Nightforce 4-16x42mm ATACR Field Evaluation Q&A

[Slamfire94]

Valid point about the tactical market. Yet here we are on a hunting site and their scopes are the topic of discussion over and over and over again. Obviously there is significant hunter interest. I wish Nightforce would pay attention. There are two complaints that continually come up on NF threads, or when people say “I wish Nightforce would make…”. Or, “I would buy a Nightforce if”… Weight and busy reticle! That’s it!

Make a something 3-18 X 50, with a simple, clean and usable reticle, first and second focal plane options, and 22 ish ounces. You’d own the market! I’m convinced it could be done.

you are pretty much describing a 3-18x44 Tenmile

 

[Shortschaf]

you are pretty much describing a 3-18x44 Tenmile

Besides the simple, clean, usable reticle, and 22ish ounce part

But to your point they are likely coming out with new reticles soonish, and to ask for 22ounces in a scope of this feature set is not very realistic

 

[SDHNTR]

you are pretty much describing a 3-18x44 Tenmile

Old post, but yeah, the Tenmile reticle is a non starter for me.

 

[BlackTail]

But to your point they are likely coming out with new reticles soonish,

Are you referring to Tijicon or Nightforce coming out with new reticles soonish?

 

[Shortschaf]

Are you referring to Tijicon or Nightforce coming out with new reticles soonish?

New Trijicon Tenmile FFP Reticle Released

Trijicon announced on Jan 3rd, 2024 No, it's not the model nor the angular measurement that many want. BUT, it is the first FFP reticle in Trijicon's riflescope lineup WITHOUT a tree (not counting LPVOs). Big step in the right direction, and I'd expect to see the other models follow suit...

rokslide.com

 

[Hooskerdrew]

What mil reticle did people end up buying for hunting, the MIL-r or MIL-c? I know it was mentioned earlier in this thread but I was curious for those who ended up purchasing this scope, which one did you go with and are you happy with it? Both look fine to me but the .5 wind hold on the R has me questioning it. Thanks!

 

[JollyRoger]

What mil reticle did people end up buying for hunting, the MIL-r or MIL-c? I know it was mentioned earlier in this thread but I was curious for those who ended up purchasing this scope, which one did you go with and are you happy with it? Both look fine to me but the .5 wind hold on the R has me questioning it. Thanks!

Mine is the Mil-R. I find it much easier to see and use on lower power than the Mil C or XT.

Also, for hunting I think I prefer .5 mil increments over .2. It’s less counting of hashes, and cutting .5 in half on the fly has been pretty intuitive and easy for me with the Mil-R and MilQuad reticles

 

[Hooskerdrew]

Mine is the Mil-R. I find it much easier to see and use on lower power than the Mil C or XT.

Copy, thanks! And it’s fine on full power as well?

 

[JollyRoger]

Copy, thanks! And it’s fine on full power as well?

It’s good at full power too. I’ve only used it at 16x a few times to zoom in on an animal. Most the time in the field and during practice I’m between 6x and 10x

 

[Shortschaf]

It’s less counting of hashes, and cutting .5 in half on the fly has been pretty intuitive and easy for me with the Mil-R and MilQuad reticles

this^

I had mil-C, and though it was just fine for me, I wouldnt hesitate to go mil R. Especially for hunting

 

[Hooskerdrew]

this^

I had mil-C, and though it was just fine for me, I wouldnt hesitate to go mil R. Especially for hunting

Awesome, thanks guys! This helps.

 

[CTXhunter]

@Formidilosus i have this scope mounted to a 6 ARC gas gun. When I first purchased it I mounted it up in a badger C1 mount, degreased everything and mounted it up with blue loctite and 20 in/lbs on the ring screws. I zeroed and immediately ran a drop test with 9 drops from both knee and waist height and it passed with flying colors. Since then I have shot hundreds of rounds and it’s been a great setup. the other day I was with a friend and we were talking about drop testing scopes. I dropped that rifle from about mid torso (because I trusted it so much) on soft, damp, sandy soil. I get down and engage a 500ish yard target after I had been shooting at a 300ish yard target and it’s over a mil high. As I start trying to diagnose what happened, I realized it was dialed over a mil when I dropped it. Do you think it’s possible that the turret slid back down to its “zero stop” on the turret , and when I dialed the additional elevation for the further target, it kept the extra mil or so? Trying to make sense of what happened.

