Zero Tech Trace ADV 4-24x50mm Field Eval

[Formidilosus]

This is a field evaluation of the Zero Tech Trace ADV 4-24x50mm Tremor 3 reticle scope. This scope was given to me by Ryan. The baseline 30 round group with this lot of ammunition was 1.5” at 100 yards.



The scope and weight-


It has a 30mm tube and is approx. 14.5” long.



Turrets:


Elevation turret is exposed, revolution indicated, 10 mils per rev, with zero stop. Windage is capped, non revolution indicated, and resettable.


Elevation and windage with cap off-

Zero top is common pin on pin design-




Reticle:

Tremor 3. I will explain the “why” of the reticle later. For now, I was asked to ignore the reticle and just see if the scope works.

4x




24x




Con’t.

 

[Formidilosus]

Zeroing:

Scope was mounted as standard with NF rings. The rings were degreased and installed with 65 in-lbs on base screws, and 18 in-lbs on ring cap screws.

Bore sight, then two rounds (upper left). Adjusted then shot 7 at left dot. Adjusted again and shot 3 at center- they hit but were slightly to the right.







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 soil.

Left and top 18” drops had no effect, right side 18” was just out of the dot. Left side 36” drop was fine, right side however shifted 2 mils to the right. Top 36” and 9x36” settled at 1.5 mils right.


The three shots prior to dropping were trending to the right, so I won’t say that the right side 18” drop had a shift- it could have been in the cone. The right side 36” is unquestionable however.

Remounted scope and torqued the rings.

Rezeroed. Adjusted left 1.5 mils (IIRC) based on the last two rounds, and shot three rounds at the bottom left dot on the zero target. Those rounds were left, adjusted again and the next 4 were in the dot.




Went back to the Drop target on a new dot, and started at 36”. Left side had no effect, right side 36” shifted zero off paper.




Went back to the zero target and shot at the bottom middle dot, the round hit the edge of the paper where the arrow is-


Adjusted, shot, adjusted, shot some more, adjusted, shot, etc. It wasn’t responding correctly. Loosened the ring screws and retightened to 25in-lbs, then the scope seemed to start adjusting. Last three shots are on the right dot.




The scope showed extreme zero loss with right side 36” drops and seems to be sensitive to ring torque. It is zeroed and I will complete the RTZ and “tracking” if it holds for a few days.




Cont….

 

[Formidilosus]

Zero check. Only about 12 miles of FS roads-

 

[Formidilosus]

Zero check after 10’ish miles of FS roads-

 

[Formidilosus]

Zero checks-

Feb 22


Feb 25



After checking zero on the 25th, a third drop eval was conducted-




The 9x36” drops caused a right shift of 3+ mils