Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics New March thoughts and questions

Well I ordered from Optics Planet (I know, they are a mess) because they said they actually had the model I wanted in stock, quantity even listed. I even called first to double check and supposedly all was correct. All seemed well and I got the scope in hand after 2 day shipping. Got 10% off too so it was a great deal!

To make it an even better deal... They sent me the wrong scope! Same model, same reticle, but illuminated when I ordered non-illuminated. Now I have to decide what I'm going to do. If it were only this illumination matter, I'd lean heavily on keeping it. But...

The issue I'm having is I can't get the reticle perfectly clear with the ocular focus. I have it turned all the way in to get it almost right, but I can't go any more and it's still not perfectly crisp. It's surely usable, but I can see a faint line double to the reticle that comes and goes and the little hash marks on the vertical wire appear to bend downward. For this reason alone, it may have to go back. Anyone else have focus issues?

I guess I'll hold onto it for a few days and decide what I'm going to do. I've been playing with it for the last hour. Feels solid in the hands. You can tell the quality is top notch. The power ring is pretty stiff tho, hope it loosens up some. I don't mind the eye box or the parallax being a bit picky. I'd like to make it work, but it's honestly given me a headache tinkering with it for the last hour trying to get that reticle sharp.

No experience with them, but I’d not ‘settle’ for something less than right if buying a March scope.

Since it got dark, I turned on the illumination at dusk and those issues went away. The reticle sharpened up. Hmmm, now what?

Play with the parallax setting as well as the ocular focus. Parallax settings for some scopes will change the focus of the reticle.....I've found this to be especially true in short/compact for power scopes. Often these scopes won't have a specific yardage mark on the parallax adjustment knob.

Which model and what reticle did you get?

I got the 2.5-25x52 with the MTR3 reticle. This thing is driving me crazy.

Have you considered contact March to see what they think?

I really would like this scope to work. I sent March an email. Is that the only way to contact them? Do they have a US based customer service number? I really don't want to fight through a language barrier.

They will treat you right

I’ve been emailing back and forth with them throughout the evening. Really odd that I have to have the ocular maxed out turned all the way in to get even a usable image, which still isn’t perfect. I’ve never had to adjust any other scope that much. Anyone else have to adjust a lot, or unable to get a sharp reticle?

Usually the amount and distance you adjust your ocular is going be similar across different scopes....some have a little more or a little less adjustment range but the way you adjust it should be similar in distance and amount.

I mentioned earlier that you may need to adjust parallax to match with the ocular focus adjustment to get the best image for your eye....this has been the case for me on several scopes to get the sharpest focus and best resolution. This has been the case for me on all NXS 2.5-10x42's that I've used.

On some scopes, my ocular focus is different between high and low powers....the NX8 1-8 is the most obvious one in my case.

I've found these issues of different ocular focus and focus being effected by parallax settings which change with power and/or distance to object to be most common in shorter/compact scopes. I don't know if either of these are issues related to what you're seeing but it took me quite a while to find the combo needed on a few scopes.....and it made a big difference when I finally found it.

There's optical trade offs to get a lot of stuff going in a compact scope. I imagine this gets even trickier for a compact scope with such a wide power range.

I did some more experimentation today, and interestingly enough, The reticle gets nice and clear at higher magnification. It's only at the lower ranges that I can not get the reticle clean, no matter what I do with the diopter or the parallax adjustment. Anyone know what this means optically?

What’s it mean? Shoulda got a NF.......






It’s a joke for you brand sensitive types....

Ha, no offense taken. I've got an NXS and a SHV, both of which I like for their intended purposes, and I had a NX8 I strongly disliked. I really want to like this March. It's 90% there, but that last 10% is messing with my head!

And I also looked through my left eye, crystal clear! Darn it. Too bad I'm not wrong eye'd!

You need to get your eye adjusted!

Lol.

The whole head actually!

That would make me think you have a fair amount of uncorrected astigmatism. Nothing you can do with the scope's adjustments is going to fix that.

I would also contact Ilya Koshkin to get his thoughts. He has a lot of mileage with March I believe.

Well after extensive back and forth emails with a nice gentleman at March, he consulted with their engineers and says they can fix the issue with a modification that will allow for more eyepiece adjustment. Now the problem is I'm supposed to ship the thing back to Japan. I'm supposed to use something called EMS? I'm intimidated by this. I went to the EMS site and it is difficult to use and lacks detailed information. Their link to fill out a customs declaration form also didn't work. Has anyone used EMS before and can you give me a layman's explanation of the process?

I just had an eye exam a couple months ago. I have perfect 2020 in my left eye and I'm slightly nearsighted in my right eye with 20/40, not enough of a hindrance to require corrective lenses at this point. No mention of astigmatism. I have dozens of other rifle scopes and this has never been an issue. I've never needed much ocular adjustment from the factory middle zero setting. There is something unique to the optical design of this particular scope that does not allow enough adjustment for my eye. Interestingly enough, the gentleman from March said when he looked through the same scope without his glasses on, he had the same problem as me. Hmmmm.