Would you buy this scope?

[JCMCUBIC]

Would love to try a S&B Klassik 8x56 with P3 reticle and 4.8 mil BDC turret.

Yep. I spoke with EuroOptic a while back about this. They checked with S&B about doing a special run but S&B declined. I would really like to try that configuration but I'm doubtful I'd prefer it over the 6x42 for most of my use...still, I'd like to give it a try.

 

[Kimber7man]

Yep. I spoke with EuroOptic a while back about this. They checked with S&B about doing a special run but S&B declined. I would really like to try that configuration but I'm doubtful I'd prefer it over the 6x42 for most of my use...still, I'd like to give it a try.

I’m thinking you and I could order a passel of them combined…. @EuroOptic

 

[pods8 (Rugged Stitching)]

An hour after sunset is crazy to me. I have a lot less issues with visibility in the morning going from light to dark so I think my eyes are just very slow to adjust to the dark as the sun sets. Occasionally, in the right conditions (open field or hillside, clear night, etc.) I can make it to a little past 30 minutes in the evening.

Keep in mind different areas in the world and different times of year the rate it gets dark after sunset isn’t apples to apples.

Here in CO in later fall I find 20min after sunset is pretty dark even with swaro binos unless something is up close or previously identified for antler restrictions, etc. The detail is tough further away in that last 10min.

Then for a different example you have Alaska in Aug and it’s twilight for a long time after sunset.

 

[WCT3]

Keep in mind different areas in the world and different times of year the rate it gets dark after sunset isn’t apples to apples.

Here in CO in later fall I find 20min after sunset is pretty dark even with swaro binos unless something is up close or previously identified for antler restrictions, etc. The detail is tough further away in that last 10min.

Then for a different example you have Alaska in Aug and it’s twilight for a long time after sunset.

That's a very good point I hadn't considered. I'm also in CO and mostly hunt here. I've fished in Central Ontario in June quite a few times and the light lasts forever there too.

 

[Dobermann]

It would be interesting to know what those other brands are prioritizing instead of durability and repeatability.

"Features" and profit margin.

 

[Dobermann]

When I first found SWFA scopes a few years ago, I joined Sniper’s Hide to ask if they were any good. I wanted something to be on a $400 Mauser .22-250 I found on GunBroker (damn near identical to the one I just sold). A couple of people said SWFA were really good “for the price.”

FWIW, Frank has said multiple times on his podcast that SWFA 5-25s are what he keeps as loaner scopes, due to their reliability.

 

[Dobermann]

less glass and more ass

@Ryan Avery can we pleeeeassseee have this as the next Rokslide t-shirt?

And @fwafwow: before you tell me I'm being inappropriate again, @ElPollo was just talking about scopes.

 

[dirtytough]

Haha. You’re right, if you’re comfortable making a mess out of killing an animal. But the Leupold scopes they make now are not the ones they used to make. And that’s readily apparent. I used to use them and wish I could again. Note that I didn’t include Vortex in that because they never were reliable.

That said, if your metrics for evaluating scopes are different than mine, great.

I kinda thought it was a dumb analogy is all. So I used a dumb one also.

The mess comment is funny. I’ll remember to blame the equipment next time I have a ‘mess’.

 

[JGRaider]

I kinda thought it was a dumb analogy is all. So I used a dumb one also.

The mess comment is funny. I’ll remember to blame the equipment next time I have a ‘mess’.

Yeah, after at least a couple hundred big game kills, specifically with Leupold's, "mess" is quite the exaggeration.

 

[ElPollo]

I kinda thought it was a dumb analogy is all. So I used a dumb one also.

The mess comment is funny. I’ll remember to blame the equipment next time I have a ‘mess’.

Have you ever had a rifle fall over or maybe slip on a slope and fall? If you look at those drop tests, that can result in 100 yard POI shifts of up to 18”.

I was on an elk hunt once where I took a header and landed on my rifle. A rock left a 1/8” divot in the rear ring. The scope was a 1994 Bushnell Scope Chief and it held zero. When that scope died more than 20 years later, I went to replace it with an “upgrade” that turned into 3 upgrades because none of the new scopes I bought would hold zero. I had a Nikon and a Leupold that would both regularly shift zeros randomly up to 4-6” at 100 just from a few hundred miles of washboard roads riding in the truck with everything torqued and loctited to spec.

I don’t have that problem any more. Do you? If you did, how might you go about diagnosing it? Would you blame it on wind, ammo, getting the barrel too hot, too much coffee, or just a bad day? If it happened in the field, and threw round high or wide on an animal, what would you attribute it to? How would you go about figuring out what happened and ensuring it didn’t happen again? You know, I think you’re right. We shouldn’t blame the equipment. There’s a long list of decisions that get us to that sort of failure. My intention is not to be sarcastic.

 

[RockAndSage]

When that scope died more than 20 years later, I went to replace it with an “upgrade” that turned into 3 upgrades because none of the new scopes I bought would hold zero. I had a Nikon and a Leupold that would both regularly shift zeros randomly up to 4-6” at 100 just from a few hundred miles of washboard roads riding in the truck with everything torqued and loctited to spec.

I don’t have that problem any more. Do you? If you did, how might you go about diagnosing it? Would you blame it on wind, ammo, getting the barrel too hot, too much coffee, or just a bad day? If it happened in the field, and threw round high or wide on an animal, what would you attribute it to? How would you go about figuring out what happened and ensuring it didn’t happen again?

What you're getting at here is the most frustrating and, frankly, angering thing I've dealt with on scopes. It's the mystery of what happened, trying to diagnose it, and first and foremost having a strong tendency to start with assessing my personal role in something. You go on this long train of diagnostics that takes valuable time, money, and more than anything frustration at chasing your tail and wondering why you're not getting anywhere - after you thought you'd had it figured out. Multiple times.

The scope issue has been the single most useful and painful category of new information for me in digging deep into Rokslide - seeing sacred cows slaughtered repeatedly in ways that were more repeatable than their zero tracking, and trying to figure out next steps.

That's why this new scope is so exciting. It potentially solves the reliability/durability/usability equation in a highly optimal way - I'd very much like it to be for hunting scopes what Staccato did for 1911s/2011s.