not a fan though they do have quite the following. As an aside this 'which is better' thread comes up pretty often and you can search to see responses to previous postings.
 
Pretty much everything have been covered by the other posts but I'll add some of my thoughts.

The Viper does have a nicer look for on top of a 10/110BA but the features are nice for when out shooting. The zoom ring on the Viper is nicer then the Sightron with frozen fingers, Sightron is nicer then Nightforces.

My Sightron has a MOA reticle and my Girlfriends Viper PST has a MOA reticle. I like the 1 MOA spacing in her reticle. I dial for elevation and hold for wind so its nice to have 1 MOA spacing.

The glass is a little nicer on the Sightron. To me its worth the extra $150 over the Viper just for the Glass.

I really like the Zero Stop on the Viper. Some people don't like it because it doesn’t stop right on zero but when you go past zero and come to zero going up you get rid of any lash in the gears, if there is any.
 
I can get out to nearly a mile with the 62MOA of usable "up" in the PST that sits on top of my .243AI. I definitely wouldn't say that I "wasted" my money because I don't have 100 MOA of elevation travel...
 
Your right, maybe "waste" is a bad term, what kind of base are you running? What is you ever wanted to shoot further? I guess what I'm saying is, why limit yourself right of the bat? If you never want to go past "nearly a mile" then your set up is perfect
I can get out to nearly a mile with the 62MOA of usable "up" in the PST that sits on top of my .243AI. I definitely wouldn't say that I "wasted" my money because I don't have 100 MOA of elevation travel...
 
I bought the Slll 10x50x60mm FCH a month ago and have it sitting on my model 12 FV 223 I can reach out and touch anything I look at! Remember "aim small miss small"
 
They are both great scopes from everything I have heard online, The only thing that is keeping me from making that final decision is as a few have mentioned... The 19 mils / 100 moa of adjustment on the sightron, Shooting my 178 superformance match hpbt if I go with the pst then im thinking im probably going to need to get either a 20-30 moa base to get to 1k. That's one of the main reasons im having such a hard time deciding lol. As far as looks go I couldn't care how it looks as long as it does everything I want it too lol.
 
Your right, maybe "waste" is a bad term, what kind of base are you running? What is you ever wanted to shoot further? I guess what I'm saying is, why limit yourself right of the bat? If you never want to go past "nearly a mile" then your set up is perfect

I agree with you that additional erector travel is never a bad thing. But at some point, enough is enough. I'm running a 20MOA base, and 30mm Burris Sig rings with 0.010" inserts. If I need more than 1660 yards that I can get with the elevation turret, I still have 30MOA of holdover afforded by the reticle ;) I can get to a mile by dialing 61.25MOA into the turret, and holding 10MOA on the reticle.

It really depends on what kind of rig the scope is sitting on. I don't think I'll ever need to go passed a mile with my .243AI, but if I were running a 7mm or a .338, then I'd want the additional erector travel.

If Sightron had the option of FFP, and if the reticle was as good as the PST reticle (I feel like the reticle in the PST is slightly better, but they're very similar), then I'd probably lean Sightron. The zero stop in the PST is nice, but not totally essential, and the illuminated reticle is a feature that may come in handy, but that I could live without.

The Sightron warranty is very good, from what I understand, but I don't think it's quite as good as Vortex.

With the new FFP model that Sightron is introducing, I may lean to Sightron for my next scope in this class, depending on pricing.
 
If you plan on shooting up to, or over a mile, just buy a ~40MOA base. Then you can use either scope still.

Last weekend I ran out of adjustment on my .308. I can't shoot with 300's shooting 1900yards... I have a 20MOA TPS rail.

I'm fairly certain the other guy shooting a 300 and sightron couldn't do it either without holdover. I'll have to confirm that gun had a SIII though. It might have been a Leupold.
 
The only problem with a 40MOA base is that it limits your close-range options. With the 20MOA base I'm zero'd 1.5" high at 100 yards, and I can dial out to 1660 yards, and add hold over to get out to 1950 yards. That's using a .243AI with 105gr AM at 3150fps.
 
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