Zeiss LRP S3 6-36x56mm Field Evaluation

[Formidilosus]

This is a field evaluation of the Zeiss LRP S3 6-36x56mm scope. This scope was sent to @Justin Crossley and then was passed to me from from Ryan Avery for evaluation. The ammunition used was Hornady Black 168gr AMAX that was purchased by Ryan. The 30 round proof group was just over 1.3 MOA.


Scope:

39.3 ounces



Turrets:

Elevation is non locking with a zero stop, windage is pull up/push down locking and rotation limited.




Illumination is in the side parallax-




Reticle:

The reticle is a version of the common .2 mil hashes tree reticles with a center dot.

6x



36x




Illuminated-

6x low power



6x high power-



36x low power-


36x high power.



They illumination is relatively unique in that on low power only the center 1 mil cross is illuminated; but on high power the entire tree is.




Cont…..

 

[Formidilosus]

Zeroing:


Mounting as the Zeiss rings stated- 18 in-lbs on ring caps, 36 in-lbs on base screw.

The scope was sighted in a few days prior (and the first drop eval), that target had another target pasted over it and shot on, so that target is lost. Initial zeroing went fine, no issues, however the scope did not hold zero at all when dropped from 18”. Due to the Zeiss rings, the scope was remounted and rezeroed. After a few days, and riding in the truck a bit, this is the zero check- first shot is the low one.







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 unpacked dirt with two 1/2” padded mat on top of each other.

Shot #1 is a confirmer prior to any drops. 2-4 are from 18”, 5-7 are from 36”, and 8 is the 9x36” drops.








It did not hold zero. The first 36” drop moved POI around 11 inches left.


Zeiss rings are heavily compromised, the scope will be remounted in solid rings and rechecked.



Con’t…

 

[Formidilosus]

Remounted this scope in NF Ultralight rings.

Zeroing. Boresight top left three rounds, then while trying to reset the turret I put some inadvertent clicks in. Those are the bottom left two rounds. Adjusted off of those and shot five more. Made a final adjustment of right .1 mils, then went to drop eval.





Shot #1 was a confirmer that zero was good.



Nothing to report- scope performed correctly.


RTZ and “Tracking”

So return to zero after the drops went fine until the 8th round. That is the low shot. That is not shooter error or not having it at “0”. After that shot I immediately shot another that landed inside the dot. The only thing different with that shot is that I had been dialing it to 10 mils and back to zero, and that shot I dialed until it stopped and back to zero. I did not force it at the stop. So there are 11 rounds in the RTZ dot. Round number 8 was way off, rounds 9, 10, and 11 were fine.





“Tracking”, that is checking adjustment values went fine. I used the reticle and came up with spot on 7.2 mils between top and bottom dots. That’s what I used. It needed 7.1 or maybe 7.0 mils to be correct. Either way it’s less than 2% error and that’s about as close as live shooting can show. No issues.







Conclusions:

At this point it is clear that the prior issues with this scope at least in the drop portion was due to the previous rings. I am not sure what caused the way low shot during the RTZ check, so that will have to be watched closely. Otherwise, this is what the back of a drop eval and tracking target should look like-

 

[Formidilosus]

Spent a bit over a week shooting with multiple RS’ers.



This Zeiss was shot and used relatively heavy out to 1,160 yards for several hundred rounds of being thrown in the truck on top of, under, and beside rifles, ammo, packs, dogs, gear, etc. Worked correctly the whole time. Will check zero today or tomorrow.

 

[Formidilosus]

Shooting through a bit of grass when checking zero. First shot is out.




Shot again to check-



Than shot the rest of the 20 round box. All but the first shot as expected. Either the first hit grass, or it had a stuck erector.

 

[Formidilosus]

For now it’s mounted on an extremely
precise .22.

 

[Formidilosus]

The scope has gotten some use.


Zero checks the last week with a couple hundred miles on the truck and some pretty rough roads in between.

 

[Formidilosus]

Zero check-




Then shot it at 1,135y and 1,272 yards for about 60 rounds.

 

[Formidilosus]

Zero check-

 

[Formidilosus]

Swapped the chassis on the UM rifle, no loss of zero after the swap-