Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics Razor HD LH vs Nightforce SHV low light?

Last evening was a clear still evening at my place, so I sat out on the back porch the last 30 minute of shooting light and compared the above mentioned scopes until I had no light left. With both sett on 10 power and sighting an 8inch steel gong at 250 yards and the usual deer that come out in the field of an evening the NF won hands down and I could clearly see the gong and the deer many minutes after the Vortex got fuzzy.

Anybody else compared the NF glass to other scopes?

Chris..[list]

I have a 2-10x42 SHV , looks great in lowlight here but there is too much light in this area from street lights and houses etc. If I take that rifle hunting in January I will know more about it.

Even if the Vortex had "won" in your test I would still take the SHV. Every time.

Doug has the shv for $699 today. I don’t need another ... but at that price ...

I just order one from Doug.......been thinking on it and the ‘flash’ sale got me. LOL

I’ve compared my 1.5-8 HD LH to my 3-10 SHV with a Forceplex many times. Pretty close to awash. The G4 BDC reticle on the vortex allows for lower light aiming to me.

1.5-8x32 Vortex Razor HD LH is an AWESOME scope.......and I HATE vortex.
With Amazons/Sportsmans pricing, they are incredible......I bought four off Amazon last month for anywhere from $362 to $390.

I now have 6 Vortex HD LH 1.5-8x32 with G4 Reticle..........using the Strelok Pro Ballistic App, the reticle lines up quite handily for hold overs with both my Montana 223 loads and 22K hornet and standard hornet loads. Hard to scoff at a 6lbs 4 ounce Montana 223 with a LH 1.5x-8 in Talley's. My standard coyote calling rifle. Proved effective 2 days ago.........two dogs down, one at 247 yards running. Very handy reticle and excellent glass.

I love them and the optics to my eye are excellent. I've done tracking tests with 3 of them now and they are as perfect as I care for 10 MOA box tests, they were 1/2 MOA tall on elevation and right windage, but all returned to Zero perfectly......though, they are "set and forget" for me, so I don't care. They were way closer than any Leupold I've tracked.

Never looked through the nightfarce, but I doubt the difference in low light would be incredibly different.............but, I only own the 1.5-8x models, never seen the 2-10x40 LH.

The 1.5-8x32 in Low Light, even on 8x has allowed me to see beyond legal shooting hours.....which is 30 min after sunset where I live.

Good to hear about the SHV though, that's great. There must be better low light capability in the 1.5-8x32 Vortex than the 2-10 model?

I just compared the SHV, 1.5-8 HD LH, and an SWFA SS 3-9. Conveniently I had a doe acting as a good test target. The SWFA is unusable before the other two. For the SHV and the HD LH “it depends” on the scenario in determining which I prefer. I can see the fine center of the SHV a little better than the very center if the HD LH. So, if looking far, like the OP was, I’d give the advantage to the SHV. In close, where the thick bars of the G4 BDC reticle can be used to aim the Vortex works better.

I love the G4 reticle! But I expected the glass to be on par with the Nightforce at 10x but I just didn’t see it.

SHV must have pretty dang good glass then, very good to know.

I may have to try one someday.

Thanks