Well it turns out I should have gone to Cabelas instead as the pickings at Wholesale were slim. I settled on some Hornady Superformance 150gr SSTs which had a nice, shiny box. Shinier than the Winchester anyhow.
It was a balmy -25C this morning with 50km/h winds and blowing snow but the testing needed to get done. The data collected proved very valuable and it was fun finally getting some optics onto the M despite the miserable conditions.
Once I'd finally gotten the ACOG sighted in on some generous soul's leftover Shoot-n-See target stapled to the underside of a well-perforated kitchen chair, hitting the binary targets was child's play. I was only shooting at 50m however these SSTs show some promise in the XCR. Given slightly more favorable conditions such as a light blizzard I'll see about patterning it at 100m. I'm optimistic as I was shooting supported on the tailgate with weak hand forward - not my preferred method - and after getting dialed in I nailed close to dead center with ease. Stay tuned.
As for the TA55A it's a gorgeous piece of glass. With that huge 50mm objective it is exceptionally clear with no chromatic aberration or blurred edges and excellent contrast, with fairly generous eye relief and positioning. Beautiful to look through; your typical ACOG. I very much like the BAC illuminated V reticle with the BDC out to 1000m. At the bottom of the sight picture the specific magnification and caliber for the BDC are etched which is a nice touch.
The TA55A is, however, a monster. If you thought the XCR-M was heavy enough with the quad rail and heavy barrel, you'd better either bust out the lead sled or a gym pass now for this beast. Tipping the scales at a pound and a half it's not quite Trijicon's heaviest but it certainly is the longest of the ACOG series. It does have something of an imbalanced look to it as the forward section was indeed an afterthought (the scope itself is embossed 3.5x35 and laser etched 5.5x50 on the opposite side), but if the aesthetics and dimensions are less of a concern than performance it warrants a close look by any "tactical" shooter. This is not an optic for shooting F-class.
I'm not fond of the capped turrets that aren't adjustable without a tool. Okay for a military that's only shooting one load, through one gun, and once zeroed there should be no reason for a grunt to be messing with it, but a bit of a pain for civilian shooters who might be making adjustments more frequently. They tracked well with no lash but using the flat screwdriver blade of a Leatherman I found the mechanical advantage made it easy to skip past the number of clicks you had intended. I would prefer at least a tab that was finger adjustable but I understand why it's built that way.
I'd like to put the ACOG through its paces this summer at longer ranges to see how well the BDC reticle translates to civilian applications. Overall I am quite pleased with it and I'm sure it won't be the only Trijicon I adorn my guns with.
