Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters JB/Mule Deer

Hello John,
As you’ve perhaps seen, I am seriously thinking about a SHV NightForce variable scope with lighted reticule for future hog hunts. I’ll be mounting the scope on my REM M7 chambered in 358Win. I am interested in any testing you may have done regarding the scope mentioned above. I am particularly looking at the 21/2 x10x 42 variable. Any comments you have are highly regarded. Thanks Rolly

Hi Rolly,

Have posted this before. Have only owned one SHV NF, a 2-1/2-10x42 that did not have an illuminated reticle. While I hunted with it some, I mostly used it as a "test scope" (something to put on rifles I received to review), which would be very recoil-proof with reliable adjustments. This would cut down on the ammo required for sighting-in, etc.

It worked well for close to 4 years, when the adjustments went bat-schidt. So I sent it back to NF, and got a condescending e-mail from their PR guy (who'd replaced the guy who'd been there when I purchased the scope). He said they found numerous "light" ring-marks in the finish, indicating the scope was slipping in the rings, due to not being properly mounted. But he told me they'd refinish the scope and return it to me.

My immediate thought was that, hey, I'd mounted the scope on a bunch of different rifles, which could obviously leave "light" ringmarks in the finish in various locations. But what he didn't know is that I keep a list of all my scopes, along with their serial numbers. The "refinished" scope they "returned" to me had a different serial number.

Have heard from others on the Campfire that Nightforce tends to blame problems with their scopes on improper mounting. Which is why I haven't owned a NF scope since.

John

Awesome. The power of spreading the word voa the internet. Truth and customer service matters!

Good info.

I only have one. Don’t reckon I’m in the market for another.

DF

Thanks JB. I really appreciate your candor regarding the NightForce. Do you have a recommendation for me that (without any guarantees) will fit my bill and be in the $1,000 budget range?

Thanks for the info

+1, that is a pretty serous slap in the face. Hope it wakes someone at NightForce up.

Duly noted.

Thanks John.

Tract Torics in my experience are top notch i own 6 if memory serves maybe one or two more and they are excellent in tracking and glass quality.

I also have several Tract Torics and they have been excellent so far. A good value for the price.

that’s because that is almost always why most scopes change zero and people think the scope broke. They are right most of the time. I wouldn’t say improper mounting. I would say shifting in the rings to be more accurate.

Rolly call EuroOptics and check out the Trijicons.

Good call. Tough scopes, well made.

I like mine.

DF

Yep! While Trijicon "hunting" scopes (not the ACOGs) had some problems early on, but by 2009 I trusted them enough to put a 1-4x AccuPoint on my light 9.3 Barsness-Sisk (which duplicates the 9.3x62 in a short action) for a black bear hunt in Alaska. The rifle weighed 7-1/2 pounds with the scope.

After taking my black bear from a "spike" camp and returning to the outfitter's lodge, he had a client cancel a grizzly hunt--and the cancellation price was too low to resist. (Called Eileen that evening and told her I wouldn't be coming home for a little while--which has also happened on more than one hunt in various places around the world. She understood completely.) The scope worked fine on a 7-1/2 foot boar 10 days after taking the black bear.

Maybe 60 years ago I was told to put a small dab of fingernail polish on the ring and scope junction. Lets you tell at a glance if the scope has moved in the rings. Trying to help folks at the range it is about half and half between scopes that are loose in the rings and rings that have been tightened until there was no gap.

Yeah “farmer tight” at certain places on the tube, not good.

That’s why you see inch pounds of torque recommendations for mounting scopes.

But who measures torque. Crank’em down tight. This sucker ain’t gonna move now. I got this. What? It ain’t working right. Scope must be defective! Not me, of course.

DF

Most folks operating firearms can manage the basics but few have the knowledge required to work on them. Applies doubly to dipsticks working the gun counters at most box stores.

No reason to call them names. Most of them are too young to know anything yet. Some were taught poorly to begin with by stubbornly ignorant father figures. And many are too ignorant to even recognize their own incompetence. I empathize with them because I know that I was once similarly ignorant (and still learn new things every day). I cannot count the number of times I have been at the range or gun store, where I had to take a deep breath, go back into my "patient Marine officer" mode, and calmly give a hip pocket class on how to do something basic with a firearm.

can we assume the "Patient Marine Officer" mode bears no resemblance to the "Marine Gunny" YOU DID WHAT mode?

One is like a volcano that is about to explode. The other is spewing hot lava and molten death.

With a couple of exceptions though, I don't really remember hearing a lot of yelling from my senior enlisted advisors. In hindsight, there may have been a good reason for that... "Sir, are you going to PT this afternoon? Could you please go PT for a while? Preferably go for a long run off in the woods? Or off base?" My last First Sergeant had a habit of bringing in his trouble makers and malcontents while I was stuck in staff meetings or off on my usual late afternoon PT... Despite that, I will say that most of my Gunnies and First Sergeants were really patient and compassionate servant leaders. They were actual leaders, not authoritarians. Most of my experience with authoritarians was at the hands of insecure officers who weren't worth a crap. At my last duty station, however, I could hear the First Sergeant from the adjacent company two or three buildings away. It was like a mad minute or a dump ex, followed by report to the company commander, "Sir, you aren't going to believe this..." That First Sergeant was a prior DI who never really left the drill field.

My NCOs were another matter though...

I remember this awesome sergeant I had just destroying these two fat bodies who he caught eating McDonalds in the parking lot. He came back from noon chow and they were sitting in the car gorging on burgers and fries. When they saw him coming, they tried to duck down and hide in the car. They knew what they were doing was wrong. The ass-chewing was epic. When it kicked off, literally every officer in the section poked his head out of his office. I told them to let it go on and that I would intervene only if the sergeant put himself in legal danger. There was no way I was going to let some overzealous lieutenant undermine my sergeant's authority. After that, I ordered all my junior officers to listen carefully, then write down the time and date, with a brief summary of the incident, in case the fat bodies tried to accuse the sergeant of hazing or maltreatment. As it turned out, I was right. The fat bodies did make an accusation, but it went nowhere once we turned over all the witness statements to the colonel. Stuff like that shouldn't be necessary, but it, unfortunately is in the current Corps. One of the reasons I got out...

But, I digress from the thread... Sorry.