SWFA SS 6x42mm MQ Field Evaluation

[Formidilosus]

This is a field evaluation of the SWFA SS 6x MQ scope. This scope was brought to me from Ryan Avery for an evaluation. The ammunition used was Hornady 168gr ELD-M that was purchased by Ryan. The 20 shot proof group with this ammunition was just over 1.1 MOA.


The scope and weight-




Turrets:


Elevation and windage turrets are exposed, revolution indicated, and 5 mils per rev.


Elevation and Windage-



Parallax is on the rear where a standard power ring on a variable power scope would be-



Mil-Quad reticle-


It’s a relatively standard half mil per hash/diamond in the center, with very heavy outer posts on the top and sides. Combined it makes the MQ reticle the second best close to far range Mil reticle on the market.



The scope was mounted with the ring cap screws tightened to 18 in-lbs, dry. Bases were 65 in-lbs.



Cont…

 

[Formidilosus]

Drop Evaluation RTZ and “Tracking”
For an explanation see- Scope Field Eval Explanation and Standards


The “test” consists of three 18” drops on a mat- one left/right/top with a shot to check zero after each drop. Then the exact same thing repeated from 36”. Then three drops on all three sides for nine drops on the last part- 15 drops total. This is not “abuse”. The 18” drops are a joke really. The 36” start showing something. And when a scope make/model consistently goes through the whole thing without losing zero, failures in actual use are almost unheard of.


Zeroing-



Boresight is high left of center. Adjusted and next five in the left dot. Adjusted and went to drop eval.




Drop eval-
This one was conducted on semi packed dirt.




The first second 36” drop shifted the group .2’ish mils high where it stayed for the rest.

Afterwards the scope was slightly canted in the rings about a degree or so, and the turret had showing the the scope slipped. As per normal, the rings were tightened to 25 in-lbs, the scope adjusted down .2 mils, and a second drop eval conducted.

2nd drop eval


The scope did not slip in the rings farther, and this one went without issue.



RTZ and Adjustnent:

Return to zero is on left dot with 2,000 plus mils dialed. The “tracking” test are the bottom and top dots. The reticle said between 8.2 and 8.3 mils between centers. I went with 8.2 mils. No issues in adjustments.






Conclusion:

These scopes are well known. This one performed about like they all do. The only issue we ever see is when mounted in a very heavy rifle if a drop is sufficient you can get a bent turret which has caused a maximum of a .3 mil shift that I’ve seen (that was from a 40lb rifle falling directly on the turret from 6 feet into concrete).

 

[Formidilosus]

I have forgotten to update this. This scope has been used constantly since Sept of last year by a couple of people. I will have to check with them, but if it isn’t at 3,000 rounds it’s close.


This piece of steel was mostly done in by a T3 223 and this scope-






Used on this buck-











Zero issues.