Tract TORIC UHD Hunting Rifle Scope Review

Hondo64d

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Several months ago, Jon Allen, Co-Founder of Tract Optics, graciously agreed to provide me with one of their Toric UHD Hunting Rifle Scopes. When discussing the review, I explained I would be checking tracking, zero retention, and return to zero. Checking those items would include drop test mimicking actual drops I had experienced with my scopes over the years, which were knocking them over while on a bipod and knocking them over from a leaning position. The eval would be objective, and the results were going to be posted without modification.



Tract promptly sent me the FFP MRAD/MRAD version, which, out of the available variations, would be my choice for a hunting scope. Packaging was protective and kept the scope in good shape. Included was a 3” sunshade which I used throughout the entire evaluation, a lens cloth, and hex wrenches appropriate for setting the zero stop and zeroing turrets.



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Toric UHD Hunting Scope In The Box



The elevation turret is a locking turret to prevent inadvertent adjustment. You raise the turret to adjust and then push it back down to lock it. It works as designed. The elevation turret is fairly tall, approaching the height of the turret found on the SWFA SS fixed power scopes. I'm not sure it that adds in elevation travel, or not, but the elevation travel is good, advertised at 30 mils. With the 20 MOA rail on my rifle, I had 20 mils of remaining elevation travel after zero. The windage turret is capped. I like to dial for range and hold for windage, so actually prefer a capped windage turret when I can get it. This windage turret is a little bigger/ taller than the one on the LRHS, but is not obtrusive in any way.



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Elevation Turret Locked



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Elevation Turret Unlocked





Windage Turret Uncapped.



The reticle is simple when compared to many of today's milliradian based reticles. In my mind, for a hunting rifle, this is a good thing. The center portion of the reticle is a little thicker than many, subtending .05 mils. Again, on a hunting rifle I view this as a good thing. I shot a pig using the scope at about 100 yards at sunset +30 minutes with magnification set on 6x and did not struggle to see the center portion of the reticle. The post are .5 mils thick. The horizontal posts end at 9.5 mils from center, allowing me to hold for a >100mph wind at 600 yards. Way more windage reference than will ever be necessary, but on the other hand, the post do not obstruct the field of view in any way, which makes it easier to spot your impacts. The bottom post is 10.5 mils from center, enough elevation to get the same 6.5 Creedmoor load to 1210 yards without dialing. If I were to improve the reticle, I would thicken the post to 1 mil, bring the horizontal post in to 5 mils from center, and bring the vertical post up to 1.3 mils below center. This would allow you to more effectively use the horizontal post for bracketing vitals at close range in low light engagements at low magnification or hold the pointed tip of the vertical post directly on your desired POI at 25 yards, and be dead on, as with the THLR reticle.



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Toric Hunting Scope Mil Reticle.



Tract advertises using Schott glass, and it is superb. This scope has as good an image quality as I have ever seen, better than my LRTSi and DMR II Pro scopes, and right up there with any alphas I have looked through.



The scope was mounted on my primary hunting rifle, a Jon Beanland barreled Bighorn Origin riding in an MPA BA Ultralite chassis. The barreled action is torqued to 65 In/lbs. The action screws are treated with blue Loctite. The mounting system consisted of a Bighorn 20 MOA extended Picatinny rail and Seekins 30mm low rings. All fasteners were torqued to manufacturer's recommended specs and secured with blue Loctite.



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Toric UHD Hunting Scope On Rifle



After zeroing, I removed the scope from the rifle and placed it on my Targets USA Scope Tool. This is a rock solid setup, weighing about 30 pounds, and when set on my concrete supported shooting bench, allowed no uncommanded movement during the static tracking test.



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Toric UHD Hunting Scope Mounted on Targets USA Scope Tool.



The short version is the scope tracked perfectly during the static tracking test. While I had 20 mils of elevation adjustment left after zero, I tested the tracking up to ten mils of elevation and the scope tracked perfectly, hitting every dot, spaced 1 mil apart at the appropriate adjustment. There was no left or right deviation during vertical adjustment. I also adjusted two mils left and two mils right and repeated the test with perfect results. Turret clicks were positive with minimal movement between clicks. The clicks are distinct, a little more so than my beloved Bushnell LRTSi and a little less so than a friend's Athlon Cronus.



