Steiner T6xi 3-18x56 MSR2 Mini Field Eval

[alpine_troop]

Today I was at the range playing musical scopes on rifles, getting things zeroed. After spreading the good word to all my shooting friends who will listen about the RS drop tests, I decided it’s high time to put my money where my mouth is and actually test one of my setups. @Basin_Bastard was present to witness.

Test rifle is my American Rifle Company Nucleus 2.0 with 18” .308 Win CarbonSix barrel, TriggerTech, KRG Bravo. Ammo was factory Hornady 155 gr ELDM. The scope was zeroed and the zero group was consistent with what this rifle always does: all rounds within a 1.5” dot at 100 yards (no I didn’t take a picture of the zero group, sorry).

Scope tested is my Steiner T6xi 3-18x56 with the MSR2 reticle. I purchased this scope earlier this year to go on a different rifle. It has less than 200 rounds on it at the time of this eval. Scope was mounted in an ARC MBrace 1.5” single piece mount. Therefore the total setup is roughly 8.25 lbs of rifle with another 3 lbs of scope and mount on top. Full specs for the Steiner are readily available online, no need for me to take up space here. It’s heavy, in fact the whole T6xi series is heavy, but they are feature-rich tactical scopes and probably not a first choice for hunting. This was mostly an eval for my curiosity and data.

Evaluation process:
Target at 100 yards with two 1.5” dots. Shot off my pack with a rear bag at 12x magnification. I fired one round into the bottom dot prior to any drops. Then I commenced with the drops on a 1/2” padded mat (open gun case) on gravel. A shot was fired into the bottom dot after each drop.
18” drops: left, right, top, bottom (4 drops & shots)
36” drops: left, right, top, bottom (4 drops & shots)
For the last shot, I used the reticle to measure from the bottom dot to the top dot, dialed the correction (2.4 mils up/ 0.2 mils right), aimed at the bottom dot, and fired. As you can see, following the drops, the Steiner correctly adjusted and the round impacted the center of the top dot.



Looks pretty good to me. Now, this is just a condensed eval and I realized after that I deviated from the standard eval format a bit. I will likely repeat this to the standard and monitor over time. That will include a 30 round zero proof group documented so I know I’m not seeing small deviations after drops. But for now, seeing as the wheels didn’t fall off after 4x 18” and 4x 36” drops, I’m happy with it.

If folks would like my subjective opinions on the scope overall, I can follow-up with that too. As I have no field use with the scope and reticle yet, I figured it best to reserve opinions. Since it passed a preliminary drop eval, I plan to get some lower MBrace rings for it and take it elk hunting this season.

 

[Formidilosus]

@alpine_troop

That is significantly better than previous versions. Historically Steiner Tactical scopes have been just this side of garbage.

 

[alpine_troop]

@alpine_troop

That is significantly better than previous versions. Historically Steiner Tactical scopes have been just this side of garbage.

I was sort of cringing through the whole process anticipating failure, due to a lot of what I’ve read on past model lines and just being a new, unknown scope. I was pleasantly surprised. I will report back with updates.

 

[ChrisAU]

Really like the T6Xi’s. I’ll be picking up a 3-18 for a competition gas gun, had a 2.5-15 on it for a while but moved it on to eventually get the 3-18. Glad to see an American made scope do well on one of these.

 

[mj23polaris]

This is good to see, I'm really wanting to try the 5.5-30 on my comp rifle next year.

Sent from my motorola edge 5G UW (2021) using Tapatalk

 

[rokbottom]

How thin does the MSR2 reticle get at low powers?

 

[alpine_troop]

How thin does the MSR2 reticle get at low powers?

Very thin. As in, you’re effectively limited to a bracketed shot using the thick horizontal stadia (at least it has that, but as always, I wish they extended closer to center). If lighting conditions accommodate it, the illumination is great because it only lights up the very center cross. However, it’s not very bright. There are some good pictures on the hide thread for these scopes.

I will report back more extensive opinions after I use it in the field.

 

[762 ULTRAMAGA]

Very thin. As in, you’re effectively limited to a bracketed shot using the thick horizontal stadia (at least it has that, but as always, I wish they extended closer to center). If lighting conditions accommodate it, the illumination is great because it only lights up the very center cross. However, it’s not very bright. There are some good pictures on the hide thread for these scopes.

I will report back more extensive opinions after I use it in the field.

Any more updates?

 

[alpine_troop]

Any more updates?

Sure. I did a second condensed drop eval as follows: 30-round zero group was around 1.8-2” on that day (not ideal for testing purposes), and I went straight to the 36” drops as per the eval. The group remained centered but appeared to open to about 3”. A 10-round zero confirmation group post-drops was back to normal. See below target, extraneous shooting has been blacked out to just show the eval I did.

I’m curious what the drop group would have looked like if I had included the 18” drops on this eval. Overall I think it performed ok, maybe not completely solid, but appears to have retained zero.

I did not take this scope hunting. The reticle is not good for general hunting use. The center area of the reticle is extremely thin, great for long range shooting but it just wasn’t going to serve me well on my hunts. I sold this scope.

 

[alpine_troop]

Some important general take-aways from performing my own drop evals:

The test rifle system matters a lot. In this case, a short, carbon-barreled .308 is probably not an optimal choice. The scope rail on my Nucleus isn’t permanently bonded, the action and chassis aren’t bonded, and those little factors just introduce doubt and skepticism. And I haven’t actually proofed that rifle with a known scope. (Maybe I will now that it wears an ATACR…) A Tikka CTR glued to a Bravo would be hard to beat.

You really need to be able to start with an acceptable group size, ie. 30 rounds within 1.5”. And then the drop eval needs to be shot in its entirety to have a relevant group size during the drop portion to compare to the proof group. (My second eval was inadequate in this area.)

I found myself wondering if my drop surface was too hard. It was fairly course crushed rock, unconsolidated at the edge of a parking area but I don’t think it had much give the way those larger grain size rocks interlock.

As @Formidilosus notes in his explanation, the 18” drops are so minimal they are almost laughable. 36” is getting into the “my rifle definitely took a decent smack” territory. Very relevant. This is a very well constructed evaluation protocol in my opinion.

 

[silasbowhunter]

Thanks for doing this review!


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[Wiscgunner]

Thank you for putting your money on the line and sharing the results.