How did you decide on your scope?

Formidilosus

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I'll be honest here because I'm a couple glasses of bourbon deep but I'm leaning towards to Vortex Razor now. I just can't wrap my head around spending this kind of money and not having assurances it's covered no matter what. The weight penalty is what it is. I hope others are getting some useful info out of this thread. I can't thank everyone enough. Let's keep it going!

You’re paying for that warrenty. Vortex isn’t altruistic- the replacement cost for that no questions asked, running over your scope warranty is baked into the purchase price. Every other legit manufacturer has a solid warranty as well- some of them just don’t depend on it to sell their products.

If you actually shoot it, you’ll more than likely need that warranty.
 
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I agree. My last scope that puked cost me a few animals and countless ammo before I figured out it was the scope. It was a non dialer, that had erratic POI shift some of the time.

From then on it has been strictly NF scopes for me, and surprise, no more issues. I do shoot a lot, so that may have something to do with constant scope failures. All of the money you will spend on ammo, wasted trips etc., will more than make up the difference of a NF scope.
There are several stories of nightforce scopes shitting the bed. Often times the threads are deleted because they sponsor the forum. A lot of them are made in Japan and aren’t better than any other Japanese scope.
 
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If you want to stay around the $1k mark, VX5HD and Razor LHT are tough to beat. I have them both. If you are willing to Jump up to $2k, VX6HD 4-24, Mark 5hd and NX8 are all good options. I have all of these as well.
 
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cfdjay

cfdjay

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There are several stories of nightforce scopes shitting the bed. Often times the threads are deleted because they sponsor the forum. A lot of them are made in Japan and aren’t better than any other Japanese scope.

Funny you say that. In my rabbit hole I've read plenty of the same. Tracking issues etc
 
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You’re paying for that warrenty. Vortex isn’t altruistic- the replacement cost for that no questions asked, running over your scope warranty is baked into the purchase price. Every other legit manufacturer has a solid warranty as well- some of them just don’t depend on it to sell their products.

If you actually shoot it, you’ll more than likely need that warranty.
Their Razor scopes are made in Japan and are really good. I have the LHT 3-15x42 on my Mountain rifle and it is awesome.
 

Formidilosus

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There are several stories of nightforce scopes shitting the bed. Often times the threads are deleted because they sponsor the forum. A lot of them are made in Japan and aren’t better than any other Japanese scope.

“Several” versus hundreds easily found. Vortex/Leupold/Zeiss warranty work conversations are found in any group that actually shoots, and yet NF failing in function is exceedingly rare in those same conversations.

5 minutes and less than ten rounds can prove what I wrote. Take your scope that is zeroed, put a 1/2” mat down, and drop the rifle once on each side and the top of the scope from 18”. Check zero between each drop. Then do the same from 36”. Your mentioned VX5 and Mark 5, and Razor LHT will all lose zero consistently from a single side impact. So will the Zeiss V4’s and 6’s. Ironically, the NF NX8 has no such problem.


Every scope model has failures, every one. The failure rates between scopes are not equal or nor close.
 

freddyG

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There are several stories of nightforce scopes shitting the bed. Often times the threads are deleted because they sponsor the forum. A lot of them are made in Japan and aren’t better than any other Japanese scope.
I agree. No product is perfect. The failure rate of NF is very low. You seem to imply that every scope that comes out of Japan has the same quality? That simply isn’t the case. Even LOW builds to whatever specs the vendor PAYS for.
 
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I agree. No product is perfect. The failure rate of NF is very low. You seem to imply that every scope that comes out of Japan has the same quality? That simply isn’t the case. Even LOW builds to whatever specs the vendor PAYS for.
I bet my retirement the failure rate for nightforce is the same as a high end leupold or vortex or Bushnell or Burris. They don’t sell as many scopes as the others, particularly leupold.
 
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“Several” versus hundreds easily found. Vortex/Leupold/Zeiss warranty work conversations are found in any group that actually shoots, and yet NF failing in function is exceedingly rare in those same conversations.

5 minutes and less than ten rounds can prove what I wrote. Take your scope that is zeroed, put a 1/2” mat down, and drop the rifle once on each side and the top of the scope from 18”. Check zero between each drop. Then do the same from 36”. Your mentioned VX5 and Mark 5, and Razor LHT will all lose zero consistently from a single side impact. So will the Zeiss V4’s and 6’s. Ironically, the NF NX8 has no such problem.


