Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics Introduction, the new voice of Tract optics here on the Campfire

Here's a Fallow spiker shot on dusk last night with my Toric 3-15. Excellent light and definition. Dialed ballistic turret to 275 yards and centre of shoulder hit. Nothing unusual here, have done it many times with this 'scope out to 500 yards or so.

A lot of people on here are dissing the Tracts without ever having owned one. I know they will take the knocks and have classy glass, but am also prepared to put up, so I have a 3-15 SWFA moa on its way to try and to compare. The SWFA will get a thorough work out.

Through experience and working them hard, I already know that the Tract is the equal of the Zeiss HD5.

Nice deer congrats. I went to New Zealand on my honeymoon. We had a great time. 3 weeks wasn't enough for all we wanted to do.

Optically equal to the HD5? I was hoping the Toric would be better since, personally, I found the HD5 to be less than stellar optically.

I just sold my HD 5-25x50. I was happy with the optics but I didn't like the turrets or the reticle. I'm going to put the Tekoa 4-16x44 on my Ruger #1. I scored one in 6mmPPC. I'll be using it on chucks the without holdovers my Zeiss wasn't the right fit.

I was meaning all round utility and reliability.

Glass wise and in particular for sharpness the Topic is superior to the HD5.

I like the reticle on the Toric better, but do like the pull up/locking exposed turrets on the HD5 for dialling. Both dial reliably. Ive had the HD5 for 5 years or so and its been back to the factory once for dirt on the reticle. This is not unusual for them - a quality control issue.

People on here have been beating their gums without ever trying a Tract themselves, let alone comparing a Tract with what they think is superior. SWFA has had a lot of mentions.

So, a SWFA 3-15 FFP MOA arrived in the mail today.

Initial thoughts are...heavy, bulky and ordinary-ish glass. Slightly finicky eye box at 15 power but might be better when mounted for a good cheek weld. The glass is "good enough" though.

I like the reticle, but not in FFP. Below 6 power it loses its practicality for hunting - far too fine.

So the Tract Toric beats it on every visual test and feature, thus far. Reticle, turrets (lift and lock, zero stop, covered windage, elevation cap on or cap off), eye box, weight, size and glass (I emphasise that Im a hunter, and thats what I'm assessing for - hunting).

The SWFA has twice the elevation and windage, but the Toric has enough for practical purposes out to 800 odd yards. And you can always fit a tilted rail.

So it will really come down to tracking and reliability. The Tract is partially home on that but it needs a good wringing out hunting Tahr in the Alps. That comes in the spring (November).

Apparently the trendy test is to biff 'scopes onto the ground, but because I'm an all year round hunter that's what I will be doing with them instead. The Toric has had a 8 month head start but I will now be able to compare them both on the range and in the field. They will get plenty of knocks. My expectation is that they will both be reliable and that the features and glass will define which is best, but we will see.

The SWFA will be mounted on a very accurate Schultz & Larsen 6.5x55 (replacing a Sightron S-Tac 3-16).

Put a few rounds through a Fieldcraft wearing a 2-10 Toric Saturday to verify 0 after adding a bubble level and remounting scope. Put a lot of rounds through it Sunday afternoon. Rotated 4 different rifles wearing the 2-10 Toric, a 6x42 SWFA, a NF 3-10 SHV, and a 4.5-18 LRHSi while shooting yesterday. For a hunting scope, the way I use one dialing no further than 700 yards with a 100 yard zero, I prefer everything about the 2-10 Toric....and that's not a cut on the other scopes. Still dialing like a champ.

My Tekoa 3-12x42 seems to have a very finicky parallax adjustment at max power. Just a few degrees of node before it's getting blurry. Seems to be a bit ultra-fine for a hunting optic where I would prefer some wiggle room. Normal or outlier?

I can't speak to any of the Tract scopes parallax as the 2-10 Toric I use doesn't have a parallax adjustment...and I like it without it.

I can speak to the 2.5-10x42 NXS parallax being very finicky on getting the parallax exact.

Just came in from a couple of hours of shooting. If I've counted correctly I think the Toric is ~8 rounds away from 900 through it. 28 loaded rounds left on the 3rd loading of 300 Alpha brass + a 20 round box of factory Winchester. Mirage was killer today.....

I don't like the push/pull locking on the parallax knob (Toric). Its finicky. Simply more torque on the turning would suffice. I would agree that the adjustment is quite fine but I don't find it a problem.

Been a while, but I don't recall that.

You buy yours when they were 30% off?

No I did not, although I do not know the specifics of why they were discounted. Mine is black though as opposed to the Tungsten grey I was expecting.

I agree the push/pull is completely useless. Would be cheaper to just have a friction adjustment.

x3 on the locking parallax knob. It's almost a PIA.

Far as I know, all Tekoas are black. Torics are tungsten.

The 30% was a special sale for Fire members, just on the one model, IIRC. Whatever you think of the scope, $402 beats $574.

I have been sitting here reading through the thread sipping on a cup of coffee. I have two thoughts. I am a forum junkie of sorts. Whether boating, fishing, kayaking, motorcycling or bicycling I digest a lot forum material. I will say this. It takes stones for Tract to enter into the forum as a participant. There are always people who will go out of their way to make like difficult for them. I have seen it on every forum. But, I also agree with the poster who suggested that if they believe their product to be of superior quality that they should get more of them into the hands of people who will thoroughly and objectively ring them out to affirm that it is a superior product.

For someone like me who has never had a Leupold, Burris, Redfield or Weaver in the $200-$400 price range fail, and who is satisfied if not thrilled with the features and glass in those scopes, I'd have to be dang sure that the triple price Toric would deliver far superior glass, features and durability.

Again my hats off to Tract for giving active participation in a forum a go. I would never do it.

Paul we did send out 2 scopes for testing a while back as you read. Funny how only one came back. It couldn't have preformed too poorly if someone liked it that much to keep it. I'd like to send out more for independent testing but I'm not sure how that will go over. The Toric isn't priced that high considering what you get.

What was the second scope? The first one went to FredIII, then me, then dude270 then Form, then back to tract who was supposed to test it and see what had failed and why. Any word on that? I know when it was with me I threw it on my AR and played a little but no real testing. Didn't care for the cluttered Xmas tree type reticle at all. I didn't throw it, drop it, submerge it etc... I didn't tumble down a mountain with it, have it fly out my truck window, fall out of my tractor, go over the side of my boat etc..... I'm not that "hardcore" of a hunter like most here seem to be I guess
Build quality seemed decent for sure. There are just too many other proven options and it doesn't really do anything that other scopes don't do at any better of a price. My opinion was meh....

Actually, it went to deflave first.

Yup

https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbt...48/re-tract-optics-response#Post11607048

Thanks for editing your post, as I was just about to post this...So fred got both scopes? Cuz at the end of the link you posted, it sure looked like the one 'flave got was going to fred.