Let me start off by saying that I am NOT a professional, nor do I have any experience reviewing scopes, but I decided to put together my thoughts on this scope since there were not a lot of reviews out there. If you are someone who has more experience than me doing this… please be gentle on me and cut me some slack. I will gladly answer questions and will add pics if requested, but I did not take pics at the range. For detailed specs on the scope, I will refer you to the GPO website.
I was looking for a scope to go on a Barrett Fieldcraft in 243 that would be used for still and stand hunting in South GA woods. Intended game is Whitetail Deer and Hogs. Basically a set and forget scope, but can dial if needed. Distances are up to 200 yards. So far, my favorite scopes for this application are the NF NXS 2.5-10x32 and the SHV 3-10x42 (illuminated). The rifle already had a set of Talley LW lows in 1” on it, so I was searching to see what was out there that would be a little smaller, lighter, and less expensive than the NF and in 1” tube. Now, I have owned Leupolds, Meopta Meopro, Zeiss Conquest, Swarovski, and Burris FF II. And as much as I loved the glass in the Zeiss, Meopta, and Swaro, the tracking left something to be desired. All of them started off tracking ok, but I like to change scopes, rifles, and loads frequently. At some point, all of the above scopes would not track as advertised. ¼” or 1cm would NOT correspond to the shot group moving consistent with the click value. The result was always to turn the turrets… shoot… turn the turrets more…. Shoot….. oops, too far… back up…. Shoot…. You get the idea. At roughly the same size as the Meopta, Zeiss, and Swaro, and advertised at 15 oz… I decided to give GPO a shot.
Scope arrived in a typical box. When I opened it, I was instantly reminded of Zeiss and Meopta packing with the foam inserts that held the scope in place and the bikini scope covers. The bikini scope covers are see through… and I mean clear. Most clear covers can give you a snap shot if something is close, but these are clear. Not as clear as the glass, but a shot at a deer or hog at 100 yards isn’t a problem at all through the covers. More clear than the Swaro covers on my friends 3x-9x.
Magnification ring was a little stiff out of the box. But a few turns back and forth, and it loosened up to a good feel. 2 fingers can easily move it, but rubbing on clothes most likely won’t unless there is significant pressure. Same feel for the Diopter ring which was easy to find the sweet spot for my eyes.
The eye relief stayed at a constant 3.5” (estimate) throughout the entire magnification range. No creeping up on the scope needed as you hit 9x. Eye Box was very forgiving and only got slightly tighter on max mag.
Reticle is a German 4. Illumination is a nice center dot in the middle. On the settings, 0 is off and 8 is max. The dot becomes visible at just 1.5 in low light. 4 and above is daylight bright. And 8 gave me a bright dot against white paper in sunlight. There are no detents or clicks for the settings and no “off” between numbers. Just grab and roll until you hit the level you want. The stiffness of the knob is easy enough for a 2 finger roll without moving the reticle off target, but not enough to turn itself on from normal use.
The turret caps are aluminum. Markings on the turrets are clear and line up perfectly with the witness line. Adjustments are crisp and audible (dare I say better than the above mentioned NF’s). First thing I did was twist the turrets from end to end several times. The scope arrived optically centered. Again, the adjustments were 2 finger easy, but not so loose where if you left the caps off they would move just by brushing against them. Resetting the turrets was super easy. This scope has a lot of mounting surface (5 ¾”) which is good for those long actions.
The image is typical Meopta Meopro/Zeiss Conquest clear. Now when I looked through this scope prior to writing down my observations, I didn’t notice that on 3x, the outer edge of the view was not as crisp as the rest of the view. It was only when I tried to be picky about edge to edge clarity did I notice it. For normal shooting or hunting, I guess I never payed too much attention to the edges. To best describe what I saw… at 100 yards, I could see individual blades of grass. In that very outer area, I could still see grass, but identifying individual blades was tougher. Don’t get me wrong… if a chipmunk ran into the edge of the view, I would easily see it was a chipmunk, but might not be able to see the black stripe against the brown fur. This only happened when the magnification was from 3x to about 6x. From 6x to 9x, the edge to edge clarity was perfect.
I called GPO later to see if maybe I didn’t adjust the diopter correctly, or this was normal, or something was wrong. The branching options gave the option of going directly to Mike Jensen the owner (unexpected surprise). Although I selected technical support, a gentleman named Mike answered the phone… curious. Mike was very helpful in not only educating me beyond expectations, but also stated why this happens. He stated that clarity around the edges of the lense is one of the toughest things to achieve. Most companies would just put in an optical block to cover the edges giving the appearance of edge to edge clarity. The problem with this is you lose field of view. GPO chose not to put an optical block in, thus giving the shooter a wider field of view. Once you zoomed in a little, you are past the edges and have edge to edge clarity. So out of curiosity, I looked up similar 3x-9x (or 10x) scopes. With the exception of the Swarovski 3-9x36, the GPO had the widest FOV by over 2 feet at 100 yds on 3x.