Every scope model has failures, every one. The failure rates between scopes are not equal or nor close.
Vortex and Leupold have scopes in every price range and sell way more scopes than nightforce does. Compare an NX8 to a Mark5hd failure rate, you can’t lump in all the old VX scopes that cost $300. I would even bet the Mark5hd has less failures than an NX8. The Mark5hd is a better scope than the NX8 - you have obviously never owned one or put it through the ringer
 
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Formidilosus

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I bet my retirement the failure rate for nightforce is the same as a high end leupold or vortex or Bushnell or Burris. They don’t sell as many scopes as the others, particularly leupold.

By what magic are all of those scopes created equal? In other news- all rifles are as accurate, all pistols are as durable, all vehicles have the same reliability regardless of use, all dryers work the same, all cheeseburgers taste the same, all woman have the same personality.


Can you please show your most used Leupold, Vortex, Bushnell, and Burris scope.
 

Trap

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Do you see any cons with magnification like that and possibly never using it other than the $?
One major con is target acquisition. You might be set dial to 32 x and the animal moves. Game moves and trying to dial for range and losing your target and adjusting down to find it becomes a cluster$$$$ in a hurry. Think about a real life hunting situation 32 power is not necessary but could create problems
 

tdhanses

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“Several” versus hundreds easily found. Vortex/Leupold/Zeiss warranty work conversations are found in any group that actually shoots, and yet NF failing in function is exceedingly rare in those same conversations.

5 minutes and less than ten rounds can prove what I wrote. Take your scope that is zeroed, put a 1/2” mat down, and drop the rifle once on each side and the top of the scope from 18”. Check zero between each drop. Then do the same from 36”. Your mentioned VX5 and Mark 5, and Razor LHT will all lose zero consistently from a single side impact. So will the Zeiss V4’s and 6’s. Ironically, the NF NX8 has no such problem.


Every scope model has failures, every one. The failure rates between scopes are not equal or nor close.
I fell on my NX8, I mean on top of it on frozen ground and hard, no zero lost.
 

Formidilosus

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I would even bet the Mark5hd has less failures than an NX8. The Mark5hd is a better scope than the NX8 - you have obviously never owned one or put it through the ringer


Nope. Only a couple hundred thousand rounds using NX8’s, and only a few thousand with Mark 5’s because they all mechanically failed.
 
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seand

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I'm pretty new to rifle hunting. I've had some basic setups over the years but I'm 95% a bow guy. I recently got into the rabbit hole of rifles and rifle hunting due to increasing my opportunities to get out west. I ended up with a Browning Hell's Canyon in 6.8 western.

With all that being said, now I'm stuck with deciding on the glass. How did you decide on yours? What was important? So many options out there and so many reviews. Curious to hear your algorithm of decision. Thanks!

I grew up with Leupolds, was the thing to have in my family and group of hunting buddies. I gravitated to the 6x42 leupolds when I started dialing hunting scopes as even 10 years ago leupold was developing a reputation for tracking issues and the fixed powers seemed to do better. I bought a SWFA 3-9x42 8 years ago based on Formidilosus’s recommendation. I’ve since bought another 3-9 and 6x42 and four other SWFA’s and have had zero problems. Both of my leupold 6x42’s since developed tracking problems.

It’s funny my buddies scope went tits up before a backpack hunt and I mailed him a swfa 6x42 I hadn’t mounted yet. After he used it a bunch and loved it he said I’m not getting it back and he shipped me a new one. He was a doubter for sure (who the hell is SWFA?) but actually using the fixed 6x on a hunt and dialing a bunch in practice removed all his doubts. Couple more buddies now have tikka T3’s and SWFA 6x’s now , funny how it works that way.
 

Wassid82

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I'm pretty new to rifle hunting. I've had some basic setups over the years but I'm 95% a bow guy. I recently got into the rabbit hole of rifles and rifle hunting due to increasing my opportunities to get out west. I ended up with a Browning Hell's Canyon in 6.8 western.

With all that being said, now I'm stuck with deciding on the glass. How did you decide on yours? What was important? So many options out there and so many reviews. Curious to hear your algorithm of decision. Thanks!
I saw this and said, "yep".........https://youtu.be/4bZZTa8M5wI
 
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I have officially went down a rabbit hole here and hopefully someone can answer this for me.
Light optical Works ( LOW ) in Japan makes a bunch of higher end scopes for different companies and seems to be the place you want your scope made.
Are the scopes made there all generally the same just different name on the side or can the specs/internals still differ greatly?
 
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