Optics review thread - the good, bad and ugly - glass, reticles, pictures and reviews

[loki_81]

The purpose of this thread is to compile a database of reviews on all types of optics for any platform. Be it precision, CQB, black rifle, pistol, or .22lr post your review here. Try to post pictures with your review, even if you're not the best photographer pictures help with any review.

All reviews are welcome as are all skill levels from novice to salty pro. Multiple reviews of the same optic from different members are of course welcome because the same optic might have different values to different people.

Play nice folks as I hope to have this as a bit of a resource for those interested in purchasing an optic that may be hard to find anything besides factory information on, and we don't want this thread getting locked down.

That said allow me to start the fun .

Trijicon ACOG 4x32 BAC with Doc Op

This particular unit is equipped with ARD and came with Tritium and Fiber optic making it very versatile in every lighting condition. Mounted on top of the ACOG is the Doc Op (Docter Optic) red dot. The unit sits in a Larue Tactical 4XDOS QD Mount. Reticle is a TA31-C.

As cool as the Trijicon series is some built in features that was made with the US military in mind that must be taken into account. This model has a BDC that is calibrated for 14.5" barrels shooting M855 spec 62 grain projectiles. Being as how M855 is difficult to source presently a person may not be using the BDC as it was calibrated. Another option is to reload to as close to spec as possible.

Another thing about this is that it is a med-high mounted optic. Making something in mind for the "lowest common denominator" in the military eliminated the possiblity of rings, and the height must take into account the armour and gear worn by your typical rifleman. Magnification is a constant 4x which again eliminates room for error.

Where most people may think that 4x magnification is too much for close in shooting and fast aquisition the Trijicon was made with the BAC (Bindon Aiming Concept). The BAC allows for two eye open shooting and makes for a bi-focal picture when you keep both eyes open which can make for "good enough to get the job done" shooting. For times where some magnification is required the user just needs to squint or close the non-dominant eye and the reticle with 4x magnification become instantly clear. This is yet another feature meant for the main purchasing client and to give some versatility to the glass with eliminating the room for error.

I apologize for the crap pic, it's what I can find as the XCR is now sold. I had this XCR setup with a fast stock in the middle position (the fast can be screwed into three positions for height adjustment) with the cheek riser in the top position. The top stock position was too high with a proper cheek weld and didn't allow for good sight picture, but the middle stock position with the cheek riser in the top riser position was perfect.

As said the Trijicon mounts high, and requires a platform that can be somewhat customized to the user and optic.

The glass and reticle.

The Trijicon 4x32 BAC is a good and clear optic. This glass is clear to the edges and had a great field of view with little obstruction from the reticle.

The BAC makes for fast target aquisition and this would make for a fantastic competition optic allowing you to shoot with both eyes open yet have the added benefit of magnification where needed.

The reticle is bright in the daylight to low light, and being the only colour in the constantly illuminated reticle is fast to aquire.

Darkness and low light the illuminated reticle isn't to bright as to be blinding. With consistent rifle shouldering and cheek weld the reticle is fast to pick up in the darkness, and doesn't require messing around with switches. In very low light to darkness where 4x magnification doesn't matter the BAC and Tritium illumination is a wonderful combination to allow for both eye open binocular sight picture as the reticle just sits infront of the dominant eye and floats nicely over the target.

Cons;

The reticle can give a halo effect with too much light present and become blurry. This is caused by the light gathering capability of the fiber optic.

Although it allows for an excellent non cluttered sight picture the center reticle can be considered a little small. For those needing corrective eyewear it may be a little hard to pick up.

Dark and low light illumination of the Tritium can be a little weak and difficult to pick up. Perhaps it was just me and the dark didn't combine well with the red for my eyes, but it could be difficult to pick up but still better than nothing. Darkenss testing was done with 30 min eye adjustment to low light, then shouldered with consisten cheek weld. The Tritium at the time of testing was new and not degraded.

Demonstrated here by the flash of my camera is the halo effect of the illuminated reticle. This is one of the good pictures and I chose it so you can still see the reticle, below is one of the 'bad' pictures with halo effect.

The reticle halo under extreme light (camera flash) in it's full blinding glory.

The glass is clear to the edges, this is just my lack of photography skills coming through.

Above is a enlarged factory diagram of the reticle.

The Doctor Optic

This has to be one of my favorite red dots. It takes all of the messing around out of the picture as it adjusts the red dot brightness to ambient light conditions. It's always on and has a great battery life, and goes into a very dim setting when in complete darkness and when the lens cap is on.

In this particlar setup cheek weld was impossible to achieve, and was more of a chin weld. It works for 50 yards on in, but consistency was difficult at best without cheek weld. If I were to run this setup again I would have the Doc Op mounted to the side so the rifle could just be canted to the left allowing for a consistent form and good cheek weld.

The Doc Op is so fast to adjust to lighting conditions that it adjusted in time for the flash and still be clear and visible for this picture.

Here's a demo picture of the need of consistent form. The red dot isn't even in the picture as the camera lens is so high the dot isn't visible. Such an issue can cause shot drifting on targets or missed shots in competition. This isn't an issue with the Doc Op so much as it is with the way it was mounted.

If I were to have to find a down side to the Doc Op it would be the cover. When not in use to save on battery life you basically turn it off (actually it's turned into very dim due to compete darkness to the light censor) by putting the cover on. This cover combined with the aluminum side protection can take some getting used to and if you don't practice the cover removal a switch can be faster. With some practice it became easy to remove, but being a civilian I didn't practice under true stress and wouldn't be able to speak to the speed of cap removal under stress.

