SWFA, what’s the deal?

Formidilosus said:
Can you please point me to any things he has written with regards to actual hard use and/or high round count zero retention
of scopes?
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Yeah, I've listened through hours of his rambling videos and only heard occasional mentions of reliability - but no real details of testing.

He did also make some baseless, ill-mannered comments about Form, though, suggesting that the reason that scopes failed in these tests was the mounts used ... while ignoring that certain brands commonly fail, while others don't, despite the same mounts being used.

And, if you listen closely enough, for long enough, you'll hear more than a few mentions of things like "The people at Nightforce hate my guts", and "I like the people at Vortex" ... I'm not suggesting that this influences what he recommends, but it does jump out.
 
Updated scopes has me a bit nervous, particularly with their scope inventory shortage over the past few years. I am interested if their scopes will be produced from the same Japanese manufacturers that have previously produced their scopes, or if they had to go to other manufacturers. Hopefully, they are the same.

As far as newer models, I would love to see them offer a smaller, lighter scope tailored specifically for hunters who shoot game under 500 yards that maintain their mechanical reliability. Something like a 6x36, 2-7×33, 2.5-8×36 or similar with a Mil-Quad/Dot reticle. It would need to have at least 3.5" of eye relief, and come in under 15ozs. Unfortunately, the market isn't demanding that.
 
Anyone know what the updates are? I would think zero stops and maybe a little cosmetic change would be the only things I would change, yet I have no issues with the current offering

And if vortex maintains unreliability with their updates, can we expect reliability to maintain with swfa? I assume so, they have to know that’s why they are so popular.

I know quite a few people won’t own them because they are fugly, it doesn’t bother me, but I am not opposed to a little exterior face lift and zero stops or even capped windage and zero stop elevation.

They don’t need “better glass” at least in the 3-9x. I think the most meaningful updates on their line of optics would be increased production
 
Formidilosus said:
Can you please point me to any things he has written with regards to actual hard use and/or high round count zero retention
of scopes?
Click to expand...
Ive not asked for that level of response. More along the lines of “will this work for what i want it to”. I saw him more of an optics/glass guy.

Long term scope retention isnt as much of a concern for me since ill only put a couple 100 rounds theu a scope annually.
 
Rich M said:
Ive not asked for that level of response. More along the lines of “will this work for what i want it to”. I saw him more of an optics/glass guy.

Long term scope retention isnt as much of a concern for me since ill only put a couple 100 rounds theu a scope annually.
Click to expand...

Thank you for the response.
 
If SWFA could make the dials a little smaller on the 6x, that’d be great. Or, use the quick focus of the 6x on the 3-9. A very small illuminated aimpoint? Not much else I’d really care about off the top of my head.
 
roosiebull said:
They don’t need “better glass” at least in the 3-9x. I think the most meaningful updates on their line of optics would be increased production
Click to expand...
While I understand the point that a scope is an aiming device, not an observation device, I'd welcome a slight increase to the SWFA 3-9 glass to assist my ageing eyes - targets at 300 m are not clear for me, making the 3-9 more of a 200 m scope. Still like it though!
 
Anyone have an actual idea of when the next shipment will be? I don’t mind waiting a couple months, but not much longer if I don’t have to. Eyeballing a 3-9 or 10XHD.
 
ZackP said:
Anyone have an actual idea of when the next shipment will be? I don’t mind waiting a couple months, but not much longer if I don’t have to. Eyeballing a 3-9 or 10XHD.
Click to expand...

I called them last week to check on the status of my November 2021 order of a 3-9x42 and was told they hope to have that shipment in early January. However, they were anticipating that shipment by end of November. If you aren't already on the backorder list I'd suggest calling them.
 
MidGAHunter said:
I called them last week to check on the status of my November 2021 order of a 3-9x42 and was told they hope to have that shipment in early January. However, they were anticipating that shipment by end of November. If you aren't already on the backorder list I'd suggest calling them.
Click to expand...

I called. I can’t remember the woman’s name I spoke with. I understand it is probably very hard to anticipate, but all I got was “I don’t know”.

