1997 SWFA 10x42 as good as new ones?

[Trackselk]

Just clicked buy on a swfa 10x42 on gunbroker for about $180 shipped. The box says 1997, and I'm in a hurry to get all dialed in for a deer hunt in 3 weeks. I'll snag a newer one if anyone knows that the old ones were inferior.???
New to dialing, so I figured I'd try this out and see if it will work for shooting early and late in the day. I appreciate any advice!

 

[Formidilosus]

Just clicked buy on a swfa 10x42 on gunbroker for about $180 shipped. The box says 1997, and I'm in a hurry to get all dialed in for a deer hunt in 3 weeks. I'll snag a newer one if anyone knows that the old ones were inferior.???
New to dialing, so I figured I'd try this out and see if it will work for shooting early and late in the day. I appreciate any advice!

The problem with older ones is mix turrets and reticles- MOA adjustments, Mil reticle.

 

[Trackselk]

Oh damn, thanks for the warning! I had to do some googling, but I'm still not certain if it will be a deal breaker for me. Here's my hunting situation. Hopefully you all won't burst my bubble!
I'm skilled with compensating for the wind without any hash marks (plain leupold crosshairs), and I'll only be shooting with a max of about 12" drift (berger VLD's). So, all I want to do is dial elevation (without any conversions) 6-65". Mostly, I won't be shooting in heavy wind very far, as I'm not willing to risk what the wind is "doing over there". Haven't lost an animal with hold-over, and I want to lessen that possibility further with dialing elevation. Wish I could find the fixed 6x SWFA! Thanks for reading

 

[Trackselk]

One more thought. I typically sling my rifle over my shoulder, so I wonder if i'm going to have trouble without locking turrets? I would spend a lot more and get a bombproof scope if one existed under $1k, if it was actually available. Seems like the ones that have been thoroughly tested are all unavailable. Heck, I might even go $1500 if I had real confidence that it would last 20 years of hauling through the wilderness. It will never see hard recoil or very many rounds through it. Just lots of brush and maybe some airport travel.

 

[Formidilosus]

Oh damn, thanks for the warning! I had to do some googling, but I'm still not certain if it will be a deal breaker for me. Here's my hunting situation. Hopefully you all won't burst my bubble!
I'm skilled with compensating for the wind without any hash marks (plain leupold crosshairs), and I'll only be shooting with a max of about 12" drift (berger VLD's). So, all I want to do is dial elevation (without any conversions) 6-65". Mostly, I won't be shooting in heavy wind very far, as I'm not willing to risk what the wind is "doing over there". Haven't lost an animal with hold-over, and I want to lessen that possibility further with dialing elevation. Wish I could find the fixed 6x SWFA! Thanks for reading

Someone can make an MOA/Mil mixed scope work, however is very far from ideal. It’s not hard to find a SWFA 10x with Milquad reticle that is Mil/mil.

 

[nobody]

Oh damn, thanks for the warning! I had to do some googling, but I'm still not certain if it will be a deal breaker for me. Here's my hunting situation. Hopefully you all won't burst my bubble!
I'm skilled with compensating for the wind without any hash marks (plain leupold crosshairs), and I'll only be shooting with a max of about 12" drift (berger VLD's). So, all I want to do is dial elevation (without any conversions) 6-65". Mostly, I won't be shooting in heavy wind very far, as I'm not willing to risk what the wind is "doing over there". Haven't lost an animal with hold-over, and I want to lessen that possibility further with dialing elevation. Wish I could find the fixed 6x SWFA! Thanks for reading

When you say "dial without conversions" do you mean you'd like a scope that "dials in inches", because if that's the case, there's no such thing. Scopes adjust using angular measurements of Minutes of Angle and Miliradian.

The scope in your original post will move 1/4 MOA with each click. That 1/4 MOA equates to different measurements at different distances because it's an angular measurement, not a linear measurement. Your ballistic solvers will solve in MOA, not inches, so it's largely pointless to learn your drop in inches.

The benefit of the matched reticle in the newer SWFA scopes is that the MOA scopes will come with MOA reticles, and the Miliradian scopes will come with Miliradian reticles. So you can figure your wind drift in MOA and your drop in MOA, no matter the distance.

Trust me, figuring in inches is pointless because the adjustment value in your scope to meet those inches varies depending on the distance you're shooting. To adjust this SWFA you're looking at to 65" at 100 yards is roughly 65 MOA, but it's 16.25 MOA at 400 yards (these are approximate). But in order to get that figure I had to run a conversion calculation. So rather than sticking to inches, just learn MOA and speak the same language as your scope.

 

[Trackselk]

That makes sense. I've always just used holdover with only understanding the approximate size of the animals (in inches), but only out to 300 yards, so it was easy dealing with 6" of drop. Now I want to reach out further since I've caught the 'big buck fever'. So, I've got some reading to do. I guess it's dead simple to use moa or milrad versus inches anyhow. Thanks again!

 

[Trackselk]

Just lucked out (hopefully) and got a demo grade C swfa 6x42. Right about $400 shipped, hopefully it holds zero. Looking forward to the low light performance and accurate dialing. I wish the zero stop shims weren't sold out. Just need to figure out how to carry it without knocking the turrets around. Not a big deal if I will be able to recognize that they've moved by looking closely? Tiny scratch Marks as position indicators?

 

[nobody]

Just lucked out (hopefully) and got a demo grade C swfa 6x42. Right about $400 shipped, hopefully it holds zero. Looking forward to the low light performance and accurate dialing. I wish the zero stop shims weren't sold out. Just need to figure out how to carry it without knocking the turrets around. Not a big deal if I will be able to recognize that they've moved by looking closely? Tiny scratch Marks as position indicators?

There are revolution indicators on the turret. Just mark with white paint on the top of your turret which revolution you're zeroed on (6.5, 5, etc.). If you're worried about spinning them, throw a neoprene scope coat on it. That's what I've done with mine.

 

[Trackselk]

Perfect, will do. Many thanks!