Well, I was not trying for a general fact-free statement but it appears I was amiss in saying what was said!
I have had limited opportunity to get my hands on March scopes. I like the quality of them however, they ones I had seen were more of a target style/type scope. What I do see now is that the low power scopes have a small front objective which is not good for early and late time hunting and the higher power scopes are, well pretty darn high. So, 3-24x42, 4.5-28x52, 5-40x56, 4-40x52, and 6-60x56. All the reticles seem pretty busy as well. I have not seen much use for anything near a 24 power scope and certainly nothing higher, in my hunting situations. Not saying they will not work but, it seems like a 4-12x42 is a better choice or a 4-16x50 for my hunting which is shooting at distances than 400 yards. Even my varmint shooting is at distances less than 400. So generally, for me - get a Schmidt and Bender or a Swarovski with a simple reticle. Unless you're shooting a long ways off....but even then I would probably look at Schmidt & Bender PMII.
I do believe that March scopes are of excellent quality, just nothing fitting my needs at this time and that is the only reason I do not own one.
Thank you for a great answer with lots of details about your impressions.
You are correct in that March scopes started in the competition arena and later on got into the hunting world. In competition, you rely on the fact your riflescope will retain its zero through hundreds and thousands of rounds. You depend on proper tracking and return to zero. This has to be utterly reliable. It is my belief that I go through far more rounds on target with my competition rifle than any hunter I have ever heard of. Let's just take my F-TR match rifle. I have had it for 10 years now. It started with an NF NXS- 10-42X56 and then I upgraded to a March-X 5-50X56 a year or so later. The NXS was simply too dark for me in the early morning competitions in wintertime. I am now on my 5th barrel, something I change every 5000 rounds without fail. That's almost 25,000 rounds through that rifle in 10 years. The first 20k or so rounds were with the 5-50X56. Never a failure. To me, the internals and the tracking of a March are utterly dependable. They have to be as I dial a lot according to conditions and have to be able to come back to my "no wind zero" setting at the next match. That's what a tradition of competition brings.
Next, you mention the size of the objective on the LPVOs. Here you are showing some ignorance of optics, but please don't take that as an insult. A lot of people are unaware that a 1X scope cannot have a larger objective; it's the nature of the beast. You have to tailor all the components together to produce the desired result. In this case, the LPVO (Low Power Variable Optic) is designed to give a true 1X at the bottom end. If you look at the specifications for the March 1-4.5X24, for example, you will see that the exit pupil is 16mm at 1X. Why not 24mm you say, because optics. I would think a fixed 1X24 scope could have an exit pupil of 24mm, but when you have a zoom, that changes. However, the 16mm is more than twice as much as the human eye can use, so that makes it very easy to get behind that scope. Yes, at 4.5X, the exit pupil is indeed 5.33mm (24/4.5). That will be the same for the other LPVOs; the 1X exit pupil will never be 24mm, but it will be far larger than human eye can use and the top end will be (obj-diameter/magnification).
But you don't want to hunt with an LPVO, and I get that. That's why there is a 2.5-25X42 or 52 and now the 1.5-15X42. That latest one has a new design for the objective lens which allows it to have a 42mm objective with a 1.5X scope. I am not aware of any other scope that is a 1.5X with a 42mm objective. This is a feat of optical engineering. and it allows the higher magnification to have a larger exit pupil compared to the LPVOs. It's certainly larger than the 3-9X32 at equivalent magnifications.
The scopes that you listed, 3-24X42, 4.5-28X52 and so on, are all FFP and they do come with Christmas tree-style reticles. But there are other reticles available for them. As an example, the 4.5-28X52 is also available with the FML-LDK and FML-3 reticles. Very clean and non-busy reticles. The 5-40X56 only just got the FML-PDKI reticle. The other reticles available for it are non-Christmas tree design. The 3-24X42/52 has 6 reticles available for it, only 2 are Christmas-tree designs.
It is entirely possible that the few March scopes you have seen in real life would have the busy reticle as they are popular with the FFP models you listed. The 6-60X56 you mentioned is the Genesis model and it only comes with 2 reticles, one MIL and on MOA of the same Christmas tree design. This scope is not a hunting scope, it is the ultimate ELR scope, you know, the scopes for King Of @ miles and so on. Very expensive, BTW.
Your quest for a 4-12X42 would be fulfilled with a 1.5-15X42 or a 2.5-25X42. For the 4-16X50, you could have the 2.5-25X52. You don't have to dial up to the maximum if you don't want to. It's there if you need it.
