March FX 1.5-15x42mm Field Evaluation

[Formidilosus]

This is a field evaluation on the March FX 1.5-15x42mm, mil/mil scope. It was sent to Ryan for the eval by a forum member.


The scope and weight:







Turrets:

10 mil per rev, zero stop, revolution indicated, and locking-



Shuriken lock on elevation and windage- rotate the top part and the turrets locks at any setting, rotate it back and it spins freely. If you look close- white mean unpacked, red on windage means locked.





Reticle: DR-TR2B


This scope is a dual focal plane optic.

1.5x is a nice and thick duplex style reticle, very easy to see-



15x is a half mil hash reticle with simplified tree-



6x and the mil markings are visible and usable-




Push button illumination-




Illuminated SFP dot-

1.5x



15x



The dual focal plane is March’s answer to the FFP reticle being visible and usable on low power. The “duplex” thick part of the reticle is SFP- thicker at lower power, thinner at higher power. The mil hashes are FFP- they are correct at all powers, but you don’t really see them until the magnification is turned to 4-5x. It’s a really usable setup provided it works correctly.




Initial thoughts:

The scope is very short/compact. The turrets, dual FP reticle, and illumination are excellently designed.

Con’t….

 

[Formidilosus]

Zeroing:

The 20 round proof group with Federal Gold Medal Match was 1.2” at 100 yards.


Went without issue. Confirmer group on right before drop eval.







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, and makes it through the high round count portion, failures in actual use are almost unheard of.

This one was conducted on soft, semi packed soil. @PNWGATOR also was involved in this one.



Nothing to talk about.






RTZ, nothing to talk about-





Adjustment. Used reticle and came up with 7.1 to 7.2 mils between dots. While letting the barrel cool before shokting, @PNWGATOR was looking through the scope and went to turn the lower ring, but instead grabbed the ocular lock ring and turned it (bite: the lock ring and eyepiece is almost impossible to lock for no movement). Unfortunately, when we started the “tracking” portion the zero hade shifted .2 mils or so high. Consequently the shot at 7.2 mils were likewise high.





After finishing the adjustment portion, we played with the eyepiece to figure out what happened, when it was discovered that the eyepiece being loose at all resulted in up to a .4 mil shift. Once refocusing and tightening, taping and wanting to super glue the eyepiece to get it to stop moving- the rifle was back at zero with no adjustment-



Conclusion:

It had no issues in zeroing, holding zero through drops or return to zero. It also adjusted at 7.2 mils to less than 2%. The issue with the eyepiece not staying locked and tight is still present.

 

[Formidilosus]

Glass: This is resolution, brightness, clarity, color rendition, etc.

From 1.5-10x it is acceptable. Quite frankly above 11x or so- resolution and clarity are poor. It is about like Leupold VX1 level. This is the price for a 10x ratio magnification range, and short length.

I cannot state this clearly enough- if you believe or expect that you are getting $3,000 glass quality in this scope you will be disappointed. The Athlon Helos BTR II 2-12x is as good or slightly better at 12x than this March at 12x.


Turrets: The Shuriken turrets are fantastic. Probably the best turret locking system on the market.



Reticle: The dual focal plane reticle works as advertised so far. At lower powers (1.5x through about 5x) it is a very bold duplex style reticle- very bold. Starting at around 6x the mil hashes start being usable, and the center crosshairs are thin enough to quarter 1.5 MOA dots. Above 8-10x the full tree starts being usable.
The illuminated center dot works well and is appropriately sized.

 

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Zero check after a couple hundred miles in the truck.

 

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Swapped the SWFA 10x off the 308/Rokstock rifle after 600’ish rounds without issue, and put the March 1.5-15x on it-



Paint pen had an accident-





Dialed down 4 mils from the eval rifle (20 MOA rail-



Down .1, right .1 and slipped turrets.


Federal Tru 168gr TMK needs down .2-

 

[Formidilosus]

Shooting today for trying MV at 760 yards with 7mph full value wind (1.4 mil correction), a couple of things stood out.

