Trijicon Tenmile 3-18x44mm FFP mil/mil Field Eval

[Formidilosus]

This is a field evaluation of the Trijicon Tenmile 3-18x44mm F1 scope. This scope was brought to me from Ryan Avery for an evaluation. It was personally purchased. The ammunition used was Federal Gold Medal Match 168gr that was purchased by Ryan. Multiple ten round round groups with this lot of ammunition proved to be between .8-1.3 moa, with nothing larger than 1.5” at 103 yards.


The scope and weight-

Because we mounted the scope immediately after removing another scope from the rings (the rings never came off the rifle) I did not weigh the scope- Ryan did and said it weighed 24.6 ounces.

Mounting the scope.


Scope ring cap screws were tightened to 18 in-lbs, dry. Bases were 65 in-lbs.



Turrets:


Elevation turret is exposed, revolution indicated, 8 mils per rev, zero stopped, and tool less reset. Zero stop requires a tool. Windage is capped, revolution indicated, and tool less reset.


Elevation-



The top of the turrets unscrew from the rest to allow reset-



Zero stop is simple pin on pin-




Windage also features same tool less reset-


The turret system is extremely similar (identical?) to another scope reviewed.



MRAD Precision Tree Reticle:

3x



9x




18x




Red illumination on highest setting, green is also switchable

3x





The reticle is good from a visibility perspective- better than I expected, and maybe only the MilQuad being more visible of the common FFP Mil reticles in low power. The main stadia is broken into .5 mil increments, with .2 mils spacing between increments on the tree.



Cont….

 

[Formidilosus]

Drop Evaluation RTZ and “Tracking”

This one will be a little different as Ryan filmed the whole process.

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.

This one was conducted on semi packed, semi crusted snow.


Suffice to the RTZ and adjustment went fine. The zero was set approx. .2 mil high on the drop eval, but it to went without much issue- if one wanted to say it shifted .1 mil high on one of the 36” drops- I won’t argue, however the RTZ check right after was also .2 mil high for a zero.


Drop eval-




RTZ:




Remember from the ten round baseline groups, anything at 1.5” or less is within the rifles cone. Compare center of all rounds fired between them- it’s within .1 mil.


Here’s the drop group with a 1.5” circle centered-



It does seem that the group from the drop
Evel is tending a bit larger than average, however POA/POI remained static and all were within the acceptable cone.



“Tracking”:


Scope was adjusted down .2 mil after the RTZ check. I read between dots with the reticle through the scope at 6.9 mils, Ryan with the spotter at 6.8. He was correct-






Results:

This scope replaced another scope immediately after the former was pulled out- rings never moved. In spite of that, it held zero, adjusted correctly, and returned to zero. There just wasn’t anything weird with it. Overall it performed (so far) about like I have seen with the prior Trijicons I have used- maybe not completely bomb proof, but just works- nothing odd from first shot to last.


It will be remounted with loctite and torqued, and go through the 36” drop portion again to make sure it holds, however I do not forsee any problems.


I will give my subjective views as far as eyebox, image quality, and overall use and feel in the next posts. If it continues to work, being that it is an unknown scope design, it will be shot and tracked for 3,000 rounds or until it fails.

 

[Formidilosus]

Weight from Ryan-

 

[Formidilosus]

Remounted scope to protocol and rezeroed. 23 rounds today.




After remounting, bottom dot. First three round were .6 right of dot. Made the the correction left and 5 rounds of 175gr SMK ammo, up .2 mils. Then right dot rapid fire 10 rounds of 175gr SMK. Then left dot 5 rounds of 168gr FGMM.

 

[Formidilosus]

Eyebox, Eye Relief, and Field Of View:

These are all quite good. Good enough that I haven’t thought about any of these characteristics while shooting. From 3-18x you do not have to move your head to maintain full sight picture, and the eyebox is easy to get behind through the entire mag range as well.




Image Quality:

The clarity, color, and contrast is good, if not very good. Resolution seems to be high, and image brightness has not been an issue even until right at dark. Clarity across the FOV is relatively even, with nothing distracting about it. It’s a $1,500 scope and has $1,500 glass.

 

[Ryan Avery]

Drop Test Video on the Tenmile 3-18x44

 

[Formidilosus]

A zero check after riding in the backseat for 500’ish miles with gear on top shot #1, and then three drops from 36”-

 

[Formidilosus]

This scope was on a very precise .22 for a few hundred rounds. Today I removed a scope that was on a MK12 due to consistently losing zero, and remounted the Tenmile on it.


This rifle/ammo went 1.3” for 30 rounds. One round after boresight, adjust and the next 5 shots-





I’ll use this same target for zero checks frequently.

 

[Formidilosus]

Zero check.

 

[Formidilosus]

Zero check again today after riding like this for close to a thousand miles, no padding-






Note: After mounting and boresight, one shot was fired, then scope adjusted and the first five on the gun is the target from November 16. Each target shot that has been on paper is in the posts; it was “zeroed” off of 5 rounds. The last 15 shots after boresight shows that it need to come right .2 mils. That is not a zero shift, simply a function of starting with only 5 rounds for a zero.

 

[Formidilosus]

Rifle and scope has ridden several hundred miles on paved and FS roads without padding in the Decked drawer. Has been used to kill two elk so far, one at 555 yards and one at around 80y. Still working as it should.

 

[Formidilosus]

Didn’t have the zero check target from above, but did check zero on what I had.






Note: the scope was adjusted right .2 as stated after last post. For that target, I will use the original “zero” to watch the cone.

 

[Formidilosus]

Another thousand plus miles, a few bumps and scrapes, some shooting out to 990 yards, and then an elk at 803 yards. Scope is still working correctly.

 

[Formidilosus]

First zero check today since December 29 2022. Several thousand miles on pavement and hundreds of miles on forest service roads riding either in the truck drawer as shown in a post above, or in the back seat with other rifles, ammo, packs, dogs, etc piled on top. I need to check exact round count, but it will hit 3,000 pretty soon.

 

[Formidilosus]

Zero check today-




The last few weeks the scope and rifle have taken some pretty serious hits- I would not have been surprised if the zero had shifted. But, still good.

 

[Formidilosus]

More than 5,000 road miles, 80 miles of rough FS roads, a match, and getting knocked off the tailgate onto packed gravel-

 

[Formidilosus]

Well…..

 

[Formidilosus]

Over 3,000 rounds, multiples trips across the country in the decked drawer without padding, multiple flights, a thousand plus miles on forest service roads, multiple drops and falls, hundreds of miles strapped to a pack, and three elk at 80, 555, and 803 yards.

I’ll keep using it and update when anything noteworthy happens, but as far as the Eval goes it passed.

 

[Formidilosus]

Left the normal proof scope on the table today, and needed to check the 308 eval rifle after two scopes failed back to back. Pulled the Tenmile off the MK12, mounted it on the 308, boresighted it, fired 1 round, adjusted, three in the dot, then dropped it from 36” on all side 9 times-




Dropped it another 9 times from 36”-




And another 9 times from 36”-




And 9 more for good measure.


36 times it was dropped from 36”-




The rifle is fine, and the Trijicon is still good.

 

[Formidilosus]

Before removing the Trijicon I checked zero again after a couple hundred miles in the truck.