I replied to this thread without reading all the responses first. Went through those afterwards and found it interesting. I find it refreshing that the majority of the responses are so positive given where the rifle scope industry has been headed in the last few years with a preponderance of giant, gamer, PRS scopes that I have no interest in.
Others are positive but with qualifications that are basically saying, yeah but only if add all the other stuff every other manufacturer is making except durable or lighter. Physics and economics are unfortunately a thing. You can’t add the kitchen sink and still come out more durable, lighter weight, and cheaper.
Everything is a trade off and we should be honestly evaluating our needs. I take Ryan’s initial post as an effort to gauge interest in a scope that has everything you need for 95% of western hunting and none of the stuff you don’t. Durable internals, a good reticle that makes the need and extra weight of illumination unneeded, a useable reticle that works well with the magnification range in the first focal plane, a reasonable magnification range that will get 99% of shooters to ranges that their skills allow and still get them on target quickly and get back on target after the shot quickly, good enough glass to get the job done until past legal shooting hours, and do it all in a package that is as light and as compact as you could make it.
There are lots of special case scenarios that make up the other 5% of western hunting or other applications. We should recall the old addage of good, cheap, fast… pick two. If I can get a scope that does what Ryan is suggesting with the weight he is talking about, I’m happy. I’ll probably keep it set around 6-8x and only adjust it for range work or in rare hunting circumstances. I will also hope they are successful enough to make additional scopes for the other 5%, other applications, and for weirdos like myself who are happy with light, compact, and durable 6-8x fixed power hunting scopes with good reticles.
And finally on the cost, in case we haven’t been paying attention, shit has gotten more expensive over the past few years. A Trijicon 10-mile is $1700-1800, the Maven RS 1.2 is $1200. Is it reasonable to expect something that is an improvement to be less expensive? If they can make it, for $1200-1500, I’ll buy one on the first run and probably one a year after that for 2-3 years until they make my ideal fixed scopes. Then I’ll buy probably around 4-6 or so of those right out of the gate to use until I am too old to hunt.
Others are positive but with qualifications that are basically saying, yeah but only if add all the other stuff every other manufacturer is making except durable or lighter. Physics and economics are unfortunately a thing. You can’t add the kitchen sink and still come out more durable, lighter weight, and cheaper.
Everything is a trade off and we should be honestly evaluating our needs. I take Ryan’s initial post as an effort to gauge interest in a scope that has everything you need for 95% of western hunting and none of the stuff you don’t. Durable internals, a good reticle that makes the need and extra weight of illumination unneeded, a useable reticle that works well with the magnification range in the first focal plane, a reasonable magnification range that will get 99% of shooters to ranges that their skills allow and still get them on target quickly and get back on target after the shot quickly, good enough glass to get the job done until past legal shooting hours, and do it all in a package that is as light and as compact as you could make it.
There are lots of special case scenarios that make up the other 5% of western hunting or other applications. We should recall the old addage of good, cheap, fast… pick two. If I can get a scope that does what Ryan is suggesting with the weight he is talking about, I’m happy. I’ll probably keep it set around 6-8x and only adjust it for range work or in rare hunting circumstances. I will also hope they are successful enough to make additional scopes for the other 5%, other applications, and for weirdos like myself who are happy with light, compact, and durable 6-8x fixed power hunting scopes with good reticles.
And finally on the cost, in case we haven’t been paying attention, shit has gotten more expensive over the past few years. A Trijicon 10-mile is $1700-1800, the Maven RS 1.2 is $1200. Is it reasonable to expect something that is an improvement to be less expensive? If they can make it, for $1200-1500, I’ll buy one on the first run and probably one a year after that for 2-3 years until they make my ideal fixed scopes. Then I’ll buy probably around 4-6 or so of those right out of the gate to use until I am too old to hunt.
