Vortex Razer GIII 6-36x56mm Field Evaluation

[Formidilosus]

This is a field evaluation of a Vortex Razor Gen III 6-36x56mm scope. This scope was brought to me from Ryan Avery for an evaluation, @Justin Crossley had it first. The ammunition used was Hornady Black 168gr AMAX that was purchased by Ryan. The 30 round proof group was just over 1.3 MOA.


The scope and weight-

It is a massive brick. I did not weight it before mounting, however it is a 15.5” long, 3 pound brick. Technically 15.3” and 45.1oz.



Turrets:

Elevation and Windage are both exposed and locking by pull up/push down. Elevation is 10 mils per rev, windage is half turn limited.

Locked-



Unlocked-



There is a second revolution indicator on the base of the elevation turrets, parallax side.

First rev-



Second rev-



This scope has a unique zero stop/zeroing system. First the turrets are spun to zero (all the way down on elevation). Then, the Allen set screw on the turret is loosened, and all adjustments for zeroing are done by turning the top mounted “Micro adjust dial”. There are no clicks in this dial, it is marked for increments. After you are zeroed, the set screw is tightened and the turrets operate normally.







Reticle:

EBR-7D MRAD


This is a common tree mil reticle with center dot. Marked in .2 mil increments out to 10 mils. The thick outer posts are 20 mils from center…..

6x




36x




6x illuminated at highest setting-



36x illum-




Cont….

 

[Formidilosus]

Zeroing:


Mounting as normal- 18 in-lbs on ring caps, 65 in-lbs on base.

Zeroing showed some issues. Boresighted, fired two rounds (high left of center dot), adjusted and 9 rounds on left dot.



That’s already well outside the extreme spread of the gun. Adjusted again, and two rounds on the center dot.




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.

This one was conducted on soft mud with a 1/2” padded mat on top of a 1/2 foam mat.




The shots are marked. There was no Tyne or reason to what it did.





RTZ with several hundred mils per shot dialed. Started the RTZ and it was clear we had a problem. First shot is in the dot, every one after that climbed higher and higher.





I checked zero on another dot, it was high.
At this point I stopped, took everything apart, remounted per standard, rezeroed completely, and started over.

Top two are immediately after the RTZ went wild. Bottom ten are after remounting and adjustment.





Another adjustment and a confirmation shot before restarting drop portion-





Redo Droo Evaluation-




This time substantially better.


On to RTZ-




Adjustment (tracking):


I used the reticle and got 7.9 mils between top and bottom dot. It adjusted as close as live firing can show.




And finished the day with a shot back on the confirmation target-





Conclusions:


The behavior of the scope in the beginning was just weird. After remounting it is much more predictable. However, it still is producing more shots that land on the outside edge of the cone than it should- about like what happens when there is a random .1-.2 mil shift between shots. More shooting will reveal.

 

[Formidilosus]

Also, the turrets are so large that this happens-



If you do not vigorously rack the bolt (and sometimes when you do), the brass hits the turret before clearing the ejection port and gets knocked back in.

 

[Formidilosus]

Another RS member shot ten rounds at 1,011 yards on a 20”’ish target today with switch 9mph cross canyon wind. First round of 168gr AMAX with a guess of 2,650fps MV, an adjustment, and the next 9 were hits. MV trued out at 2,630fps.

 

[Formidilosus]

Zero check today-

 

[Formidilosus]

Zero check-

 

[Formidilosus]

Rifle sat at the house for the last couple of weeks, total of approx 8 miles on forest service roads-




Clearly a problem, so shot the remaining 7 rounds on another target-









Didn’t adjust, will continue to check.

 

[Formidilosus]

Rechecked zero yesterday-




.4 mil high. Took it apart, remounted with 16in-lbs on rings, and rezeroed.




Again, groups are trending larger than normal, and while rezeroing several odd impacts occurred.

 

[Formidilosus]

Zero check today-

 

[Formidilosus]

Zero check after another 30 miles on paved, and 6’ish miles on FS roads.




For reference at 106 rounds total, this is what the back of the target looks like with a 21 round “group”-



About 3 MOA.


A proof scope will be mounted to check the rifle again.

 

[Formidilosus]

The action and rail are bonded, but checked action screw, rail, and scope rings- everything is tight and has not moved. But miraculously-

 

[Formidilosus]

There is nothing wrong with the rifle, this is a wandering erector.

 

[Formidilosus]

This scope would not stay zeroed regardless of how it was mounted or what was done. Consistent .2-.4 mils of vertical shift randomly. In the same time this scope couldn’t hold zero, multiple other scopes held zero perfectly for hundreds of rounds without issue.


The Eval is stopped and Ryan has taken the scope.