Topic: The Best LPVO Scopes of 2023, Tested and Reviewed (Read 36 times)
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Topic: The Best LPVO Scopes of 2023, Tested and Reviewed (Read 36 times)
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This scope will get the job done, especially if the job is ringing steel out to about 300 yards with your AR, and then cleaning plates inside about 100 yards. The second-plane BDC reticle has just enough references to be useful without being distracting, and the illumination blazes at a nicely visible daylight brightness, though its lowest intensity is still too bright for low-light conditions.
But there are sizable jobs this scope won’t get done. Notably, that includes precision distance work. The reticle just doesn’t have enough references to make it effective beyond that 300 mark. It also may give you a headache. The glass was among the least impressive in the field, finishing at the bottom of our low-light test and near the bottom in resolution scores. Testers used terms like “wavy” and “blurry” to describe the edge of the image, and panning at 1X you notice a fish-eye effect, evidence of some pincushion optical aberration. Controls are hard to turn.
But “it’s not a bad optic for the price,” concludes tester and OL’s shooting editor, John B. Snow. “A guy on a budget could do worse.”
Indeed, for under $300 you get a very serviceable LPVO, with a magnification range that will handle everything from personal defense to predator hunting, and ran our dynamic shooting drills without pause. The 6-step illumination is serviceable, and the low-profile rezeroable turrets are decent to dial, though we wish the indexing was more useful.
You might even mount the Presidio on a rimfire or even a turkey gun. That’s a lot of value for a fair price, and the main reason the Sightmark is our Great Buy LPVO scope.
The NX8 has been around since 2017, but this version features a number of significant upgrades. First, it has a capped elevation turret, a response to shooters who wanted insurance that elevation adjustments wouldn’t accidentally move during transit or rough handling. Second, it’s offered in a se*y dark earth color in addition to the classic black. But the main change is the availability of the FC-DMx reticle, previously available only in the higher-grade ATACR scope.
The reticle is worth your attention. It’s the best precision reticle in this category, which is dominated by first-plane reticles that offer fast aiming at low powers and close-enough precision at higher mags. The FC-DMx does both pretty well, but its superpower is offering a mother-ton of aiming points at 6X. The heart of the FC-DMx is a segmented circle that can be blazingly bright with the highest illumination intensity. Still, it really co*es into its own at about 4.8X when the aiming grid beco*es visible. The 1 MRAD grid allows for 10 MILS of holdover and windage holdoff, and if you want to get really crazy, there are holds for 15 and 20 MILS at the bottom of the field of view.
There’s no other LPVO reticle in our test with this level of precision or scale of aiming possibility. The rest of the scope is equally noteworthy. The turrets track with repeatable precision and the turrets are crisp and positive. The illumination control is similarly tactile. Testers liked the Nightforce’s indexing and overall handling, but noted that the magnification knob needs a throw lever because the scope mounts so low to the rifle that it’s hard to grip the dial.
Testers struggled with focusing both the image and the reticle, and felt the NX8 was pretty pricey given its fairly limited utility as a low-power precision scope. But with all that, it’s a great choice if you intend to do much long-range target work with an AR.
This scope caused quite a bit of discussion among testers, mainly over whether the LPVO platform is optimized with a first- or second-plane reticle. While the consensus is that a first-plane reticle boosts versatility (with a reticle in the front focal plane, a scope can serve as both a fast-aiming red-dot and a distance precision rig), the Athlon makes a good case for the utility of a second-plane reticle.
In the case of the Cronus BTR, the reticle is optimized for 3-gun co*petition, allowing shooters to engage targets at close range with the illuminated center dot, but at the highest magnification, the reticle guides .223 rounds out to 600 yards, with a 200-yard zero. It’s a smart, simple, very effective design that’s in keeping with the good manners of this scope.
The Cronus BTR scored near the top of our resolution test, a testament to its very good glass. It didn’t bring much game to the low-light test, but overall testers thought the image was very good for the configuration. Testers also liked the positive zero stop, the clear and bold indexing on the turrets, and both the illumination dial operation and the crisp illuminated center dot that shredded the dynamic target transition drill.
We’d like to see the power-changing ring have bolder indexing, and increase magnification to at least 8-power to better see distant targets, but overall this is a very useful scope for co*petition shooters and anyone who wants quality co*ponents in a short-range optic.
This scope demonstrates the wide versatility of the LPVO platform, while simultaneously proving the limitations for some very specific shooting situations. The second-plane hash reticle has references on the vertical and horizontal stadia, which experienced shooters can use for rimfire plinking, for quick short-range drills, and for slow-fire shooting at distance. We tested an MOA version of this scope; it’s also available in MRAD. Both cost just shy of $1,000.
But because the reticle has no holdoff references for wind adjustments at distance, and because its MOA references are useful at the highest power, this doesn’t bring much to the long-range precision game. That’s OK, because it’s intended to be a fast, simple scope that brings the best 1-power game of all our submissions and has the smoothest, most pleasing controls of the test.
The center-dot illumination is key to the Toric’s appeal. At the highest intensity, the dot (it looks to be about .5 MOA in diameter) offers a bright aiming point that draws your eye to the target. It’s especially quick and intuitive at 1-power, anchoring a huge, bright image that almost appears like you’re not looking through a scope, at all. The Tract’s controls are noteworthy. From the power-changing dial to the turrets and illumination adjustment, all moving parts have the same mellifluous precision.
The Toric scored right in the middle of the pack in terms of low-light performance and optical resolution. For a second-plane design, the reticle received decent marks, though testers questioned the milling hashes. The stadia has marks at 4, 8, and 10 MOA, with 40 MOA of elevation holds. The team thought a more intuitive demarcation would be to have either 5 or 2.5 MOA hashes in order to conform to a base-10 alignment. The other aiming-system quibble we had was the tiny, hard-to-read indexing on the low-profile turrets.
The Tract handled our precision and dynamic target transition drills with grace and talent. But the scope really came into its own during our close-range big-bore work. At 1X to 3X, the scope co*es to the eye in a snap and the daylight-bright illumination finds the target like a guided laser. This rapid target acquisition talent, co*bined with a solid build and simple operation makes the Tract our choice for a dangerous-game rifle, when shots are expected to be both point-blank and at moderate distances.
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