I compared the GPO to a NF NXS and SHV, SWFA 6x, Steiner NightHunter Extreme, and NF ATACR. I stapled a $1 bill at 100 yards, and set all scope on 6x due to the swfa only being a fixed 6x. I looked for clarity and resolution around the portrait. Obviously the Steiner and ATACR were best. The GPO was on par or maybe just a tad better than the NXS/SHV, and better than the swfa. I wish I had the Meopta and Zeiss to compare it to, but they went down the road a while ago. My guess is they would have been the same as the GPO.
I then set the magnification rings so that I had a 7mm exit pupil and waited for darkness. I know, not really fair since the 7mm exit pupil on the ATACR meant the magnification was on 8x vs the GPO on 5.7x. My target was a white background with a beige/light brown deer silhouette. At 30 minutes after sundown on a partly clear sky, all scopes allowed me to see the white paper no problem. Discerning the deer from the white paper is what I was after. As above, the Steiner and ATACR lasted longest. The GPO was on par or just a tad better than the NF’s, and better than the swfa.
Now for the tracking. I did not perform a tall target test or put the scope on a fixture to measure % of error. I put the GPO on a known ½ moa 223 shooter. Fired 1 shot. Adjusted accordingly and landed the next round within 1/2” of the center. Adjusted 3 moa right and left and fired a few rounds at each ends. Also dialed up 8 moa and fired a few, then back to 1st shot fired a few. All groups were ½ moa and right where they were supposed to be. Repeated up and down dialing were consistent groups. I give the tracking a pass, but long term reliability remains unanswered at this point.
If I could sum up this scope in short… Zeiss Conquest / Meopta Meopro with a more robust feel, better turrets, and center dot illumination. The advertised warranty and customer service sound intriguing, and if they are as advertised, it’s a no brainer. For a sub size, weight and price of the NF SHV and in a 1” tube, this is my choice.
Add: I was going to wait until I could get some thru-the-scope pics of the edges on 3x, 6x, and 9x to post this, but the time change has interfered with my fun time. I will update the thread when I get some pics.
I was looking for a scope to go on a Barrett Fieldcraft in 243 that would be used for still and stand hunting in South GA woods. Intended game is Whitetail Deer and Hogs. Basically a set and forget scope, but can dial if needed. Distances are up to 200 yards. So far, my favorite scopes for this application are the NF NXS 2.5-10x32 and the SHV 3-10x42 (illuminated). The rifle already had a set of Talley LW lows in 1” on it, so I was searching to see what was out there that would be a little smaller, lighter, and less expensive than the NF and in 1” tube. Now, I have owned Leupolds, Meopta Meopro, Zeiss Conquest, Swarovski, and Burris FF II. And as much as I loved the glass in the Zeiss, Meopta, and Swaro, the tracking left something to be desired. All of them started off tracking ok, but I like to change scopes, rifles, and loads frequently. At some point, all of the above scopes would not track as advertised. ¼” or 1cm would NOT correspond to the shot group moving consistent with the click value. The result was always to turn the turrets… shoot… turn the turrets more…. Shoot….. oops, too far… back up…. Shoot…. You get the idea. At roughly the same size as the Meopta, Zeiss, and Swaro, and advertised at 15 oz… I decided to give GPO a shot.
Scope arrived in a typical box. When I opened it, I was instantly reminded of Zeiss and Meopta packing with the foam inserts that held the scope in place and the bikini scope covers. The bikini scope covers are see through… and I mean clear. Most clear covers can give you a snap shot if something is close, but these are clear. Not as clear as the glass, but a shot at a deer or hog at 100 yards isn’t a problem at all through the covers. More clear than the Swaro covers on my friends 3x-9x.
Magnification ring was a little stiff out of the box. But a few turns back and forth, and it loosened up to a good feel. 2 fingers can easily move it, but rubbing on clothes most likely won’t unless there is significant pressure. Same feel for the Diopter ring which was easy to find the sweet spot for my eyes.
The eye relief stayed at a constant 3.5” (estimate) throughout the entire magnification range. No creeping up on the scope needed as you hit 9x. Eye Box was very forgiving and only got slightly tighter on max mag.
