Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics Anyone using March?

These are kinda rare ducks, I know that Scenarshooter was playing with one and liked it around the time he helped design the Bushy, hopefully he'll chime in with his thoughts..Anyone else?

I really like how they are built with the low profile turrets, and 25MOA per rev..Wish the "hunter" was FFP, dont want SFP in a 25x.

I've just about made up my mind to order a March 3-24x42 FFP in MOA, havent decided which reticle to go with, its between the FMA-1 and FMA-2, havent decided on illumination or not, there is a $600 price jump for illumination.I have several NF scopes with illumination, its nice but I cant say that i really ever needed it.

Has to be someone here using them, in competition or otherwise, I will be puting this on my main big game rifle.

http://marchscopes.com/tactical-3-24-x-42-ffp.html

I have an 8X80
My eyes are old and I need all the help I can get.
I have looked through a Nightforce that was the same price as my 8X80 with about 8 other people at my favorite gun shop and all of us except one said that the glass in the March was better than the Nightforce. and that was at the same power (24). The Nightforce scope was heavier than the March and was only a Variable 24. March being a variable 80 knocked the Nightforce out of the park for all of us that looked through it that day.

One of the salesman was looking through 2 glass windows, across the street at a girl inside of the gas station. I would say about 200 yards away and he said he was looking down her blouse.

My 8X80 is mounted on a Springfield M21 bench gun. It is a bit heavy to hunt with if you plan on hiking.

Their glass is also better than my Swaro PV variable 24 scope.

I would love to see what their hunting scopes look like.

In my opinion with my limited exp osier to high end scopes you can not go wrong with a March

Good luck in what you choose

Eye box is very small and fickle. NOT conducive to field shooting at all.

Is that for my 8X80 or the hunting scope.

I will agree with you on my 80 it is pretty much a bench scope.

I use it as a spotting scope at 80 and I have only been able to shoot with it at 60 due to my breathing and heart beating. I am not a professional shooter and do not control those things very well

akin to a 4.5-14 leup? Just trying to put it into perspective with something I have.

Do they track reliably?

They say that March is one of the best at point of impact from the lowest to highest settings.

I have not shot a whole lot with it due to the cost of replacing my components.

I can tell you that the first time I took it to the range to sight it in I got pretty frustrated because every time I turned the damb thing up I lost the target at 100 yards until I realized that I was looking at the grain structure of the paper target. at dusk that same day I placed my last three rounds in the target and you could cover them up with a nickle at 100 yards. And that is all equipment because I do not shoot that well.

I would like to get it out to at least 600 yards but have not done it yet.

In this review they had a 2% tracking error. And not with just one scope. I can't tolerate tracking error when you pay that much for a scope http://precisionrifleblog.com/2014/09/19/tactical-scopes-field-test-results-summary/

The test you are referring to has most of the scopes used having 50mm and 56mm lenses and one leupold having a 44mm lens, the one and only March on the list having a 42mm lens.

Most of the scope manufactures had two scopes in the study and March had one.
I know that lens size does not have much to do with tracking but it has a lot to do with light.

When I was looking for a high end scope I was told that there were more March scopes by percentage being used by competition shooter over any other single scope manufacturer.

That is why I chose the March.

I do not know if it still play out with the competition shooters today.

I have the 3-24 FFP and have it mounted on a 300wsm hunting rifle. The entire set up weighs 8 lb 12oz..
The eye box thing has some merit but only at the higher powers for me. I only use the high power (18x and up) on a square range developing loads or off a steady rest going long. The higher power is good to have it and not need it than need it and not have it.
I found no issue with tracking out to 400 yards which is as far as I shot with it.
The weight and compactness is nice.

Last month, I took this scope elk hunting and was able to make a quick shot, standing, off sticks at 440 yards on a good bull. I used the reticle to hold as there was no time to turn the turret. Had about 4 seconds to get on the sticks and squeeze the shot. The meat is in the freezer and the horns are at the taxi. The scope power was set between 12x and 15x and I had no problem finding the target and taking the shot.

I think I'll keep shopping after reading thru that test cummins posted a link to, the comments about not hearing a peep out of Deon are telling as well, while all other manufactures were good to deal with, from what I read anyway..

A fickle eyebox and chit tracking, I hold those two FAR above optical performance.Throw in crappy customer service on top of that doesnt give me the warm fuzzies at any price point, especially March's.. Too bad I liked that scope in theory.

Thanks guys.

Maybe this would work...

http://forum.snipershide.com/sniper...shnell-4-5x-18x-moa-too.html#post3267204

That certainly will! Guess I need to hang out over there more often to keep up on the latest, cant remember my user info tho.

