Discussion Forums

Blair Horrocks

Hi folks. I've just received my first new Sightron. It's also the first scope I've ever owned with a zoom range bigger than 9X. It''s also the first 24X scope I've ever looked through.

There's another first for me too, as an old MOA guy. Due to a brain fart I ordered an MRad scope instead of MOA. If you knew me you would be aghast at that because I just do not make that kind of mistake (well, apparently I do). On this occasion the spec was doubly important because it was a special order, making it a biiiig mish to exchange. There are some challenges being a customer of this brand in New Zealand - one being, don't be an idiot when ordering.

All that aside, I decided to keep the MRad scope and bloody well just learn the new system. I actually started getting quite excited about it! Thank God I didn't also mistakenly go FFP - things were looking good again. Of course there was just one thing I needed to know after confirming it was just the units I'd got wrong, and that was whether I could live with the reticle. I was quite concerned about Nathan's comments about very fine lines.

The scope hadn't been delivered at that point so I looked it up online. The scope is their SFP 6-24X PLR with Mil Hash 5 illuminated reticle. The spec told me that this reticle's crosshairs are actually thicker than those in Sightron's Mildot reticle - MH-5 =16mm vs the Mildot's at 9.6mm (6x @ 100 metres). That was good to find out!

Now that I actually have the scope (rifle for it due to turn up soon) I have had a bit of a play in low light, including making comparisons with a couple of other scopes. Those cross hairs are not too bad! There is one aspect though that I haven't made my mind up on yet and that is the size of the floating centre dot. At 6X / 100m, the dot is only 14.8mm. That's not quite miniscule and is probably mint for target shooting - I'm just wondering if it might have been better for hunting if it was the same as the crosshair thickness. Not sure yet. There's also an "aperture" feel about the middle of the reticle where the dot lives, which tends to encourage the eye to centre on it, and this could possibly work well at shorter distances in low light conditions.

I'm also assessing the usefulness of the reticle illumination. Even on its lowest setting, in the very dark minutes just before things become indiscernable, the reticle is very bright. Personally I'd like one, maybe 2 more steps dimmer, and maybe less reticle lit up. Not a huge gripe though, and in spite of the fact I'm old and a bit grumpy at times and have been known to regard tech like this with a degree of contempt, I can already see where it might be of use. It doesn't really need illumination but I've decided I'm glad it's there. (Oh - I wish it had an auto-off timeout)

Overall I'm stoked. The scope has a really nice quality look and feel to it and the controls are very nice. Yes the reticle is busy and I'm not used to that, but I know I will adjust and learn to use it. To be fair, the whole long range thing has been a big learning curve anyway and this is just another aspect of that. I'm only doing it because I'm really enjoying the whole process!

I thought I'd write this up to show a little bit of love to this particular scope because SFP MRad may seem to be a bit of an odd ball to some folks. Personally I'm pleased with it and funnily enough I'm also glad to be on the MRad rollercoaster - but more than likely that just means I'm a bit odd too, hahahaha!