Reticle is a German 4. Illumination is a nice center dot in the middle. On the settings, 0 is off and 8 is max. The dot becomes visible at just 1.5 in low light. 4 and above is daylight bright. And 8 gave me a bright dot against white paper in sunlight. There are no detents or clicks for the settings and no “off” between numbers. Just grab and roll until you hit the level you want. The stiffness of the knob is easy enough for a 2 finger roll without moving the reticle off target, but not enough to turn itself on from normal use.
The turret caps are aluminum. Markings on the turrets are clear and line up perfectly with the witness line. Adjustments are crisp and audible (dare I say better than the above mentioned NF’s). First thing I did was twist the turrets from end to end several times. The scope arrived optically centered. Again, the adjustments were 2 finger easy, but not so loose where if you left the caps off they would move just by brushing against them. Resetting the turrets was super easy. This scope has a lot of mounting surface (5 ¾”) which is good for those long actions.
The image is typical Meopta Meopro/Zeiss Conquest clear. Now when I looked through this scope prior to writing down my observations, I didn’t notice that on 3x, the outer edge of the view was not as crisp as the rest of the view. It was only when I tried to be picky about edge to edge clarity did I notice it. For normal shooting or hunting, I guess I never payed too much attention to the edges. To best describe what I saw… at 100 yards, I could see individual blades of grass. In that very outer area, I could still see grass, but identifying individual blades was tougher. Don’t get me wrong… if a chipmunk ran into the edge of the view, I would easily see it was a chipmunk, but might not be able to see the black stripe against the brown fur. This only happened when the magnification was from 3x to about 6x. From 6x to 9x, the edge to edge clarity was perfect.
I called GPO later to see if maybe I didn’t adjust the diopter correctly, or this was normal, or something was wrong. The branching options gave the option of going directly to Mike Jensen the owner (unexpected surprise). Although I selected technical support, a gentleman named Mike answered the phone… curious. Mike was very helpful in not only educating me beyond expectations, but also stated why this happens. He stated that clarity around the edges of the lense is one of the toughest things to achieve. Most companies would just put in an optical block to cover the edges giving the appearance of edge to edge clarity. The problem with this is you lose field of view. GPO chose not to put an optical block in, thus giving the shooter a wider field of view. Once you zoomed in a little, you are past the edges and have edge to edge clarity. So out of curiosity, I looked up similar 3x-9x (or 10x) scopes. With the exception of the Swarovski 3-9x36, the GPO had the widest FOV by over 2 feet at 100 yds on 3x.
I compared the GPO to a NF NXS and SHV, SWFA 6x, Steiner NightHunter Extreme, and NF ATACR. I stapled a $1 bill at 100 yards, and set all scope on 6x due to the swfa only being a fixed 6x. I looked for clarity and resolution around the portrait. Obviously the Steiner and ATACR were best. The GPO was on par or maybe just a tad better than the NXS/SHV, and better than the swfa. I wish I had the Meopta and Zeiss to compare it to, but they went down the road a while ago. My guess is they would have been the same as the GPO.
I then set the magnification rings so that I had a 7mm exit pupil and waited for darkness. I know, not really fair since the 7mm exit pupil on the ATACR meant the magnification was on 8x vs the GPO on 5.7x. My target was a white background with a beige/light brown deer silhouette. At 30 minutes after sundown on a partly clear sky, all scopes allowed me to see the white paper no problem. Discerning the deer from the white paper is what I was after. As above, the Steiner and ATACR lasted longest. The GPO was on par or just a tad better than the NF’s, and better than the swfa.
Now for the tracking. I did not perform a tall target test or put the scope on a fixture to measure % of error. I put the GPO on a known ½ moa 223 shooter. Fired 1 shot. Adjusted accordingly and landed the next round within 1/2” of the center. Adjusted 3 moa right and left and fired a few rounds at each ends. Also dialed up 8 moa and fired a few, then back to 1st shot fired a few. All groups were ½ moa and right where they were supposed to be. Repeated up and down dialing were consistent groups. I give the tracking a pass, but long term reliability remains unanswered at this point.
If I could sum up this scope in short… Zeiss Conquest / Meopta Meopro with a more robust feel, better turrets, and center dot illumination. The advertised warranty and customer service sound intriguing, and if they are as advertised, it’s a no brainer. For a sub size, weight and price of the NF SHV and in a 1” tube, this is my choice.
Add: I was going to wait until I could get some thru-the-scope pics of the edges on 3x, 6x, and 9x to post this, but the time change has interfered with my fun time. I will update the thread when I get some pics.