After the incident I unmounted the scope, checked everything, and remounted. No screws seemed loose and I put it all back together and re-zeroed. Windage was fine, elevation was a mil and change. Set my zero stop again and went to shoot back at the 300-600 yard targets and seemed like it’s fine. I didn’t have time to complete a tracking test to make sure everything was good.

Anyway, long story, just curious if you have any recommendations on where to go from here, and have you ever dropped a scope that was dialed and had any issues vs set down on its zero stop? Thanks

 

[Formidilosus]

@Formidilosus i have this scope mounted to a 6 ARC gas gun. When I first purchased it I mounted it up in a badger C1 mount, degreased everything and mounted it up with blue loctite and 20 in/lbs on the ring screws. I zeroed and immediately ran a drop test with 9 drops from both knee and waist height and it passed with flying colors. Since then I have shot hundreds of rounds and it’s been a great setup. the other day I was with a friend and we were talking about drop testing scopes. I dropped that rifle from about mid torso (because I trusted it so much) on soft, damp, sandy soil. I get down and engage a 500ish yard target after I had been shooting at a 300ish yard target and it’s over a mil high. As I start trying to diagnose what happened, I realized it was dialed over a mil when I dropped it. Do you think it’s possible that the turret slid back down to its “zero stop” on the turret , and when I dialed the additional elevation for the further target, it kept the extra mil or so? Trying to make sense of what happened.

After the incident I unmounted the scope, checked everything, and remounted. No screws seemed loose and I put it all back together and re-zeroed. Windage was fine, elevation was a mil and change. Set my zero stop again and went to shoot back at the 300-600 yard targets and seemed like it’s fine. I didn’t have time to complete a tracking test to make sure everything was good.

Anyway, long story, just curious if you have any recommendations on where to go from here, and have you ever dropped a scope that was dialed and had any issues vs set down on its zero stop? Thanks

I can’t say with certainty anything- however it is extremely unlikely it was the scope. For a 4-16x ATACR to shift 1 mil, it will be hard broke and will not shoot groups and/or be able to start working again.
There are quite a few things on standard AR’s that can cause issue and shifts. What is the setup- rail, muzzle device, gas block?

Also, while it probably isn’t an issue in this case, the C1 mounts have had issues.

 

[CTXhunter]

@Formidilosus
Gun is a homebrew gas gun. 16” proof barrel, BCM rail, VLTOR upper, American defense lower with triggertech diamond, A5 buffer and PRS lite stock. Can is an old and heavy silencerco specwar with an ASR mount. Can and muzzle device are still tight with no wobble. Rail doesn’t appear to have moved.

 

[Formidilosus]

View attachment 832803
@Formidilosus
Gun is a homebrew gas gun. 16” proof barrel, BCM rail, VLTOR upper, American defense lower with triggertech diamond, A5 buffer and PRS lite stock. Can is an old and heavy silencerco specwar with an ASR mount. Can and muzzle device are still tight with no wobble. Rail doesn’t appear to have moved.

You have quite a few potential sources of shift- the one that is most obvious is the BCM rail. They are fine rails, but the mounting interface and the rail themselves are not the most robust design. You can get shift in the barrel but, but not see anything with the rail. Standard AR’s in general have more to go wrong with how most are setup (the only ones I would do the drop eval with are LMT monolithic uppers for instance).

Then the can. The muzzle device and can itself can cause a slight shift- it’s why OPS Inc cans went over the barrel and had a collar that it screwed onto.


Overall, you have a long rifle with very long levers on it, and the only way to isolate which is causing the shift/caused the shift is to go through each with known items- rifle with a known and proven scope (I would be fairly comfortable using the ATACR), then take the can off and isolate that, change scope mount, etc.


Overall a drop of 4-5 feet or more (mid chest), is very hard on equipment, and if you want a high confidence factor for zero retention, you will basically be building the rifle around that requirement- most AR’s (nearly all), won’t stay absolutely zeroed from that.

 

[CTXhunter]

10-4. I’m going to probably take it down and make sure the torque is good on everything and get it all back together and get it zeroed. I appreciate the help. Sitting and thinking on it for a couple days I agree that it’s probably a slim chance of the optic, more than likely some part of this rifle.

@Formidilosus could you link that post where you go through a full tikka setup from factory? I remember a long post about everything you do to a tikka out of the box and can’t find it. Just got a factory gun and looking to set it up once and leave it alone for a decade or two