 

[gutinater]

I didnt think the ACOG models with the crosshair reticles were BAC models? I thought the V reticle and circle of death were the BAC design?

 

[loki_81]

EO Tech 512

This Eo Tech 512 is mounted on a Larue ECOS-C QD mount.

The Eo Tech is very robust for the amount of glass it has. At first glance you'd look at the glass and think it would break pretty easy. As you can see by the pics this Eo Tech has seen some use and wasn't treated lightly. The glass remained clear, the electronics held up, and it took the beating it was given like a champ.

The reason for the height of the ECOS-C rear picatinny is to mount a night vision monocular in co-witness with a Eo Tech.

For the controls the 512 has them rearward facing, which can be both good and bad at the same time. If you want to make adjustments on the fly while maintaining a sight picture your support hand gets in the way which could cause you to have to break the sight picture. However adjusting from the back allows you to see the buttons you're pushing while keeping the rifle pointed down range.

The glass and reticle

The glass is clear, allows for full field of view un-obstructed vision and two eye open shooting. Very nice and wide window allows for minimal obstruction to your dominant eye, while keeping both eyes open the aluminum casing is barely noticeable.

Cons;

The reticle is projected onto the glass by the laser makes it look grainy. This is due to the fact that a laser does have to produce a shape and it does this kind of like pixels on your screen, big grainy pixels . Kind of a pet peeve really and YMMV, not truly a downside to all users.

Where this falls apart for me is that the reticle hurt my eye to look at for an extended period of time, and this irritation was noticeable past 10 seconds of viewing. Perhaps this isn't going to be every users experience and may just be me. Even the lowest of brigtness settings did this.

Here's the reticle. I would have liked to show you a sight picture through my 512, but the reticle was so grainy in every picture that it appeared to be a blob. Of course this is most likely due to the fact that my camera skills aren't as good as my wifes, I should have just waited for her to take the pic ;p.

 

[loki_81]

I didnt think the ACOG models with the crosshair reticles were BAC models? I thought the V reticle and circle of death were the BAC design?

They do have the BAC with the, TA31, TA31-C, and TA-31CH.

 

[gutinater]

ah thanks

 

[loki_81]

Nightforce 5.5-22×56 NXS

This Nightforce has the NPR-1 reticle and is equipped with Zerostop.

The above picture shows the parallax adjustment turret. Pull this turret out to turn on the illumination, push in to turn off.

For the price range Nightforce has incredibly clear glass all the way to the edges and great light gathering capablilty, very easily comparable to higher priced scopes in the $4000 range.

Magnification is fast to adjust and once the eye relief and focus is set it is reliable and clear though the entire magnification range. The reticle is easy to pick up at any magnification, if the true MOA values are desired to be used it must be done at the highest magnification value as this is a Second Focal plane reticle.

Eye relief is pretty generous for this magnification range of scope, hopefully eliminating the hunting shots of the shooter with a bloody nose or cut eyebrow.

Elevation is adjustable to .250 MOA.

The Zerostop is a fantastic ability on the elevation turret. Unlike competitors that are priced lower this Zerostop stops at where you zeroed the scope, not + or - 3 MOA. So long as you're not a gorilla with the elevation knob the Zerostop will return to zero quickly and efficiently everytime and likely last for the lifetime of the firearm it sits on.

If you need to dial up to compensate for bullet drop at longer distances from your zero it can be done so quickly, Nightforce turrets are meant to be treated rough. A return to zero all you have to do is dial back and if the Zerostop is set then it'll stop the turret for you without you even having to lose the sight picture.

Windage is adjustable to .250 MOA. What most people misunderstand with Zerostop is that it is only on the elevation and not on windage. This is of course designed with the thought in mind that you will be adjusting this turret far less and using holdovers in the case of wind and other elemental conditions.

The above picture demonstrates the NPR-1 reticle with illumination. All subtensions on the vertical axis are 1 MOA in spacing and on the horizion the are 2 MOA making for fast and reliable hold overs once you know your bullet drop.

The NPR-1 reticle can be used as a range finder as well. Knowing the height of the target in inches, or at least the average height of the type of target it becomes a simple formula that can be done on the fly to calculate range and is capable of precision accuracy if you know the exact height and at the very least will hit vitals if averages are used for hunting.

I was having a hard time figuring out how to focus the camera so the reticle appeared. I eventually put the camera lense cap on and turned the illumination on to get this picture to demonstrate the reticle. It was a long and hot day and the frustration was building with the picture, I just wanted to get back to shooting and load development.

The optic in comparison to a precision rifle.

The weight of this optic helps add that little bit more to help absorb the recoil of the heaviest of magnum loads, this scope is built to absorb shock.

Cons;

If I were hard pressed to find a con it'd be the weight. If you're thinking of such an optic for a lightweight setup and counting the ounces in every little part then the scope alone weighs in a 2 Lbs (32 oz). This weight is of course prior to rings or whatever mount you intend to run. Of course on a precision setup, even the light weight AR-15, the weight is less of an issue and becomes more of an advantage.

A small con is that the parallax adjustment turret is in lines and not yards. This is easy enough to figure out and proper form goes further to parallax elimination than a turret, but putting yards on the parallax turret would go a long way to easing the learning curve.