Great review Richness.Originally Posted by sir-slots-alot
I have to agree with the comments above. The F/TR world champs a while back were won with an 8-32x56 and the man involved is still using one. The only difference being he has a .25moa click in the windage and 8th on the elevation....that would confuse the hell out of me.
We had a rush of Marches in our club with massive mags etc, oddly the results don't seem to have improved
My one real niggle with sightrons is the numbering and engraving on the turrets.
Many scopes now have clear, readable info on the vernier, allowing elevation and windage to be set/dialled up easily every time, but often the stadia are too fine or close together.
Sightrons is well spaced, uses a logical 10moa rotation, but the elevation marking is all to cock (goes 3-2-1-0-1-2-3....pointless, elevation starts at 0 and goes up!!).
This is easy to fix by simply covering the lettering with fine graphics tape (turrets pop off easily) and either re marking with a fine marker of just accepting that the bottom one is 0 and so on. They must have intended this as I wound mine down to zero and the 0 mark on the elevation drum coincided nicely with the vertical stadia, the bottom edge of the drum kissing the 0 stadia as it should.
The colouring is ridiculous but easily remedied. Take the turrets off and fill the engraving with either white enamel, or use one of those white paint pens.
While it is nearly dry, simply wipe off the stuff with some solvent on a cuetip leaving the white in the engraving. It works really well and looks much better/is much clearer.
Its only cosmetic if you set and forget, the target dot scopes are usually dialled during a shoot (as would anything for field/tac use be).
I have also re marked my turrets with the up/dn direction (so they are obvious in the firing position) and have done the windage numbers dual direction (as we now see on the comp niteforces scopes as an option) so you know the value/direction depending on which side of the columns counts up/down.
Don't get me wrong, I am not thick, but we usually dial shots all of which is recorded on plot sheets, it is not normal to aim off so much with F/TR as the wind has more effect on the .308 so you might find yourself forcing the rifle on target. We don't have a joystick like the open effers (not in wide use in any event). Anything that may help stop you going the wrong way is a bonus.
All of this needs to be clear and easily read under comp pressure.
Zero stops....
Lazy/unnecessary/Gimic.
Only any good if you count clicks which is pointless if you have a good vernier to read. Moreover, if your reference zero is at 100, you rarely return to it and if you need to set it in a hurry it is far easier and less open to mistakes if you dial it.
What if you use different scopes and forget how many MOA per turn or use different loads for different jobs?
If you need a stop to find out where to start counting from (because you wont set it at 300 will you...what if you need to go closer) you may as well wind it all the way down anyway.
No, scopes at this end of the market (top end) should dial every time.
I use an MTC Viper on my old .308 and it is getting replaced by another 8-32x56 LRTD/TDT simply because I cannot dial with the push/pull turret setup on the viper. The only info is on the drums but it was not designed for dialled shooting (as it goes, its a £100 rifle, but shoots as well as many and has beaten people with dedicated or far more expensive F/TR rifles at shorter ranges, so I figured backup scope/get the best out of the rifle).
What I would like to do (and probably will later) is to shim the windage turret a tad so that the edge of the turret lines up with the zero windage vernier (once wind zeroed obviously). This makes for a clearer post shoot reset, but the turret grub screws engage on a coned surface to keep things tight, so the only option is to place shims under the turret. If you need to go the other way I guess you would need a tad taken out of the turret knob.....
Some manufacturers (notably Sightron) could do a lot worse than to address the marking of turrets making them easier to use and fit for multi purpose (where their expected purpose might include range/windage setting) rather than set and forget.
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