That's a hard truth.
Really good recommendations in this thread. I enjoyed looking at what everyone had to say.
Toughest optic
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Really good recommendations in this thread. I enjoyed looking at what everyone had to say.
rpierce
Official LRH Sponsor
The kahles scopes have had a pretty high failure rate on the hunting rifles Ive done. Around 10% after a few years of use by customers. I do use the Kahles 10-50 for load testing as its perfect. However they are fragile.
BobHu
Member
For the toughest of the tough you should go with Schmit Bender. Nightforce is a tough scope but it's heavy. I've got three nightforce razors and haven't had a problem with any of them. The glass for both the Vortex and the Nightforce comes out of the same manufacturing facility in Japan. I'm not sure what you mean by toughness, But the vortex 4.5 X 27 could be substituted for a Billy club if need be. The new LHT series vortex Razors are also very lite.
Highvoltage
Well-Known Member
No love for the sightron? Never had an issue with mine. Best wishes
Mogollon Hunter
Well-Known Member
I'm not the guy with tons of experience to speak on this topic but I do have a couple of anecdotal experiences that I can share. First one is with an Athlon Ares ETR UHD 4.5-30x56mm, this scope lived on my 28 nosler and held zero after my rifle fell directly on top of it while leaned against a sxs. It also was capable of sub half minute groups. I ended up selling that scope because the diopter did not have enough adjustment range for my eye. It got replaced by a Riton 7 Conquer 4-32x56. This scope also shot sub half minute groups and ended up allowing my grandpa to kill a bull with it at a little over 1000 yards. After that hunt it stopped holding zero and was responsible for 2 missed animals last year. Impacts were all over the target at 100 yards. The parallax knob also came loose on it and stopped working. (All mounting hardware was tight when i removed the scope) Now I have a Nightforce nx8 2.5-20x50 on the gun but have yet to do much shooting with it, I'm starting on some load development with it though and the quality seems to be very high.
I've had one for about a decade. Tough as nails. Superior glass. 40mm tube provides for all the elevation needed. It's really too heavy to hunt with.
Ive moved back to the atacr for reliability. Ive had a tt go down and few zco. All on lapuas and 33xc 10.5-11lb guns.
I'd vote for the S&B PMII 10x42 fixed. One heck of a tough scope. turrets are awesome, 13.2 mils on single turn, zero stop. 10 power is enough for my hunting purposes and then also shooting steel/rocks out to 1,000 yds.
This is good to know!
Thanks
Please clarify on what issues were considered fragile,the turrets not tracking the glass, older scopes newer scopes?
Quick question about ZCO. How are you seeing/telling the parallax go down ? I have
5 4-20zco and 3 5-25zco.
I have actually sent 1 ZCO back to have looked at in the last year because of what I thought was parallax or tracking issues. They sent it back ASAP but never told me what they found.
Love the glass for sure but this has me conserved.
I have them on 22 creed, 6creed, 308, all in spuhr mounts. No problems yet.
2 7 prcs in ARC mounts. 1 previously on 300 Norma improver titanium actions. This was the scope I sent back.
1 more on impact 787 300 Norma improved.
1 on 338 lapua desert tech
1 on another 300 Norma improved built off Kirby action. Doesn't get shot much has 28" CF barrel.
Thanks for the info Ryan.
5 4-20zco and 3 5-25zco.
I have actually sent 1 ZCO back to have looked at in the last year because of what I thought was parallax or tracking issues. They sent it back ASAP but never told me what they found.
Love the glass for sure but this has me conserved.
I have them on 22 creed, 6creed, 308, all in spuhr mounts. No problems yet.
2 7 prcs in ARC mounts. 1 previously on 300 Norma improver titanium actions. This was the scope I sent back.
1 more on impact 787 300 Norma improved.
1 on 338 lapua desert tech
1 on another 300 Norma improved built off Kirby action. Doesn't get shot much has 28" CF barrel.
Thanks for the info Ryan.
rpierce
Official LRH Sponsor
The parallax went out on the scopes and they went fuzzy. That was the issue with roughly 10% after a couple years of use. One broke on a guys Dall Sheep hunt. Miraculously he was able to fill his tag with it.
rpierce
Official LRH Sponsor
When the parallax went out on em I couldn't get anything focused in the scope. Thats why Im using the ATACR for my hunting rifles. I cant afford to have a scope go out on a once in a lifetime hunt. Same with my customers. After I explained my experiences to customers they have decided to go with the ATACR and NX8 for the vast majority of the hunting rifles. Now if I was shooting PRS or something like that and my rifle didn't have a ATACR on it I probably would use a ZCO or a Tangent due to the glass clarity etc. In the rare occasion the scope breaks its not a $10-20k hunt. But the difference in glass clarity doesn't matter for hunting. I do have a Tangent 5-25 on my 6.5x47 NRL hunter rig, that Ive never had time to take to a match LOL.
