SWFA SS UL 2.5-10x32mm Field Evaluation

[Formidilosus]

This is a field evaluation of the SWFA SS Ultra Lite 2.5-10x32mm scope. This scope was brought to me from Ryan Avery for an evaluation. The ammunition used was Setpoint 168gr SMK. The 20 shot proof group with this ammunition was just under .9 MOA.


The scope and weight-


9.1 ounces and it is tiny.


Turrets:


Elevation and windage turrets are capped, .25 MOA per click, and 15 MOA per revolution. The are not revolution indicted, and there is no zero stop.


Elevation and Windage-






Standard duplex reticle-




The scope was mounted with the available 1” rings I had on hand- they were not picatinney rings*. Ring cap screws tightened to 18 in-lbs, dry. Bases were 45 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. I used a spotter with a mil reticle to read the correction, converted to MOA, and adjusted. The next ten are in the left dot. It moved exactly what it should have.




Drop eval-
This one was conducted on semi packed dirt with a padded mat.





The 18” drops had no effect- maybe a slight shift from the top drop. The single left and right side 36” drops seemed to have no effect, the top drop shifted approximately .5’ish MOA from center. The 3x36” drops high. I went back to the zero target and confirmed-


Left dot, high shot is right after the drop eval. Adjusted down 1 MOA, the next four are in the dot. Adjusted left .25 MOA, then a confirmer in the right dot.



RTZ and Adjustment:

Did not complete a RTZ. That will be done later. The “tracking” test are the bottom and top dots. The reticle said 8.2 mils between centers. I converted that to 27.88 MOA, however I somehow got 27.5 in my head and fired the first round at 27.5 MOA. I decided to go ahead and finish them at 27.5 MOA. RTZ was spot on, it looks like there is a 2-3% error at 27.5 MOA. I wouldn’t read too much into the the left to right stringing on the top dot- the field of view/eyebox is pretty tight at 10x and without a level in the scope it was hard to align the reticle vertically with the dots.









Conclusion:

These scopes are not that well known unlike the other SS series. It was a partial failure, and will be retested when I get some 1 inch pic rings. However, it did way better than I anticipated. A 9oz scope mounted on a 10lb rifle hitting from three feet… I did not expect it to survive a single impact, let alone multiple. Part of the reason that I think it did as well as it did, is because the scope is tiny.



There’s no part of the scope that is wider than the rifle itself. In other words, the scope isn’t even hitting the ground on the sides- the rifle is.
I generally have no use for a SFP duplex reticle scope, this one however intrigues me. I do not believe it will pass the full drop eval even in appropriate rings, but there was no weirdness while shooting and adjusting, and after the 1 MOA shift from the drop eval it zeroed without issue. It was shot for another 20 rounds or so afterwards. Much like the Trijicon hunting scopes- it might not be bombproof, but it might work for most normal uses. It certainly performed better than any other ultra light scope from any maker that I’ve seen.



Con’t….

 

[Formidilosus]

Eyebox, “glass”, etc…

The eyebox is better than expected from 2.5 to around 8x. Actually pretty good in that it isn’t really noticeable. At 10x, it’s tighter than most full size scopes. Usable, but tighter.

The “glass” really wasn’t a factor. From 2.5-8x or so, it’s totally adequate- about like a Leupold VX2 or so. At 10x it’s a bit hazy.


Overall, shooting it was uneventful in the use department. I don’t really have a use for it even if it turns out to be reliable, but if someone was bound a determined to put a really light scope on sheep rifle for instance, so far this one has done way better than any other that I’ve seen. It will get new rings and go on another rifle to see how long it holds zero.

 

[Formidilosus]

Tried the drop eval again.

Boresight top left, adjusted next five are on orange dot.





Drop eval.

Everything was about normal until the 9x36”. That one went high left. Then the next two dropped a bit lower.



Adjusted based on the last two and went to the black square in the first pic. Rezored fine.


The objective was bent on this one-


Scope is functioning fine however.



The 1” Vortex Pro rings are highly suspect- that high shift from the 9x36” drops has happened on three scopes in a row now.

 

[Formidilosus]

Last drop eval.


Warne Mountain Tech Pic rings.

Moore sighted, two rounds low right on the left dot. Adjust, next 8 on the dot- adjusted right .5 MOA.

Bottom dot is straight to 9x36” drops then a shot, 9x36” drops then a shot, 9x36” drops than three shots- that’s 27 drops from 3 feet. The first 9x36” drops seemed to cause a right .75 MOA shift. Retorqued rings, then adjusted left .75moa, and went to center top dot. Again- 9x36” drops then a shot, 9x36” drops then a shot, 9x36” drops then 3 shots. Again- 27 drops from 3 feet.



Results- doing nine 3 foot drops in a row seems to cause a .5-.75 MOA shift about 20-30% of the time.

Quite frankly the little scope is remarkable. This thing in a fixed 4x or 6x with mil reticle and mil turrets would be an awesome UL sheep scope.