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Mark Whitaker

For many years the ubiquitous 3-9 power scope has ruled on hunting rifles. 3 power for brush and close range work and 9 power for longer shots or smaller targets.... Minute of Rabbit Head.

But now in the 21st century, new shooting disciplines and the associated marketing for these disciplines has broadened everything for hunting, some good, mostly just marketing.

New Rifle Stock design, far greater range of Projectiles from more manufacturers. Ballistic apps on our smart phones that with practise allow longer range shots to be taken with confidence and of course Scopes.

In the late seventies I bought my first real scope, a Leupold Vari-X II 3-9. I have retired this scope from service. Its been back twice to Leupold for free servicing, fantastic customer service which has set the benchmark for other Manufacturers to follow.

I upgraded from the Leupold about six years ago to what I call the King of Scopes, a Nightforce NSX 3.5-15x50 Zero Stop. A Bullet proof, tough, repeatable scope with the NP2-DD reticle.

This scope still has the close range capability of 3.5 power, but now I have greater long range capability of 15 power so its much more versitile than the ubiquitous 3-9.

A scope has to have 3 attributes that to me are non negotiable:

It mush have long eye relief, at least 95mm for obvious reasons.

It must be repeatable, that is when you dial up your elevation to take a shot, then dial back to Zero, it must be Zero, and it has to do this for the life of the scope.

And the glass must be good.... good coating, no distortion, focus shift from centre to edge.

The Nightforce NSX has all of these attributes in spades and it was happy living on my Remington 700 SS Mountain Rifle in 7mm-08. The weight of the scope balanced the lightweight rifle well, taming the recoil to very manageable levels.

All was well until I bought a Lithgow LA101 in 22lr. I went to the range with Lithgow, Remington, Nightforce, ammo, lunch, all proud as punch with my new rifle.

I had a great day at the range, shooting multiple 5 shot ½ inch groups at 50 yards with the Lithgow and Nightforce installed. Then I realised I had the perfect Rabbit combination. Lithgow 22lr, Nightforce 3.5-15 NP2-DD reticle. Illuminated dot for spotlighting or low light situations.

Now I had to find another Scope for the 7mm-08.

For a number of years I have been reading Nathan's Terminal Ballistic Research web site and have bought all his shooting books. Even though I have been shooting and hunting for 50 years, I realised how much I did not know about this sport and I have learned a lot from this humble Kiwi. Nathan recommends Sightron Scopes, components built in the same factory in Japan as Nightforce and they also have the 3 attributes I required.

Sightron has just released a 3-16x42 with their MOA-3 reticle, so I took a punt and bought one having never seen any Sightron scopes.

So why the Sightron and not another Nightforce. Well you can but three of these scopes for the price of a single Nightforce. It is slightly lighter in weight but still of sufficient heft to tame the lightweight 7mm-08 and slightly shorter and a smaller objective lens. What is missing is illumination and Zero Stop, but it does has turret caps.

I like to set may target on a dot and the Sightron MOA-3 has a dot, finer than the Nightforce NP2-DD but large enough for day time shooting.

Why do I say it “Would be King”, well it is no good for spotlighting or shooting in natural light at sun set. It's just too fine and gets lost. What the reticle needs is centre dot illumination or the heavy posts at 12, 3, 6 and 9 like the MOA-H, this modification would make low light target acquisition much better.

The glass to me has no discernible difference to the NSX, the same with the repeatability of the turrets, whats not to like.

If you are shooting more in low light, get the duplex version.

Another down side of the Sightron is purely cosmetic, the coating is not the Diamond like finish of the Nightforce and you will get ring rash if you slide the rings over the body. You get what you pay for.

As "Molly" would say...."do yourself a favour"

Would I buy another one? Definitely, the 4-20x50 MOA-2 will be going on my Mauser 98 6mm AI.

Thanks Nathan for the advise and teaching this old dog new tricks.