Vortex Razor HD LHT 4.5-22x50mm Q&A

Ryan Avery

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Ha ha this is awesome
I know we've had a few playful spats but I like a guy who says it how it is


I agree
It's laughable to take one test from one person and use that result to tarnish an entire product line.
I'll be honest this review is making me suspect of the LHTs durability, but I definitely want to hear from more guys before arriving at a conclusion.
Especially given some of the ridiculous stuff I've seen the OP post on other topics...

Is it a laughable test or suspect durability, it can't be both? Get one test it and post it up. I would love to see as many data points as possible. Talk is cheap!! Seriously everyone is an expert but I don't see their test results.


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Ryan Avery

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Funny thing is this has been my experience with the LHT SFP. I’ve knock it over on the bipod at least a dozen times before I realized I should lock down the lever on my spartan bipod. One time I was moving from 500 to 600 yards and decided it was stable in the bed of my truck on the spartan bipod. Nope, tipped over and landed on the metal bed. My wife dropped it when she tried to lean it up against the side of the truck. Landed on the scope. I’ve banged it around so many times I can’t keep track. Somehow form gets one and drops it in the snow from 6” and it won’t hold a zero? Something isn’t adding up here. Maybe he got a lemon? Or maybe I got the only one they made that’s been 100% reliable on 4 hunts and a dozen or two trips to the range.

The scope had been dropped 15 times at that point. I would guess it was damaged or really sloppy when he dropped it at 6"


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^^^ Interesting, but Form has done, and posted several of these tests here(albeit from different manufacturers), with the end result being the scope failing. The chances of him getting a bum scope from every one of these manufacturers is pretty low.

It’s basically a pattern that most likely points to the design goal being “having more fluff than the competition”, rather then making a robust scope. This would be fine, except the primary reason for a scope is to steer bullets. If it can’t do that reliably for more than a few hundred rounds, that’s really pathetic.

Have any scopes passed his drop tests?


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Well…I thought I did, but apparently I missed that post. Where does Form say what scopes have passed so far?


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The one where he answers someone question about a specific scope, then another post and a third post.
 

realunlucky

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I guess my biggest takeaway from this thread is very few want to test thier own equipment. If @Formidilosus says my scope is good to go then I obliviously have nothing to worry about no matter what happens.

I have a great respect for his opinion but he also goes to extreme lengths to eliminate all those pesky variables that can fail. Very few people in this forum permanently bond actions to chasis/stocks or even for that matter bonded bases to actions.

That's what makes this data valuable is with Forms setup he has eliminated other variables as to why there was a shift in impact after a drop. The amazing thing is the rifle platform remains repeatable time and time again. Keeping testing standardized though out the entire process.

This test provides great data -- how you want to use or discard that information is up to you.

After this first part of this test I'm not feeling disappointed in Vortex as much as I'm just feeling better informed. I have a 3-15 lht on both my muzzleloader and hunting rifle for ME it's been a great optic. I'd kick it off the bipod and continue shooting it no problem. At 19oz I was not expecting to get the same durability as some other heavier more robust choices. Life is full of trade offs and compromises.
 

HOT ROD

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I can't believe all the winning over this scope test on a vortex lht... To be honest I didn't expect it to last that long.... There is probably not much difference between the razor lht and there cheapest dialable scope except for the glass upgrade the internals are probably all the same...
 

Sako300

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Ha ha this is awesome
I know we've had a few playful spats but I like a guy who says it how it is 👊


I agree
It's laughable to take one test from one person and use that result to tarnish an entire product line.
I'll be honest this review is making me suspect of the LHTs durability, but I definitely want to hear from more guys before arriving at a conclusion.
Especially given some of the ridiculous stuff I've seen the OP post on other topics...
If you told me my Zeiss scope and rifle fell on a blanket while hunting, I would still shoot at an animal after and have at long ranges! That’s my conclusion!
 
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I appreciate the depth of info on a scope's ability to maintain zero that Formidilosus has given us. Do I believe that his methods teeter more toward abuse than use? Absolutely. But, these threads are helping the members make more informed decisions when it comes to purchasing optics.

I just purchased a second Optika6 3-18, even though Formidilosus' scope failed. Why? Because his scope failed after all the use plus 3,000 centerfire & 2,500 rimfire rounds. I would like to pretend that I'm a hotshot and shoot a lot but my rifles wearing the Optika6 scopes might see 100 rounds every year.

That being said, I was dead set on buying an LHT for my daughter's rifle but I might wait to see if anyone else tries to replicate the results from page 1 of this thread...
 
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Is it a laughable test or suspect durability, it can't be both? Get one test it and post it up. I would love to see as many data points as possible. Talk is cheap!! Seriously everyone is an expert but I don't see their test results.


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Nope you misunderstood me
I think every test is useful but it's laughable for everyone to accept one test as gospel.
This will have an extremely negative impact on sales of the LHT, I really hope more testing is done so we can fairly conclude if durability is an issue.
If I had $1100 laying around I would love to buy one post my test results
 

JGRaider

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I've always found Formid's tests interesting, even if I questioned a few of them. I've also always prescribed to the theory, as previously mentioned, that you can pretend to be a shooting/hunting badassss, but by far the majority of hunters (specifically) will never come close to the round counts (thousands?) or torture where the scope fails. It doesn't mean that it won't either tough. I've been hooked on hunting since 1971, have taken at least 350 head of big game, and only had two scopes go bonkers. One a VX3 that lost zero, another a 1" Swaro A 3-10x42. both of these were on a 7Mag launching 160's at 3000fps.
 

bradb

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I kind of hope all manufactures(since most all fail this test) can implement changes from test to make there products better. Of course as he stated most wont' pay for what is needed. So where do manufactures go if consumers are not willing to pay the price??
 
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