Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics Swarovski ballistic turrets

All this talk about most scopes not holding zero;turrets not working right at distance or taking a dump within few rounds.

Any one have first hand knowledge on how the Swarovski z6 scopes with the ballistic turrets shake out? hold zero? turrets work right and repetable? I know they are not tactical scopes but hope for the money that they are good and reliable.I would put the outdoorsman or new Swaro custom turret on a z6 if I buy one. Afraid to spend the cash if the scope is going to be major disappointment and not track well.

What else is out there?reliable & repeatable with good glass and hunting reticule?

I have experience with exactly two Swaro scopes.I cannot recall the details of the first except it died within not many shots of being mounted. The second was a Z3, not the Z6 I was helping a gentleman set up before a hunt in 2013. This Z3 had the ballistic turret and would not track. He was leaving for his trip shortly and asked my suggestion as to what he should do. I told him to get it zeroed and not mess with it. It has served him in this manner for two seasons now. Beautiful glass to look through. Ballistic turret on this one is worthless.

I know a sample of two is not significant but this is what I have experienced.

NMSSHOOTER has a Z5 with the ballistic turret on his 7mag Sendero. He's been using it for 3-4 yrs. I've shot it a good bit also. Never had any problems, tracks well. Phenomenal glass. I used it 2 yrs ago to take a doe at 633yrds.

BT's on my Z3 4-12x50 and Z5 3.5-18x44 are doing what they were designed to do, seem to track well.

My next Swaro may be a VX-6, and they come with CDS. The glass is as good and the scope less expensive. I think the CDS will perform as well as the BT.

IMO.

DF

I have a couple Z6 scopes. Only one is equipped with the BT, and honestly I haven't used it much as it just doesn't seem very useful to me. Afterall, there's no convenient way to adjust for windage. Swarovski's 4W reticle along with the an elevation turret might be worth a thunk if you're set on getting a Z6.

Can't help with the Z6, but my Z5 is supposed to have the same internal design. It works as advertised, but spins far too easily. So easily that recoil will spin it at times. My only other Swaro BT is a Z3 and it will not track. If I was buying either again, they would not have the BT.

If you are a knob twister do yourself a favor and look elsewhere, awesome glass with questionable mechanics.

I've got a Z6 2.5-15x44 with a BT - had the reticle swapped out to the BRH as I'm not a fan of the fine duplex. It sits on a McWhorter 6.5 Weatherby. My 11 year old took a mule deer with it at 678 yards this fall using the Outdoorsman turret calibrated to a 140 grain partition. Hit him right in the shoulder on the first shot (and he was a little bugger, lol). I'm very happy with it and it's very repeatable.

I had a 3-18 model z6 a few years back and used the Swaro BT system and didn't like it, but the Outdoorsman turret I like.

What is a 6.5 Weatherby cartridge?

.270 WBY necked down (or a .257 WBY opened up) to take a 6.5 pill.

Thanks. That's about like my new wildcat. It is a 9.3X64 necked to 6.5 and blown out with Weatherby radii.

As tatelaw mentioned earlier, I am very pleases with mine. I had a z3 4-12 with the bt and it work well then I wanted more magnification so I traded up to the z5.
I may be the only one that has had good luck with mine but I am very satisfied.
On a differ note the only disappointment is the reticle (duplex) will fade away at very low light. Wish I'd bought the 4 reticle