Hi Rich.
A really good and honest review.
It doesnt suprise me that the Sightron rates so highly in terms of optical resolution.
They are excellent and you would have to spend a hell of a lot more dosh to get a noticible gain in performance.
Being honest, there are a couple of things which put me off from buying the S3 Sightron - these are,
Firstly, The copper coloured windage and elevation markings - I know only cosmetic - BUT it just looks tacky on such a good scope.
Second - and again, just my opinion... The windage and elvation clicks feel a little tinny and sloppy - compared to the PM2 or NF NXS's.... You must have certainly noticed this when compared to your big IOR.
My own Zeiss victory after four years of twiddling, the clicks are razor sharp and snap loud and proud when adjusted. This certianly doesn't affect the performance and tracking ability of the Sightron. But it just doesnt feel robust.
Last thing - is the criticality of the focus - As you said on the review - you prefer it you snap into focus. While this might be perfect shooting at distant quarry on a hillside - I personally dont like this feature for foxing, especially lamping, where the fox can appear at any range and is often on the move.
On the lamp , my Zeiss Victory 6-24x56 gets turned to 12 mag and the parallax set at 150 yrds...everything from 30 rds to 350 yrds is really clear and I dont spend any time trying to focus the picture on the scope. I lost more than a few foxes with my previous two 8-32 NXS's due to this reason
The new S-Tac looks a great scope and if they get round to producing a higher mag version , it could make it on to my shopping list. I did almost buy the new HD 5-25 Zeiss but in the end went for the RZ Meopta 6-24x56. This is a superb scope that ticks alot of the boxes without spending S&B PM2 money. Your welcome to do a review or comparision test on it.
Thanks for taking the time for the scope review.
ATB
Alan