Scope Suggestions: S&B Polar T96 vs. others

[wanderingwolf24]

Happy Thanksgiving!

I am looking to get into a new piece of glass this winter. Do any of y'all have experience with the Polar T96? I love the idea of the S&B, but am open to other suggestions in the price range. Swaro, Zeiss, and Vortex LHT are all in the consideration.

 

[sdupontjr]

If your needing a low light optic, the polar is king. I love mine. 4-16x56 with elevation turret. I hunt thick hard woods as well as open areas. Here is south Louisiana it's gets dark very quick. And I mean dark. We can legally hunt 30 min pass sunset. I have tried many optics on my property and not many can even get to sunset much less 30 min pass. Our thick oaks block out daylight. The polar can get me thrown in jail. I have sat plenty times pass legal time just to look around. With very little moon light, it's really a great optic. The illumination on the polar is what really sets it apart. I have had klassiks, meoptas, accupoints. The polars illumination is like a pin prick. I have tried to see it in daylight and had to turn it to 7 to see it. It's gets so low that the illumination doesn't over power your pupil and blind you. Other than the price, I love it. But then again, buy once, cry once.

 

[stooxie]

If you Google "Polar T96 vs Zeiss Victory HT" you'll see a post I wrote on The Hide that compares the T96 to a few other top tier scopes, including the Leica Magnus.

Now... the Zeiss Victory HT and Leica Magnus are no longer for sale in the US, but they can be found.

TLDR: The T96 is excellent, and Eurooptic has them for some pretty fantastic prices (which is good, cuz they are the sole US importer). Leica Magnus and Zeiss Victory HT are just a hair better (to MY eye), but they are hard to find.

 

[wanderingwolf24]

If your needing a low light optic, the polar is king. I love mine. 4-16x56 with elevation turret. I hunt thick hard woods as well as open areas. Here is south Louisiana it's gets dark very quick. And I mean dark. We can legally hunt 30 min pass sunset. I have tried many optics on my property and not many can even get to sunset much less 30 min pass. Our thick oaks block out daylight. The polar can get me thrown in jail. I have sat plenty times pass legal time just to look around. With very little moon light, it's really a great optic. The illumination on the polar is what really sets it apart. I have had klassiks, meoptas, accupoints. The polars illumination is like a pin prick. I have tried to see it in daylight and had to turn it to 7 to see it. It's gets so low that the illumination doesn't over power your pupil and blind you. Other than the price, I love it. But then again, buy once, cry once.

View attachment 798171

Thanks for your response? I am wrong handed and have read there have been issues with the left hand bolt hitting the illumination knob. I shoot a tikka as well, can you tell if there would be an interference on your rifle?

 

[sdupontjr]

Just got home from hunt. It would close. Hard to say if it would hit and also how high it's mounted. I have a MT rail with the recoil pin and vortex precision match rings. Not sure height, can't remember. But here's a pic. Unless you install an aftermarket bolt knob. Hard to tell, im not a "backwards" shooter. Ha

 

[RockAndSage]

If you Google "Polar T96 vs Zeiss Victory HT" you'll see a post I wrote on The Hide that compares the T96 to a few other top tier scopes, including the Leica Magnus.

Now... the Zeiss Victory HT and Leica Magnus are no longer for sale in the US, but they can be found.

TLDR: The T96 is excellent, and Eurooptic has them for some pretty fantastic prices (which is good, cuz they are the sole US importer). Leica Magnus and Zeiss Victory HT are just a hair better (to MY eye), but they are hard to find.

Why are they no longer for sale?

 

[stooxie]

Why are they no longer for sale?

I have no idea. I think part of the reason is that the American markets care far more about dialing turrets than they do about absolute glass quality. In the last 10 years, the marketing around every aspect of hunting and shooting has been around long distance. As if every person in the country now has access to 1000 yard ranges and is hunting deer out at 800. The fact is, 99% of shots are still taken under 200 yards, and the deer still come out at dawn and dusk.

Somehow, there are two Zeiss Victory HTs right here for purchase, brand new. Not sure how, but I even called them to confirm they have these unicorns in stock. Supposedly two of them:

https://www.greentop.com/zeiss-victory-ht-3-12x56-riflescope/

10% off right now and free shipping. They used to have three. I had to buy one on general principle.

But it's very frustrating that the American markets are being dropped by the best glass makers in the world. Some dude in the EE wants $3,000 in trade value for his Leica Magnus, that he probably got from the Eurooptic fire sale for $1,100. God bless, they are rare as hen's teeth now.