Thanks for the link.

be careful the crowd over there is a bunch of know it alls. the site owner is a jerk as well. I just don't fit in with tactical guys.

I have a 10-60x52 March on my 12 pound 1000 yard BR rifle I use for Silhouette.It has a .125 dot on a cross wire and .125 moa clicks.10 MOA per/rev.Zero stop.
I've run 800 plus rounds....its a 6mm Dasher with the 105g Berger Hybrids.Six matches this summer.
I have nothing bad to say about the scope.
It has worked without a hitch for my load development and the matches.
We dial 850,900,950 and 1000 every match and over the last 6 matches the dope was all the same within a click or two except for the last match.The last match was only 38 degrees and I had to give it another 1.5 moa to be "on".You can pretty much expect to see that when the temps are that much colder..
Optically its better..clearer.. crisper...Than my 12-42x56 NSX.But not by a landslide.
It compares pretty close to the Nightforce Competition.
I like the knobs on the March better.
The price is high but its doing what I want it to do and its not crushing my balls.At least so far.
Cant speak for service as I havent needed it.
The Zero stop is stupid simple.
And the scope only weighs 25.5 oz.I was up against a pretty tight weight limit 192 oz. And the march helped.
I would buy another.

dave

From what i've read lots of guys love them for BR.

But the scope i was wanting is the 3-24x42 FFP. It dont sound like its the giant killer it was made out to be, for tactical/hunting applications.

The bigger march's seem to be looked at much more favorably than their compacts..Price is a factor, but i'd have gladly paid it,but i'd be a fool to buy it after the reviews i've read.

I cant speak for the 3-24 March.
Just havent seen one.
For my BR work I like the 10-60 March alot.
My NSX 12-42 has taken a beating over the last 3 years and in the BR game and its rock solid.Kinda a weight thing.I have the NSX on my 17 rifle and the March on the 12 pounder.
I did have my 5-25x56 PMII on the 17 pounder for awhile but the P3 mil-dot covered up to much of the crows at 850.It worked well except for the that.Adjustments on the S&B are a bit course for BR work.But great for big game...or a mans chest..
Take a look at the 10x42 S&B PMII.
There bomb proof and are not the load ,weight wise ,the variables are.
If you can hack the weight and the price.
The 4-16x42 PMII is kinda nice.
The 5-25x56 PMII is unreal.And a load.
Just kinda depends on how you plan on usuing it.


dave

If 10x was enough I wouldnt have this problem..Its a new development in my eyesight thats the issue.

I considered the 4-16x42 PMII, but it as big as the 3.5-15x50 NXS I have on the rifle now..tryin to find a bit smaller package.

Hell I even considered a Mark 6, briefly haha. I'll probly just use the NXS till the new LRHS comes out, I'll give them a try.

We see well over 100 rifles per match.
We even get the tactical guys coming out to try there hand.Its a pretty interesting blend of rifles and even if I wasnt shooting it would be a cool place to hang out, just looking over everyones stuff.Amazing how few leupolds we actually see.Kinda a shame.
Guy on our bench last Sunday had a 8-80x56 March.
For the money, just for the limited time I had with it.
I'd stick with the Nightforce NSX.
For what you want,a smaller lighter tactical,its just limited.
Higher power and smaller lighter, just dont seem to go well togeather.

dave

I put a 5-50 March X on my buddy's 7 RUM. It is a fantastic scope but a little big for a rifle that is carried in the field. It tracks perfect and allows shots that really are too long. We shot a bear at 1010 yards last year and it didn't move 3 feet.

I would put a March on my rifle in a heartbeat if I could afford it.

I didn't think that rifleblog test gave March a fair shake- they couldn't have picked a more dissimilar scope to compare. I would like to have seen the 5-50 in that test.

March's biggest problem is that they make most of their scopes in SFP and that is not viewed positively by the snobs. I have shot hundreds if not thousands of rounds at 1000 yards and more and have nothing bad to say about all the SFP scopes I have used.

As far as tracking, I guess I would have to put them all to the test to see what I thought. Did you see the average price on the scopes in that test? Did you notice their was not a single Swarovski in it either?

I have a 2.5x25x42 2nd FP with the MTR 4 reticle, I have not experienced the eye box troubles mentioned here at all and I also have not had any tracking troubles. I have used the scope out to 600 yards and tracking was spot on.

I wish I owned a FFP model with a 52MM objective. I own 2 - FFP Nightforce F1's and have really come to like them. However, I much prefer the weight of the March scope.

I prefer the March glass but the NF is not bad either. I just received
Leica 3x12x50 NIB in a trade. I may see how it compares to the other two.

Randy