Budget friendly LPVO options?

Desjard said:
Arken looks good except for the 34mm tube. No desire to start buying a 3rd ring diameter.
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No expert on 34mm, the nearest Holiday Inn Express is 100's of km away.

The same could have been said of 30mm when it was relatively new. More and more 34mm, means more options in rings. If your using a 34mm in a boomer your going to need a more expensive/quality mount, a 22 plinker would be cheaper.

In 34mm, your positives are; more ridgid and more space for mechanicals. Fine adjustment with more vertical/horizontal moa/mil adjustment range. Like Bartoc said, one can't put a $2k optic on every firearm if you have many. It's of course, finding the intersection of price/value/ purpose for your intended use.
 
Can-down said:
The "center dot" of the EP8 at 1x is not a dot but just a scrunched up shrunken view of the ranging ladder.
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I ordered one and an Arken cantilever mount from Go Big Tactical on Monday because of Bartok's recommendation and got it today.

I have no issues with seeing the inverted horseshoe and centre dot with mine at any magnification. I find it to be well defined and crisp at X1 to X8. I tried to capture pics at both magnifications with my old crappy camera but only the X8 worked out. My fault, not the reticle. I can try to get the X1 again tomorrow, my patience is is spent for now.

My sight picture is well defined and crisp, my photography is not.

 
recce said:
I ordered one and an Arken cantilever mount from Go Big Tactical on Monday because of Bartok's recommendation and got it today.

I have no issues with seeing the inverted horseshoe and centre dot with mine at any magnification. I find it to be well defined and crisp at X1 to X8. I tried to capture pics at both magnifications with my old crappy camera but only the X8 worked out. My fault, not the reticle. I can try to get the X1 again tomorrow, my patience is is spent for now.

My sight picture is well defined and crisp, my photography is not.

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That's great to hear, I would love to look at one in person and see it with my own eyes so to speak..... :)
 
Bartok5,

You mentioned the swamp fox in an earlier post. I have been keeping my eye on those for some time now in the 1-10.

How does is stack up to the others in your line up?

Thanks.
 
wallz said:
Bartok5,

You mentioned the swamp fox in an earlier post. I have been keeping my eye on those for some time now in the 1-10.

How does is stack up to the others in your line up?

Thanks.
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I tried measuring corrections using the Swampfox Mils reticle just the other day on the range and was seriously confused at first, followed by disappointment. For some reason, the SFP Mils reticle is way out to lunch, even on the max magnification setting (which is the standard for 2nd Focal Plane scopes). Compared to the Leupold Spotting scope (which we validated against other optics on the range), the Swampfox was totally out to lunch. As in unusable for measuring and good only for hold-overs specific to that particular reticle and scope. Pretty disappointing. Otherwise, I quite like the Swampfox offering - the glass is decent throughout the magnification range, the locking turrets work well, and the scope seems to track well. However I simply cannot recommend it based on the Reticle disconnect insofar as measuring at max magnification is concerned. It was an "Decent" scope right up until I discovered the reticle discrepancy. That has pretty much killed it for me, although the other features did seem like good value for the sub-$800 CAD price-point. YMMV, depending on the importance you place on accurate spotter corrections. If you are a solo shooter, the reticle being out of whack may not matter to you. That said, for the sake of 2x magnification at the high end and a savings of $500, I'd go with the Arken EP-8 every time...

Note that I have not tried the MOA version of the Swampfox 1-10x, and cannot comment on its reticle's accuracy.


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zygtac said:
Been considering putting an LPVO on my X95 such as the Sig Tango 1-6 but they're out of stock everywhere.
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I have the Sig Tango MSR 1-6x on my Keltec RDB bullpup. I had to import it from USA via IRUNGUNS because I couldn't find it in Canada either.

So far I think I like the scope for basement LARPing and on 1x at my indoor range, but I haven't had the chance to take it to the outdoor range yet and push it out to long distance. Included mount seems solid, reticle and illumination nice and clear, feels well built and smooth zoom with the included throw lever. I will admit the eye relief was a bit of an adjustment compared to the unlimited eye relief on the Sig Romeo 5 on my other rifle, but I think that is common to all LPVOs and not a knock against the Tango. It's also obviously heavier than a red dot but not necessarily heavier than a RDS plus magnifier, but I thought I needed more than 3x for the ranges I wanted to shoot at (hopefully ringing steel at up to 600m) so I went with the 1-6x.

I have noticed that I rarely am tempted to shoot at magnifications other than 1x or 6x, so I am second guessing myself on the LPVO platform generally because I don't see the utility of the in between zooms. My friend has a 5x prism with a micro red dot on top arriving this week and I am interested to try his setup. I didn't really consider fixed magnification when I was shopping for an optic, but it seems faster to switch between near and far and potentially lighter overall. Prisms have a very narrow eye relief though, so maybe I won't care for it as much as I think I will, or maybe the RDS with its unlimited eye relief will feel great. The only way to know if you like it is to try it yourself.

If you can, I recommend trying a few different optics platforms on other people's firearms before you spend the money. The prism + RDS setup cost about the same as my LPVO, so maybe something to consider. If I love it I will probably be looking for someone to buy my Tango and I will put it up for sale on the equipment exchange if that happens. Good luck and let us know what you end up choosing and whether you like it.
 
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