Schmidt and Bender PMii Tunneling

FunAtTheRange

New member
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Is anyone else bothered by the tunneling with the 5x25 S&B PMii ? Or am I being too picky? I love the glass and the turrets are amazing but I just can’t understand why the primer scope, the benchmark in its class has tunneling on low power??

I haven’t had the chance to look at their new high power PMii’s , can anyone tell me if they still have the same issue?

Does anyone know why they tunnel? Or can point me to an article as to why they do?
 
Same with the 5-25 ATACR I can't stand the tunneling on 5x..Then on 7X you're fine. The 7-35 doesn't do that!

Yes they fixed the problem on there High power S&B.
 
Last edited:
Tunnelling on the low end avoids sacrificing FOV on the high end is my understanding. It’s not a premier scope anymore, twenty ish years old. I’m not sure what the differences are between the updated version with the aluminum mag ring vs the the older rubber one
 
I believe that most military grade scopes have thicker tubes and have the ocular lens set further back in the ocular housing. This may make you feel like it's tunneling but it may just be the overbuilt military spec construction. I think they call this perceived field of view.
 
I didn’t notice any tunneling with my ATACR 5x25, at least no where near how much the S&B is at 5 power.

It makes sense that there would be more FOV at high magnification.
 
Tunnelling on the low end avoids sacrificing FOV on the high end is my understanding. It’s not a premier scope anymore, twenty ish years old. I’m not sure what the differences are between the updated version with the aluminum mag ring vs the the older rubber one

I think S&B would still be considered top tier, agreed there are many more in the category now.…

That’s a good question… what are the top 5?
1)Tangent
2)ZCO
3)S&B
4)NF / Kahles
5) IOR / Leica
 
Not sure what the issue is if the reticle isn’t even usable at 5x what’s the point/who cares if it tunnels, same on the extreme high end with mirage. I don’t get the extreme mag range hornyness that seems to be the current rage. A 3x or 4x erector is more durable and does probably everything you’d want. Schmidt and bender do make nice scopes. Ranking them is a rabbit hole, but the features/durability you want, how the glass “looks” is subjective.

The current argument on some forms is the scope is primarily an aiming device not an observation device, if it doesn’t hold zero or track (if you like dialing) what good is it. Swarovski as an example excellent viewing experience but poor zero retention/durability, same with IOR I heard them described as having S&B glass with Pakistani internals.
 
Not sure what the issue is if the reticle isn’t even usable at 5x what’s the point/who cares if it tunnels, same on the extreme high end with mirage. I don’t get the extreme mag range hornyness that seems to be the current rage. A 3x or 4x erector is more durable and does probably everything you’d want. Schmidt and bender do make nice scopes. Ranking them is a rabbit hole, but the features/durability you want, how the glass “looks” is subjective.

The current argument on some forms is the scope is primarily an aiming device not an observation device, if it doesn’t hold zero or track (if you like dialing) what good is it. Swarovski as an example excellent viewing experience but poor zero retention/durability, same with IOR I heard them described as having S&B glass with Pakistani internals.



You would have to look through one to understand. It literally looks like the edges of the scope are 5x as thick as they should be. It’s just annoying that S&B tunnel and other optic manufacturers don’t.
 
The S&B 5-25 is an old design and has been around for a long time and the tunneling between 5-7X is well known. Nobody really cares as the rest of this optic is still the gold standard everything else gets compared to.

Realistically, there’s no reason to use a large, high magnification target optic under 8X so the tunneling really makes no difference. Most shooting with these is done between 12 and 18X, zooming up to 25X for target ID.

Even though it is now a classic, you’ve got a beauty optic there, enjoy!
 
Back
Top Bottom