Not sure why I expected more. Shipping etc has been jacked for everyone. As has supply. I guess I was just hoping for them to have some magical insight 🤣
 
Dobermann said:
Yeah, I've listened through hours of his rambling videos and only heard occasional mentions of reliability - but no real details of testing.

He did also make some baseless, ill-mannered comments about Form, though, suggesting that the reason that scopes failed in these tests was the mounts used ... while ignoring that certain brands commonly fail, while others don't, despite the same mounts being used.

And, if you listen closely enough, for long enough, you'll hear more than a few mentions of things like "The people at Nightforce hate my guts", and "I like the people at Vortex" ... I'm not suggesting that this influences what he recommends, but it does jump out.
Click to expand...

Disregard Ilya if you want... I suppose there's only room for one optics guru around here. But for what it's worth he's not the only one who speaks well of the Helos in terms of holding up to hard use.

As far as "baseless, ill-mannered comments" go, I think he was always fairly cautious in questioning Formidilosus's findings in some of the more heated threads over on some other forums. It was only ill-mannered if you consider any questioning at all to be ill-mannered. It's kind of funny considering that Form is perhaps the most passive-aggressive poster on this site.

As far as SWFA goes - if you are willing to buy used, you can typically find them in good shape without too much of a markup in my experience. The 6x42 with mil quad reticle is my favorite scope out there.
 
For backorders, do they contact you to see if you still want it, or do they just ship it out? Any experience with the card the backorder was placed expiring; do they attempt to contact?
 
coloradoan said:
Disregard Ilya if you want... I suppose there's only room for one optics guru around here. But for what it's worth he's not the only one who speaks well of the Helos in terms of holding up to hard use.

As far as "baseless, ill-mannered comments" go, I think he was always fairly cautious in questioning Formidilosus's findings in some of the more heated threads over on some other forums. It was only ill-mannered if you consider any questioning at all to be ill-mannered. It's kind of funny considering that Form is perhaps the most passive-aggressive poster on this site.

As far as SWFA goes - if you are willing to buy used, you can typically find them in good shape without too much of a markup in my experience. The 6x42 with mil quad reticle is my favorite scope out there.
Click to expand...
Not saying if done a ton of digging. And I've never heard of the other guy you are referring to.
But from what I have seen @Formidilosus is the only one that quantifies his hard use into an actual structured test of any sort.
Everyone else is like ohh I used it hard "trust me" but hard use is just a matter of opinion, they are not putting and measurable anything on it.
Don't get me wrong, I don't necessarily put my stuff thru the ringer form does. As I have more love for my bolt guns.
But like ARs and pistols they are just tools to me. What I do to and with them most people would consider severe abuse. But to me its the cost of being a tool that gets used.
 
BRTreedogs said:
Not saying if done a ton of digging. And I've never heard of the other guy you are referring to.
But from what I have seen @Formidilosus is the only one that quantifies his hard use into an actual structured test of any sort.
Everyone else is like ohh I used it hard "trust me" but hard use is just a matter of opinion, they are not putting and measurable anything on it.
Don't get me wrong, I don't necessarily put my stuff thru the ringer form does. As I have more love for my bolt guns.
But like ARs and pistols they are just tools to me. What I do to and with them most people would consider severe abuse. But to me its the cost of being a tool that gets used.
Click to expand...
Amen. We will never get the peanut gallery to understand this, no matter what. It's why we have latched onto his testing, because nobody will do it. Even most manufacturers won't do the testing.

Everybody is a hard a$$ rambo on the internet. but I've never seen anybody show the proof. There's a guy on (I think???) 24hr Campfire (Big Stick, IIRC), who has posted videos of him throwing his rifles and picking them up and shooting at a target. But he and Form are the only "lay-people" doing this sort of thing who aren't being paid to say stuff about a product.

Call it abuse, call it stupid, I respect Form for putting the info out there unapologetically. He's got nothing to lose or gain from showing it. He could hide it and just keep living his life and keep killing animals at an impressive rate and never share the info. But instead he shares what he knows, despite the detractors, and is just unapologetically himself.

I, for one, am glad somebody puts this info out there so I can short-circuit my own research and setups.
 
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