1). The depth of focus is very short. From ok’ish clarity at 15x (because it isn’t “great”, or even “good), to barely being able to separate the target from the surrounding ground is a very small adjustment on the parallax knob.

2). The reticle is thick enough, with enough hashes, dots, and numbers that I lost the impact once- that is not normal for me. The reticle is a bit too thick. At 15x it’s fine, but 15x is too much mag for spotting your own shots with rifles that recoil. 8-12x is good for that and the range I was shooting, but the reticle gets pretty thick due SFP. Probably no issues for hunting, but for trueing velocity on a target between two trees with a 6’ish foot gap- not ideal.

3). Glass quality/image quality (IQ). No amount of focusing, playing, or adjusting using all the internet tricks makes the IQ even as good as the SWFA 3-15x FFP. Get it just right and at 12x+ it’s usable, but isn’t really good. For an idea, at 10x it’s about as good as the newer SWFA 10x’s- which if the reticle were a bit thinner would be just fine. As it is, it’s definitely the biggest complaint with the scope.

4). The eyebox isn’t super critical- better than people generally say. No real issue with it.


5). Size- it’s great. This is the length scopes should be.

6). The Shuriken turrets are probably my favorite turrets of any scope.


Overall, this scope in a 2-12x, 3-15x, etc would be spectacular. As it sits (provided it continues in o function correctly) it looks to be a durable, short scope with excellent turrets, and less than ideal image quality and DOF.

 

[Formidilosus]

Zero check.






Then shot a round at 15x, 10x, 8x, and 6x. 8x the reticle was the same size as the 1” square. 6x it was larger.

 

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Zero check after 1,000’ish miles with multiple rifles on top-

 

[Formidilosus]

Someone else shot it today-

 

[Formidilosus]

Something interesting was noted today while field shooting-




Notice anything in reference to the main vertical center crosshair, in relation to the horizontal hash marks?




Most easily seen by looking at the half mil hash marks in comparison to the center crosshair- the dual facial plane is not aligned correctly. The left side .5 mil time mark is actually at about .3-.4 mils, and the right side .5 tick mark is at about .7-.8 mils. This of course continues through the reticle.
Also, there is parallax between the SFP “duplex” and the FFP mil reticle- move your head left or right below 15x and the two reticle separate- including up and down. At 8-10x (the most useful mag range) the “parallax” is about .3 to .4 mil.

The more time/use I get in field shooting, the less I like this scope. The turrets and size are fantastic, and the dual focal plane sounds great in theory. Unfortunately in the field, the compromises are too much.
Again, the image above 11x or so is very disappointing- picking up deer when they aren’t moving on a sandy/gravel hillside with direct evening sun is difficult.
Over a dozen people- most who are very competent with optics and using every trick on the internet to do it, cannot get a legit clear image of the reticle and target at 100 yards. In some lighting conditions, the .25” Diamond in the standard 1.5” orange stickers cannot be resolved- the whole thing is “hazy”. No other scope (save the other March) has that issue side by side with it.
The dual focal plane reticle that is supposed to cure the issues of FFP reticle viability, does that at a cost. This scope is really a thick duplex reticle scope from 1.5x to about 10x. Between 6-11’ish X, the reticle is so thick that it makes it visually “difficult” to aim at 8-12” targets in the 400+ yard range. I would not personally shoot a deer past 400 yards with this scope on less then 11x and probably 12x. Which is well over the mag that I am using normally. On top of that, the reticle is so fat that it is noticeably more difficult to spot impacts and splashes.

 

[Formidilosus]

After investigating more, the reticle misalignment varies by power. At 8-12x it’s what is seen above- about .3-.4 mil error. At 15x it’s perfect. However, at 3-6x (worst at 4x) the center crosshair is .5 mil high and .5 mil right- the intersection is right at the upper right corner of the “box”. When zooming up and down in power the two reticles float around each other visibly.

 

[Formidilosus]

Well, first the misaligned reticles. Now-


Two left ones, then held right nearly .5 mils for the three in the center.





Immediately after-





Scope was pulled. Somewhere between 300 and 400 rounds.