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Canazes9 sent the scope to me to give it the once over. I took it to my friend's shop, secured it into the jig and tested the scope's reticle accuracy, dialing accuracy, tracking, and parallax adjustment.


[Linked Image]

[Linked Image]



Reticle

The Mil Quad Reticle is marked in 1/2 and full mil increments. It is also broken down into smaller increments in certain parts of the reticle.

[Linked Image]


The reticle subtensions were very accurate.

Keep in mind that this is a straight 6X scope. The reticle subtensions appear pretty small in the first place and I didn't see the point of breaking the reticle down into .1 or .2 mils; shooters are not gonna do too much ranging with this scope. Actually being able to duplicate a .1 or .2 hold for wind or drop would be difficult because of the size of the reticle. Nevertheless, it's there.


Dialing and Click Value


I zeroed the scope on the board and carefully dialed from mil mark to mil mark. At 5 mils, the scope needed 5.1 dialed. Not too bad at all. Normally (and this scope fit the norm) the difference between reticle movement and what had to be dialed get worse as more dialing occures. Error increased at about 12 mils needing 12.2 to get there, and at 15, 15.3 was needed.

This is pretty damn good for a scope of this cost as you'll see later. Also, this scope really isn't going to be used for any Long Range shooting where precision is needed simply because of the magnification. About 5 mils of reliable travel will get a guy to 800 yards with a 6.5 Creedmoor.

All in all, the click values were pretty damn good.



Tracking


When I speak of how a scope "tracks", I'm talking about how the knobs are moving the reticle vertically inside the scope. It's very common for some scopes to be perfectly lined up on the vertical line on the board and when the elevation knob is cranked, the reticle will shift slightly to the left of the vertical line and move. When the knob is cranked the other direction toward zero, the reticle will shift back to it's original position on the line slightly to the right and move up.

This is called "running the race track". Imagine an elliptical movement from top to bottom then back up.

This scope "ran the track" as do some more well known brand names, but would always come back to the line if it was dialed past the destination and back to the destination. Example: I want to put 5 mils into the scope so I dial past 5 a tad and dial back to 5. Always approach the number from the same direction whether you're dialing up or down.

All in all, the scope's tracking was good.



Parallax Adjustment

The scope has a parallax adjustment just in front of the eyepiece. Talking to my friend who has tested many of the SWFA scopes, this was his major complaint about the scope. He related that the parallax was so sensitive, that to shoot at one range then move slightly out or in to another would require an adjustment in parallax. He basically stated that the scopes were simply "unusable" because of this. An example he gave was shooting at 100 yards then moving to 300. He said that there was so much parallax that the target would move "feet" in relation to the reticle when you moved your eye in the box. Imagine what this will do to accuracy.

With this particular scope, the issue didn't seem to be that exaggerated. I viewed objects at 100 yards and adjusted the parallax out then moved to distant objects to check the problem. It was there but manageable. In fact, I noted that setting the parallax to "500" on this particular scope seemed to be a happy place where parallax wasn't too much of an issue at any range past 100 yards.


How the scope will hold up under use is another story. I will send it back to canazes9 and let him add to this thread as he uses the scope.


Summary


All in all I think that this scope is a good value for $300. It functions, the reticle is accurate and the glass was clear




At the same time I tested another scope;


[Linked Image]

[Linked Image]

[Linked Image]


This is a $2,500.00 plus scope for serious long range/tactical/precision shooting. It tracked perfectly up and down the vertical line. Interestingly enough, the click values went astray at the 5 mil line needing 5.1 just as the SWFA did, although it never needed more than .2 more all the way out to 20 mils.





Originally Posted by Bristoe
The people wringing their hands over Trump's rhetoric don't know what time it is in America.
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Rick,

I appreciate you taking the time to put it on the jig and run it through it's paces. Tracking performance you documented pretty much duplicates previous performance that I experienced. I never shot the previous scope past 700 and rarely past 500. I've heard that the glass and turretts are better on the newer variants vs the older ones. I've also heard that the parallax issues are worse on the higher magnification SWFA fixed mag scopes - never tried a fixed SS over 6x, so I don't how true that is or isn't.

