The 5 Best $1,000 Scopes

thanks for tuning into tfbtv I'm Joel the precision rifle Network today we're going to look at five of the best $1000 scopes on the market [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] first we have the burse xt r-25 225 by 50 next is the vortex Viper PST Gen 2 5 225 by 50 then we have the cig tango 4 6 224 by 50 this is the Nikon black FX 1006 224 by 50 and finally we have the night force shv 4 and a half - 14 by 50 well guys jumping right in I wanted to give you the facts on these optics I was considering putting together some kind of a comparison sheet but they're almost identical feature wise so what I'm gonna do is give you an abbreviated specs list that they all have in common and then I'm gonna highlight the differences and finally follow up with my opinion on each optic each of these optics is first focal plane which means as you increase the magnification level the reticle inside the optic increases in size to match the distance it also means that the spacing of the holdover reticle is correct at all magnification ranges while a second focal plane scope must be dialed to a specific magnification in order for the reticle hashmarks to measure correctly first focal plane is desirable for long-range shooting and much of the industry is heading in that direction next each of these optics has an illuminated reticle which is powered by a single cr2032 battery located inside the left turret or parallax adjustment knob each has a range of brightness settings and each optics reticle is lit up in a different way as you can see from the images here every one of these scopes has oh stop feature zero stop basically means that after you've dialed up your elevation turret for a long range shot you can quickly and easily turn the knob back down to your original 100 or 200 yards zero point and the turret will lock and stop at that exact point so you never have to second-guess whether you're returning to your zero or not this is a very handy feature as you can tell and in the competition world it's absolutely vital when doing things quickly on a timer each of these optics comes with a tactical milling type holdover reticle and some people think all those lines and hash marks just clutter up the picture and get in the way of seeing your target that's obviously up for debate but one benefit of having this kind of reticle is that you can quickly holdover for windage and elevation instead of having to stop and dial your scope all of these scopes weigh approximately the same and come in at roughly two pounds they are all approximately the same length at just over 15 inches and they all have basically the same magnification range from 5 to 25 power the objective lenses are all identical at 50 millimeters the main tube diameters are fairly similar from 30 to 34 millimeters and the prices vary slightly but come in very near that $1,000 price tag alright guys now let's talk about the minor differences between these optics you know I mentioned that the magnification ranges we're all in the general vicinity of five to twenty-five power the Nightforce shv is the only exception here and it has a four and a half to 14 magnification range I will point out that in all my years of competition and I know a lot of other shooters would agree with me I've never needed more than about 18 power during a competition to make shots out to twelve hundred yards in fact it's often desirable to zoom out always in order to increase your field of view so the night force having a max magnification of 14 power it's not really holding it back in any way the only other difference is come into play with regards to the Nikon black FX 1000 the first difference here is that the Nikon has a maximum elevation adjustment range of 17 milk while the other scopes top out at 20 to 26 Mills for some perspective let's look at the popular six five Creedmoor cartridge 17 Mills of elevation shooting a factory Hornady match load will get you out to 1,400 yards so unless you're shooting beyond that distance with that particular caliber then that's not really a downside at all you know for quick comparison 26 Mills of elevation with the Burris xtr to get you out to a mile with the 65 Creedmoor that caliber really isn't designed for that distance so again it's a non-issue in my opinion the other difference with the Nikon is the price this scope comes in a full two hundred dollars cheaper than the rest of the optics the price and the Nikon black FX 1000 is in the neighborhood of seven hundred and ninety nine dollars and ninety five cents that's a lot of bang for your buck in my opinion you know speaking of opinion let's move into my personal thoughts on these scopes yeah I could go on for quite a while here because there's a lot to love about each of these optics unfortunately there are also some things that make you ask what the hell were the designers thinking the sig tango for 6 to 24 by 50 comes to mind instantly the thing I dislike the most about this object is the busyness of the markings on the turrets there is so much information that your brain admittedly it could be just my brain has to slow down tremendously just to take it all in it's just too much I mean there's words and arrows and single letters different size tiny boxes and small dials within larger dials let's be honest if a man has to read the instruction book to figure something out he's not going to be happy another thing I can't stand about the Sig optic is that the windage hash marks on the reticle subtend to half a mil just about every other quality optic I can think of has 0.2 or 0.25 mil windage hash marks half a mil a windage is just too much when you're trying to make a precision long-range shot using holdovers the final thing i want to mention about the sig is that this scope has quite a bit more scope shadow than all the rest scope shadow is that evil black ring that creeps in and obstructs your field of view when your eye isn't perfectly lined up in the scope so I guess what I'm saying is that the other scopes were way more forgiving in this regard now moving on to the nikon black FX 1000 guys for the money i'm not sure there's another scope on the market that can compete with this thing I haven't seen its equal I do have a couple of complaints however but they boil down to personal preference the first is the glass to my eye the Nikon isn't quite as clear and bright edge to edge as the night force or the vortex but don't get me wrong though the image is quite nice and again for the money it's hard to beat the other complaint I have is that the turrets are incredibly stiff downright difficult to adjust I had to come completely off the gun grab the turret with my whole hand and put some muscle into it in order for them to turn you know this takes time and comes down to just being plain annoying to me the Burris XT r2 is a well respected optic in the precision rifle community it has so many great features it looks great and is basically bomb-proof you cannot go wrong with one of these scopes the one main downside to me is the glass it is noticeably grey in color the clarity is fine and there's no distortion but compared to the night force and the vortex which have crisp clean natural color I actually stopped shooting and looked at the objective lens wondering if there was some kind of protective film on it on a bright sunny day it looks like the sky just got cloudy coming from a photographer take my word for it you can do better on glass choice the night force and the vortex optics are the clear winners here as far as I'm concerned they have all the features you could possibly need or want in a hunting or competition optic all the controls just make sense and they're intuitive to the shooter everything works as it should and nothing raises red flags or makes me stop and ask what were they thinking night force scopes are virtually indestructible and vortex has the best warranty in the business I have literally nothing bad to say about either of these two scopes guys the last thing I want to point out is that I did at all target tracking tests on each of these scopes and they all passed with flying colors tracking perfectly from zero to a thousand yards hey guys thanks for watching tfbtv today I'm finishing up this video finally in a rain storm because I love my job yeah that's it hey go check out our sponsor Ventura munitions we would really appreciate that they're very generous to us here at tfbtv you appreciate what we do also consider supporting this through patreon that would be great leave some comments below what you think on these five best scopes share the video and as always tune back in soon for another great video from tfbtv [Music] [Music] [Music]

Channel: TFB TV

Views: 708,395

Rating: 4.895021 out of 5

Keywords: gun, guns, firearms, firearm, blog, tfb, tfbtv, shooting, 2a, gun show, ccw, edc, rkba, right to bear arms, burris, vortex, nightforce, nikon, sig sauer, pst gen 2, fx1000, nikon black, xtr 2, shv, long range, precision rifle, rifle, 5 best, optics, 6.5 creedmoor, tracking test, hunting, best long range scope, best scope for long range, best, top, scopes, sniper

Id: wcnikG1Vofc

Length: 10min 14sec (614 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 14 2018