-Stooxie

 

[JohnJohnson]

But it's very frustrating that the American markets are being dropped by the best glass makers in the world

Could be that the Magnus has over 22 degrees of FOV which means Swarovski will sue if Leica sells it in the US. I don't know the Leica's FOV but if it's over 22 degrees then Leica won't sell it outside of Europe. Same with Schmidt & Bender, they have a US version of their 6-36x56 that has a smaller FOV than the European version. Swarovski only enforces the patent on scopes sold in the US by European companies or companies using Schott glass it seems.

So Tangent Theta, Zero Compromise, S&B, and Leica all use field limiters for their scopes. Though TT/ZCO just make them that way from the start, don't think there's an un-neutered version. It's especially weird for ZCO since they use 36mm tubes which fall outside of the Swarovski patent's upper 35mm limit anyway.

Until the Swarovski patent runs out in a year or two (I forget when), Kahles seems to be the only European glass user who is making scopes with over 22 degrees of FOV. They made that weird monstrosity of a 328i and I think are coming out with another mega-FOV scope at SHOT Show.

 

[stooxie]

Could be that the Magnus has over 22 degrees of FOV which means Swarovski will sue if Leica sells it in the US. I don't know the Leica's FOV but if it's over 22 degrees then Leica won't sell it outside of Europe. Same with Schmidt & Bender, they have a US version of their 6-36x56 that has a smaller FOV than the European version. Swarovski only enforces the patent on scopes sold in the US by European companies or companies using Schott glass it seems.

So Tangent Theta, Zero Compromise, S&B, and Leica all use field limiters for their scopes. Though TT/ZCO just make them that way from the start, don't think there's an un-neutered version. It's especially weird for ZCO since they use 36mm tubes which fall outside of the Swarovski patent's upper 35mm limit anyway.

Until the Swarovski patent runs out in a year or two (I forget when), Kahles seems to be the only European glass user who is making scopes with over 22 degrees of FOV. They made that weird monstrosity of a 328i and I think are coming out with another mega-FOV scope at SHOT Show.

Thank you for confirming that, I heard something about that a while ago but saw nothing more. While I don't know the numbers on FOV for the Victory HT and Magnus, I DO know that they are luxuriously huge. The eye piece on the Victory absolutely disappears when you loo through it, no black border and the image is just huge. Magnus is similar.

-Stooxie

 

[JohnJohnson]

I love the idea of the S&B, but am open to other suggestions in the price range. Swaro, Zeiss, and Vortex LHT are all in the consideration.

Guys whose optics opinions I trust say the Steiner T6Xi 3-18x56 is an extremely good low light scope with a freakishly good eyebox. The T6Xi with the MSR2 reticle (if you find it acceptable for hunting) appears to be $1,390 at EO right now for some reason which to me would be my pick under $2,000 if I was taking a shot at getting a low light scope. There's a 20 page thread on SH about the T6Xi but I don't want to link to another forum.

Steiner T6Xi 3-18x56mm MSR2 Riflescope 5118

FREE SHIPPING on Steiner T6Xi 3-18x56mm MSR2 Riflescope 5118

www.eurooptic.com

 

[stooxie]

So Tangent Theta, Zero Compromise, S&B, and Leica all use field limiters for their scopes. Though TT/ZCO just make them that way from the start, don't think there's an un-neutered version. It's especially weird for ZCO since they use 36mm tubes which fall outside of the Swarovski patent's upper 35mm limit anyway.

So are you saying that the Polar T96s currently on sale in the US have been "disabled" in some way? What constitutes a field limiter? And is it something that could be un-neutered, as you say?

The plot thickens!

-Stooxie

 

[JohnJohnson]

So are you saying that the Polar T96s currently on sale in the US have been "disabled" in some way? What constitutes a field limiter? And is it something that could be un-neutered, as you say?

The plot thickens!

-Stooxie

Not in a huge way you'd probably notice honestly. Swarovski has a bogus patent on scopes with over 22 degrees of FOV. They don't enforce it on scopes made with anything other than Schott glass as far as I can tell so that'd be TT, ZCO, and S&B as far as companies I'm familiar with. I think Leica too but not 100% sure there?

Those companies put field limiters into their scopes which limit the FOV to under 22 degrees because Swarovski likes suing small companies who can't take them on in court. But companies like Vortex and Nightforce are huge, US based, and use the Light Optical Works facility in Japan for their premier scope glass. They could embarrass Swarovski in court so they get left alone and make scopes that violate the dumb BS patent that should never have been granted and has already been struck down for scopes sold in Europe as far as I know. An example would be the Vortex Razor G3 6-36 competition scope which I think has an AFOV over 24 degrees.