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Tracking Target



With the static tracking test complete, I removed the scope from the scope tool and remounted it on my rifle to conduct the live fire tracking test on the same target at a later date. As expected, even after removing the scope and replacing on the rifle, it was within .2 mils of POA. I fired a five shot group, made the adjustment and went right to live fire tracking. On the live fire tracking test, I only went up to 8 mils of elevation due to my target berm not being tall enough to stop a bullet above that. The test was conducted by aiming at the bottom dot, making a 1 mil adjustment and shoot another group while still aiming at the bottom dot all the way up to 8 mils of elevation. You can see that all groups impacted about .1 mil high in relation to the orange dots which were 1 mil apart. In hindsight I should have fired another group to after the adjustment verify zero, but that rookie mistake was my fault, not the scope's. The scope tracked very consistently with every group impacting the same place in relation to the respective dots all the way through 8 mils of elevation. Once I completed the live fire tracking test, I climbed up on my shooting platform and engaged my 900 yard target, resulting in first round impact as expected. The scope tracks as it should.



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Live Fire Tracking Results



To check zero retention, the rifle and scope rode uncased in my UTV over miles of washboard dirt roads and through rough pastures and drop test consisting of drops and knock overs that I had actually accidentally done in the past. I have had a name brand scope completely fail after riding in a padded case over that exact same road and through the exact same pastures. Before I did the drop test, my rifle was due a cleaning, so I cleaned it. I also had to load another batch of ammo to continue testing. I fired two five shot groups to foul the bore with the clean barrel and new batch of ammo. The rifle settled in during shots 6-10. It was not perfectly zeroed, but I didn't pursue it, as my goal was to determine whether the scope would maintain the same POI after being dropped. Shots 11-15 were after two drops from the leaning position. I leaned the scoped rifle against my bench and pushed it over so that it fell while pivoting on the butt pad. I did this once to the left and once to the right and then fired a group, shots 11-15. POI was the same in relation to POA, no zero shift. After shots 11-15, I put the scoped rifle on my shooting mat, resting on the bipod. I then knocked it over twice in each direction then fired shots 16-20. Again, no change in POI in relation to POA, no zero shift. The Tract Toric Hunting Scope withstood impacts I have previously experienced, withstood vibrations and jolts in the UTV that all my scopes are routinely subjected to, and retained zero. Not all scopes I have had in the past have survived that.








Upright Knock Overs




Bipod Knock Overs



In summary, the Tract Toric Hunting Scope is a very nice, high quality, rugged, functional long range hunting scope. It tracks as it should, retains zero through real world abuse, has a useful feature set and superb image quality. I like it.



John
 
Joined
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Having not looked at the Tract website, can you post up the specs of this scope (exact model with mag range and objective size, weight advertised vs what your version weighs, etc)? Also, thanks for the review. I'd be interested to see if this scope holds up to Form's test.
 
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Hondo64d

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Are you able to test zero retention though 18" and 36" drops?
When I talked to Jon about reviewing the scope I told him I would do impact resistance test based on events I have actually had happen to me, so that’s what I did. While I appreciate the effectiveness of the drop test Formidilosus does in his reviews, I did not tell Jon those are the test I would be doing and would not feel right about doing them without his ok.

John
 
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Hondo64d

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Having not looked at the Tract website, can you post up the specs of this scope (exact model with mag range and objective size, weight advertised vs what your version weighs, etc)? Also, thanks for the review. I'd be interested to see if this scope holds up to Form's test.

John
 
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Messages
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Thanks John. I assumed that was the one but wanted to make sure. I agree with your assessment on the reticle. I would like to see a similar change. Your tip over from the bipod onto shooting mat would not likely show much, but the fall from propped is more legitimate in terms of drop testing. That happens in the field and many scopes shift zero with that. I would still like to see how it withstands Forms drop test but I understand why you didn't (a missed opportunity though, IMO). I also would like to see the live fire tracking test performed similar to Forms (aim at bottom dot, shoot 1 at bottom dot, dial 8 MIL while aiming at bottom dot and shoot one, then dial back down, and repeat for atleast 5 rounds per dot (10 would be nice)). Looks like you may have a "flier" in each group with the tracking test. Makes me wonder if that is the first shot and then the erector settles. Doing it the way Form does would tell us one way or another.
 

sndmn11

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When I talked to Jon about reviewing the scope I told him I would do impact resistance test based on events I have actually had happen to me, so that’s what I did. While I appreciate the effectiveness of the drop test Formidilosus does in his reviews, I did not tell Jon those are the test I would be doing and would not feel right about doing them without his ok.

