[crash]

Long range...

Man this is slick...

I made an excel spread sheet up with yardage from 50 - 1000 with fifty yard increments, bullet drop at each yardage, what 1 click equals at that yardage (1/4" @ 100 1"@400 etc) and how many clicks to correct at that yardage. The Remington website has a cool ballistic calculator where you can get a chart for any caliber with any bullet...

I have a Remington 700 Stainless Fluted bull barrel in 7mm ultra that has been accurized and I have an 8x32x56 night force with the big target knobs. I printed out and laminated the sheet. I have 2 charts. One chart is for a 160-grain nosler partition and the other is a custom load in a 152-grain ballistic tip. I can switch back and forth with ease because the ballistic tip shoots 1/2 higher at 100 yards than does the 160. So I switch back and forth by giving it 2 clicks and then re zeroing the knob with a quick turn of the allen wrench and I don't even need to go to the range.

Well long story short, I saw a jack under a feeder at around 375 yards, shot it with the range finder, dialed up the yardage, and "poof" Cloud-O-Fur...

The only way to go…

 

[Rich Z]

How do you like that Nightforce scope? I hear a lot of people over on the Biggerhammer .50BMG board swearing by them.

I'm thinking seriously of yanking my Swarovski 6x24 off of this Barrett M95 I got a little while ago and replacing it with a Lightforce.

Any idea what the eye relief is on that one you have at the highest power setting? The Swarovski appears fine at the 6X setting but the 24X puts my eye just too close to the end of the scope for my tastes. Even though they have a rubber rim on the eyepiece and it is spring loaded, I still think I'm not going to like it banging against my eyebrow. The M95 Barrett is lighter than even my M99, so I imagine it's going to push me back a bit.

 

[crash]

I could not be happier. The only gripe I have heard is that some people say they are a little to heavy, but if you go to nightforceoptics.com they state that they made them that way on purpose to take a severe beating and still perform (underwater, super cold, impacts, ect). I like the weight to help tone down recoil. They are not just a fancy hunting scope. I'm not bagging on swarofski's, I think they are really good scopes.

They offer a bigger scope than the 8-32x56 that I have but I talked to a friend that had that model and returned it for the smaller one because he had problems with mirages at full power on hot days. I think the 8-32x56 is about as big as you want to get.

As for the eye relief, it is pretty good. I matched it up side by side every scope I could think of and the eye relief felt right for me.

If I could, I would put one on every rifle I have...

What is a lightforce? Haven't heard of those...

 

[Rich Z]

Achh! I meant "Nightforce" instead of "Lightforce". Seems to me there actually was a brand of scope called "Lightforce" at one time, so somehow that must have stuck in my mind.

How much difference in eye relief do you have at 8 power compared to 32 power? For shooting a .50BMG, most people recommend 4 inches of eye relief. You can get by with 3 if you are careful to weld your cheek to the stock, but getting careless can hurt you.

About the weight of the Nightforce, one problem I have heard of firing a .50BMG with a scope that has a lot of mass to it is that oftentimes the scope will slide forward within the rings during recoil. When I looked at the Barrett Model 95 I bought with that Swarovski on it, the scope has apparently moved.

Apparently the tolerances between the inside diameter of the rings and the outside diameter of the scope tube can sometimes be problematical. A bad match can leave too much play in the scope/ring holding power for a high recoiling rifle.

One of my other hobbies is photography and I have become very sensitive to the quality of glass I look through. Color inconsistences, vignetting, and non linear focus across the viewing field just set my teeth on edge. I have bought rifles with cheap scopes on them and generally just toss the scopes up on the shelf and replace them with better glass. More than once I have spent all day trying to sight in a rifle using a cheap scope only to finally determine the scope itself was the culprit. If the crosshairs move about every other shot, it will drive you nuts.

Thanks.

 

[Bolo]

Just HAD to post this article

Totally ASTOUNDING! Check out:
www.saubier.com/smallcaliber/corbinshell.html
This guy shot a 220 - 11X at 600 yds! WITH A .17 REMINGTON!
Full Particulars on the Rifle,Scope,Load Data and Range conditions... With Pics! Target signed & witnessed.
Then he went on to shoot at 1,000 yds.
With a .17??? = INCREDABLE! ...but proven

 

[Rich Z]

Damn! I would never have thought a person could do that. I would have guessed the bullets would get pushed all over the place by the slightest wind fluctuation.

So much for logic.....

 

[crash]

I'll see if I can measure that for you, but as far as the optics go they are better than most high end spoting scopes...

Nightforce also makes a bullet proof mounting system for high recoil guns that you should check out...

 

[crash]

looks like you can maybe get away with 4" but I think it is closer to 3.5"...

 

[Rich Z]

Man, that's not bad at all. Actually, that much eye relief at that power magnification is right impressive, in my opinion.

Maybe I need to put one of those Nightforce scopes on my Christmas list. But darn, I would hate to have to wait until the end of December to shoot that Model 95 Barrett!

Off hand, do you know the best place do get one of those gems?

 

[crash]

champion firearms in college station, tx...

They will ship it to you and they are at least 15% cheaper than any place in Houston and on the net. I have been buying stuff from them for years and they have better than gun show prices everyday...

I'm not sure where you live, but give them a call. Katie and Mike are the owners (great people). MSRP was over 1500 on mine, and I paid something like 1200. They charged it on my card and shipped it to me in Houston for 8 bucks...

I’m attaching a pic of the rings and base. This may sound stupid, but who says you can only have 2 scope rings? If your scope is sliding forward, and you have this one piece base, why not put 4 rings on there instead of just two. Should have more surface contact to eliminate slippage, plus it would look cool...

 

[Rich Z]

What kind of warranty does Nightforce have on their scopes? I'm thinking about putting one on my Christmas list....

 

[CAV]

Off topic, but I couldn't resist

Crash,

Nice to see that you have great taste! Champion is the only place I'll shop. I moved to Austin from B/CS. Their indoor range in one of the best I've ever used.

I highly second using Mike and Katie. They are extremely competitive with everything they sale. (I bought several handguns from them during the last year

 

[MOAB]

IOR Valdada

If your scope is slipping due to irregularities between the ring and scope, lap the rings and re-torque to specs. For those considering Nightforce, check out Valdada.com. I just put their 4-14x50 tactical side focus scope with MP-8 reticle on my Barrett M99. The optics are very clear and costs several hundred less than Nightforce. I looked through a nightforce that was mounted on a .408 Cheytac the other day. The Valdada was much clearer. I can't vouch for the condition of that particlular N-force scope, though.

 

[Rich Z]

Darn! I looked at their website and these look like they might be nice scopes.

Any track record on them? This is absolutely the first time I have ever heard their name mentioned.

Thanks.

 

[MOAB]

Valdada

They're mentioned a lot on the Biggerhammer.net site. A guy named Don that frequents the site sells them. Just start a thread inquiring about them and I'm sure you'll get some bites. Most people I've talked to never heard of them either. They're a Romanian company that works out of Colorado. I looked through their 2.5-10x40 scopes at a gunshow and I was hooked. You can find some pretty good reviews online about them.