Need opinion on nightforce

[Bullmark]

I can't get into the Night Force reticle for a hunting scope. I prefer a duplex or wind plex. I own 4 VX5HDs because they are lightweight and I've not had any of the issues some claim to have. I'm also not scaling mountains and tossing my rifle on rocks.

I agree with the reticle comment. The only long range shooting I do is strictly for practice, in case I have to take a long shot while hunting. And for hunting I have a hard time using any reticle that's too busy and has x-mas tree reticles in the sight picture. Once I switched over to a simple duplex, 4A, or the like, it was a done deal.
The other feature that is a must-have for me is an illuminated center dot. I'd suggest trying one in some top shelf glass and u may feel the same. With Lower quality glass, the lighted dot will bleed over into the other parts of the sight pic, but better scopes will not have such a problem.
My preferences really narrow down the field of scopes that have exactly what I want, but that's a good thing IMO.
My limited experience with NF was a few yrs back with an ATACR....I think it was a 5-25x56, but can't swear to it. I do know I was very impressed with the optical quality. Not the absolute best I've used but not far off....for my eyes. I sold it almost immediately after buying it. I usually never buy glass without some sort of trial run, but I'd always wanted a NF and caught it on sale.
The reasons I sold were simple.....it was way way too heavy for me, I just didn't like the reticle, and the illumination was average at best. I should have known that a 40oz scope was too much but I ignored the obvious. I did love the quality and ruggedness of the build. I could have taken it off my rifle, used it in a bar fight, and I'm sure it would have went right back to tracking perfectly and holding zero. I ended up buying a very similar looking scope, a S&B Exos 3-21x50. The build was just as tough, the glass was as good or maybe a hair better (again, my eyes), and the reticle is a simple crosshair with a fine crisp illum dot....oh, and it was 9-10oz less weight.
Figure out what you value the most and go from there.

 

[StanleyActual]

Reticles are HIGHLY personal preference. What one guy hates and other guy loves. Personally not a fan or Leupolds retcicle options apart from the H59 and T3. I do like NF and the Khales selections of reticles. I think the Khales line of SKMR reticles is the prefect go between of the standard Mil dot and a full blown Horus X-Mas tree reticle. And I really like the floating center dots. Everything comes at a cost. Big mag ranges, compact optics will sacrifice big eye boxes, FOV etc. just need to get behind them and see if it the sacrifice is worth it to you or not. The other downfall of NF for hunting purposes is the weight, but theyre well built and can take a beating. I've yet to ever have a NF go down on me. They're great scopes.

FFP vs SFP. That's ultimately going to depend on your style / location of the hunting you're doing. All my optics are FFP. I dial for elevation and hold for windage so I need that reticle scale to be correct regardless what magnification I'm on. That being said, if you're spending the majority of your time hunting within a few hundred yards or thick timber etc and you're mag range is running in the 2-3 x, that FFP reticle scale is pretty unusable.

My preferred optics in this order are Khales. NF and the Mk5 Leupolds. Leupolds are typically reserved for more hunting oriented builds for weight reasons alone. I really like the NF NX8 optics ranges for hunting rifles. 2-20, 4-32's are great ranges and now I'm waivering between a MK5 5-25 and the NX8 4-32 for my 7 Max build. I need to get behind an NX8 though because I have heard of touchy eye box and FOV issues with the NX8.

Most of those upper tier optics are going to be so close in features and optical quality that you're gonna be hard pressed to see the difference with the naked eye. so my a advise would be to find a reticle you like and go from there.

 

[SawDustProducer]

Nightforce NX8 scopes are very clear, solid and reliable, second to ATACR. Can't go wrong with either one.

 

[General RE LEE]

I agree with the reticle comment. The only long range shooting I do is strictly for practice, in case I have to take a long shot while hunting. And for hunting I have a hard time using any reticle that's too busy and has x-mas tree reticles in the sight picture. Once I switched over to a simple duplex, 4A, or the like, it was a done deal.
The other feature that is a must-have for me is an illuminated center dot. I'd suggest trying one in some top shelf glass and u may feel the same. With Lower quality glass, the lighted dot will bleed over into the other parts of the sight pic, but better scopes will not have such a problem.
My preferences really narrow down the field of scopes that have exactly what I want, but that's a good thing IMO.
My limited experience with NF was a few yrs back with an ATACR....I think it was a 5-25x56, but can't swear to it. I do know I was very impressed with the optical quality. Not the absolute best I've used but not far off....for my eyes. I sold it almost immediately after buying it. I usually never buy glass without some sort of trial run, but I'd always wanted a NF and caught it on sale.
The reasons I sold were simple.....it was way way too heavy for me, I just didn't like the reticle, and the illumination was average at best. I should have known that a 40oz scope was too much but I ignored the obvious. I did love the quality and ruggedness of the build. I could have taken it off my rifle, used it in a bar fight, and I'm sure it would have went right back to tracking perfectly and holding zero. I ended up buying a very similar looking scope, a S&B Exos 3-21x50. The build was just as tough, the glass was as good or maybe a hair better (again, my eyes), and the reticle is a simple crosshair with a fine crisp illum dot....oh, and it was 9-10oz less weight.
Figure out what you value the most and go from there.

I had a similar experience in 2020 with a new Leupold Mark 5HD. Amazing scope but FFP and couldn't get into the fine reticle at low power even with illumination. I had it for a month and sold it. I went with the Leupold VX5HDs.

 

[Andrew Massi]

To answer the ops question
@ 2.5x the reticle in the nx8 will disappear in dark timber.
All of my ffp scopes live on 6x when close shots may present themselves relatively across the board that provides a large enough and bold enough reticle for work in dark conditions

 

[Buzzsaw]

dark timber Andrew is correct, Get the illuminated ret for it. Love my NX8 4-32

The 2.5-10 NXS reticle is too fine and will disappear