John


Will you be asking for his, or @JW@TRACT , OK to test further?

Is this a loaner, freebie, or purchased scope?
 
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Hondo64d

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Will you be asking for his, or @JW@TRACT , OK to test further?

Is this a loaner, freebie, or purchased scope?
I just talked to Jon and he gave a big thumbs up to the Formidilosus style impact test so I will be following up with that in the future. I have a week of work, followed by vacation, followed by another week of work, so it may be a month or so…

This is a loaner scope.

John
 

sndmn11

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I just talked to Jon and he gave a big thumbs up to the Formidilosus style impact test so I will be following up with that in the future. I have a week of work, followed by vacation, followed by another week of work, so it may be a month or so…

This is a loaner scope.

John

Nice!!
 

Wrench

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Hondo is a junior member here, but has been a major contribution to other sites with a bunch of well informed people who would call out BS. He's the real deal and it'll pay to hear his opinions.

Glad to see you here John.
 

woods89

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I just talked to Jon and he gave a big thumbs up to the Formidilosus style impact test so I will be following up with that in the future. I have a week of work, followed by vacation, followed by another week of work, so it may be a month or so…

This is a loaner scope.

John
Great!

I won't lie, after seeing the drop tests performed on here this last winter it's hard for me to take reviews seriously if they don't have similar reliability testing. Looking forward to the results.
 

SDHNTR

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Thank you for your review @hondo64d. Of course, we are glad to see the scope performed as expected. We also appreciate the insight in regards to the reticle too. I look forward to seeing your next set of tests.
Wow. This is a pleasant surprise. Glad to see Tract embracing the concept of durability testing.
 

JGRaider

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Great job Hondo. Some of you guys need to take a deep breath........a couple of years ago a well respected poster over on 24HR did the drop test with a SWFA 3-9 and it failed.......people still rave about how great it is in spite of this. Tract has superb products, backed by a superb warranty, backed by superb people. They are well worth buying.
 
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Hondo64d

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Some folks wanted to see a pic of the reticle at 2.5x, so Ive included that.

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After request from folks on Rokslide, I called Jon Allen and asked if he would allow me to hold on to the scope for a bit to conduct a Formidilosus style drop test. He agreed.
First part of the test was to establish a 30 round zero/group size. This is shown in the picture.
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The test consist of three drops from 18” and 36” on the left side, three on the right side, and three on the top, followed by a ten shot group after each series of three drops. The idea is that with a 30 shot group size established, each successive ten shot group should fall within the 30 shot group. That is how it should work, but I kinda screwed that up all by myself.






https://youtu.be/TaLbBGgq7j4

After the thirty round group, I was out of ammo for the day but wasn't entirely satisfied with the zero, so I made the an adjustment and slipped the turrets to zero but did so without verifying the adjustment. So, a few days later on the first post- drop group (18” left side) you see a POI shift from the 30 round group. Was this from the drops, or from my unverified adjustment? I wasn't sure, so I continued the test. The next drops, 18” on the right side, revealed no change in POI or group size from the previous group, nor did the 18” drops on the elevation turret. So far, so good. The 3' drops were the same. Same POI and group size with no shift noted that couldn't be accounted for by the size of the original 30 round group.

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To my eyes, the scope did what it was supposed to do for this series of test. It showed no POI change for six 10- round groups, after 9 drops at 18” and 9 drops at 36”.

The fact that the groups were not centered up on my POA bothered me though, and I had 10 rounds left. So, I swagged an adjustment, fired five to verify, made another adjustment and saved the last five rounds for 700 yards. My data showed 4.2 mils of elevation and .4 windage. Winds were gusty. I hit the first four and missed on the fifth, which I attribute to an unaccounted for gust. The scope did what it was supposed to do.

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This Toric Hunting Scope seems to be a solid scope. It retains zero and tracks correctly. Image quality is very good. As discussed above, while the reticle works, it could be improved to make it more useful in low light at low magnification, as well as retain its long range capabilities. If looking for a reliable long range hunting scope, it should definitely be on your short list.

John
 
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