Regards,

David

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So would you buy one after getting to check out Canazes'?


Screw you! I'm voting for Trump again!

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I would put it on a really good .22LR.

Not enough magnification for me for any shooting or hunting I do. I would rather have a variable 6-18X Leupold (I have 2. One on a .223 and one on a .243 WSSM) for long range capability.

The scope was very good functionally but I have never had a situation where I wished all I had was 6X.


Originally Posted by Bristoe
The people wringing their hands over Trump's rhetoric don't know what time it is in America.
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Thanks for the test.

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Rick thanks for taking the time to test and explain in detail. That was a good read.

Is there a reason some scopes show so much more parallax than others? Is less parallax something you get in higher priced scopes?




The 280 Remington is overbore.

The 7 Rem Mag is over bore.
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You get what you pay for...no such thing as a free lunch.

For the price point, SWFA has to be making compromises somewhere...looks like it is in parallax.

However, I'd like to run a 10 or 12x on my 22/250 groundhog rig and see wtf..

Tony

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I'm definitely not an expert on how scopes are made or what causes parallax. It really wasn't too bad with this scope.

As someone posted, my friend found other models of SWFA (I'm sure they were higher power variables) to have a real issue with parallax.


Originally Posted by Bristoe
The people wringing their hands over Trump's rhetoric don't know what time it is in America.
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OK thanks!




The 280 Remington is overbore.

The 7 Rem Mag is over bore.
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I would not be concerned about having to make parralax adjustments on a groundhog rifle....not an issue.

Usually have plenty of time to dial and shoot.

As long as the adjustments are accurate for the given range indicated.

Tony

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As with a lot of scopes, the marked yardages on the rear parallax adjustment ring seemed to be meaningless. I wasn't able to test its accuracy at known ranges though. I did find that the 500 yard mark is probably where I'd set it and leave it

YMMV as they say.

Happy Thanksgiving!


Originally Posted by Bristoe
The people wringing their hands over Trump's rhetoric don't know what time it is in America.
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They're on sale right now! $259 for Black Friday.


Despite my user name, no I am not from Texas.........

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Originally Posted by hicountry
You get what you pay for...no such thing as a free lunch.

For the price point, SWFA has to be making compromises somewhere...looks like it is in parallax.

Tony


Not even close. No current, last five or six years, version show a parallax problem. I've seen well over a hundred.

The price is because they go straight from the manufacturer to the dudes selling them (SWFA). No middle men. When these things first came out under the Tasco brand they sold for around $800.

The scopes just work.

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I was checking out the offerings in the catalog. There were some tactical versions in the range of 1700$

Do you have any experience with them?


Originally Posted by Bristoe
The people wringing their hands over Trump's rhetoric don't know what time it is in America.
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Well, it appears that you missed one or a few......

Being an engineer and all, I believe in controlled experiments that produce objective data.

Like I said no such thing as a free lunch.

Looks like a lot of bang for the buck on the SS.

I'll still run a 12 or 10 SS on my hog slayer.....

Tony

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Originally Posted by TexasTBag
They're on sale right now! $259 for Black Friday.


Thanks for the heads up! Just bought a 12x.

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Good work people. Got a 6X.



Travis


Originally Posted by Geno67
Trump being classless,tasteless and clueless as usual.
Originally Posted by Judman
Sorry, trump is a no tax payin pile of shiit.
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Originally Posted by rcamuglia
I was checking out the offerings in the catalog. There were some tactical versions in the range of 1700$

Do you have any experience with them?



The 5-20x50mm's are solid. Would have little problem being forced to use them for all the higher power scopes.

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Formidilosus,

Have you tried any of the SS HD models, specifically the 10x? Do they hold up as well as the standard models?

John


If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land. 2 Chronicles 7:14
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They're out of 6x - both the mil-quad and mil-dot models. Great deal with free rings and bubble level.


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