If you have been following my random ramblings for any length of time, you will note that my preferred mode of operation is to pick a particular configuration and approximate price range and compare a good number of scopes that fit those two criteria side by side.

This is not going to be one of those.

The sorta undisputed king of the tactical hill in the 1-8x scope world in the last year or two was Minox ZP8.  March 1-8×24 with side focus has been out for a bit, but it seems to appeal to a somewhat different customer.  Last year, Nightforce released their 1-8×24 ATACR going largely after the same crowd.  S&B now also has their FFP/DFP 1-8x scope and I have a suspicion some other companies are going to join the fray.  I intend to gloss over this group almost entirely since I do not see myself spending in the neighborhood of $3k for a low power variable optic (LPVO).  Do not get me wrong, these are excellent design, but somehow it is easier for me to spend that kind of money on a long range precision scope and even that is getting to be a more difficult decision as mid-range stuff keeps getting better.  Now, as we get into the sub-$2k range, I sorta perk up.  I really want to be in the $1k range, but I am willing to pay a little more if it gets me a little more.  When I set out to put this article together, I wanted to explore this $1k to $2k range and since I was not able to get my hands on everything I wanted, I suspect I will revisit it again in 2019.

I saw the new March Shorty 1-8×24 at SHOT and thought it was an interesting idea.  The guys from March were adventurous enough to loan me one. I have a lot of mileage with their larger 1-8×24 that has side-focus, so the Shorty without the side-focus was really interesting to look at.  I am really impressed by March engineering, although there are some questionable decision there from product configuration standpoint (in other words I am very impressed with what the technical people at Deon accomplished, while being a little mystified by some marketing driven decisions).

Same for the GPOTAC 1-8×24 from German Precision Optics.  They really should know better than letting me loose on a new product, but I think that bravery will ultimately work out well for them.  I think they’ve got a good thing going there. As always, I have some things to complain about, but overall, it is a very solid scope.

Burris XTR II 1-8×24 has been my go to scope in this category since I can actually afford it, so I added it to the mix.

HiLux CMR8 is a lot less expensive, but I have it, so while it does not really belong in this group, it was interesting to see how it fits in.  I also had Hawke Frontier 1-6×24 on hand, so you will see it in some reticle pictures. It is a SFP scope, so it is an entirely different animal, but it is an exceptionally nice scope for the money and it was useful to have it as sort of a counterpoint: “if you do not need FFP, you can save some money” sort of thing.

Nightforce essentially told me to go F myself when I asked them for a loaner of the NX8.  That was unfortunate since it would have been interesting to test next to the March. Usually, a manufacturer tells me to take a hike if they are afraid of bad publicity, implying there is something wrong with the product. However, I am not aware of any major NX8 issues, and I did have a brief hands on with it on someone else’s gun. I will have to get my hands on one for a thorough review at some point via other means.

I am familiar with the Trijicon Accupower and PA Platinum, which is why you see them in the table below, but I did not have them on hand for this comparison.  With the PA, they have a new reticle I was impressed with coming out (Griffin Mil), so I will secure one when it is available. Accupower is not my favourite design, so I am not going to spend more time on it.

Looking at the specs, NX8 and March Shorty really stand out for their compact size and light weight, although GPOTAC is also pretty good with weight.  Other than March and CMR8, all the other scopes here are made in Japan, buy LOW. I am guessing the NX8 may have some US assembly in it. GPO adds the illumination module to their scopes in Germany.  March is made by Deon in Japan and CMR8 is a HiLux product made in their factory in China.

Right off hand, CMR8 is not as good optically as the rest of these.  It is pretty decent for the money though. I mostly added it in to show what you get for your money.  I will say that mechanically, CMR8 is working quite well including a stint on my 458 SOCOM that has killed a few scopes here and there.  Generally speaking, all of the scopes here were tested on a 5.56 chambered AR-15.

Before I talk about each individual design, I would like to spend some time on reticles.  I mounted the scopes on a tripod and took some pictures through them. The pictures are handheld with a cellphone, so they are not designed to tell you anything about image quality.  The church in the background is more than 700 yards away. They are all variations on “primary aiming point inside a circle” theme which I happen to like. CMR8 has a floating dot and a mrad grid inside a circle along with some choke style rangefinders around it.  The whole arrangement turned out a little busier than I would have liked, but I like it conceptually and if I had a chance to re-design it, I’d keep the grid, but make it thinner.

March has two concentric circles (they also have another reticle that has only one circle) and an aiming crosshair inside the smaller circle along with the a mil-scale outside it.  For some inexplicable reason, the lines in the primary aiming crosshair are quite thick. I am guessing it has something to do with how they illuminate it, but in practice, I would have preferred a small floating crosshair or a dot inside the circle (the scope I used had FMC-2 reticle; their FMC1 has liens that are twice thinner, so the reticle I would want is a combination of the two: FMC-2 circles with FMC-1 crosshair).  One of the reasons to get a LPV scope that goes up to 8x is to extend the engagement distance a bit, so a smallish primary aiming point is a good idea. Basically, you want the circle for speed and the dot or crosshair for precision. The reticle in the GPO hets the precision part right, but the circle is fairly small (it is a little hard to see in the 8x picture below, but in real life it is nicely visible at higher mags). GPO’s illumination is continuously variable, so it is excellent in low light.  On the scope I had it did not get very bright (I played with a prototype illumination module that did not get as bright as production models).  XTR II reticle is very well done in terms of line thicknesses and is the only design here that has a BDC reticle inside a circle. I would prefer a mrad-based design, but it works well enough (as I said this is sort of my reference standard in this category in terms of bang for the buck).

Here is what they look like side by side.  With CMR8, the larger circle is outside the FOV at 8x which I like.  With March, I think the two circles inside the FOV at 8x is a bit much, but the reticle is quick to use and very visible without without illumination.  Other than the thickness of the center crosshair, I really like this reticle. Also note the tapered bars that really help as you go down in magnification.  

The next picture below shows the same four scopes at 4x, 5x and 6x.  I am also showing the reticle of the SFP Hawke Frontier for comparison.  On the CMR8, the large outer circle gets into the FOV and blocks quite a bit of it.  With March, the tapered bars start looking more prominent, but the dual circle center arrangement looks to be about the right size for quick target engagement.  GPOTAC reticle again looks thinner in the picture than it really is, but in general, as you go down in magnification, it has to rely more on illumination than the other scopes here. XTR II’s 10 mrad circle remains a really good compromise between precision and speed.

As you go further down in magnification, the GPO scope becomes harder to use without illumination. I talked to them about it and the basically said that the 1-8x is more of a general purpose design, while the 1-6x is going to be a little more optimized for speed and AR use with a bolder reticle.  Honestly, I think they should add some other reticle options to the 1-8x, but even with the pre-production illumination module it worked pretty well for me in anything but the brightest light, so I am not going to complain too much. WIth March, as you get to 1x you begin to really see why those tapered bars are there.  Wisely, the guys at March kept the bars from going all the way to the edge on 1x. That leaves the aiming structure floating in the center and it really works well. With CMR8, that big outer circle keep the reticle visible, but I still think it is thicker than it should be.  Also, keep in mind that the XTR II reticle is perfectly usable without illumination on 1x; much more so than the picture indicates.

Now, let’s talk a little about how these scopes compare in other ways.  First of all, I have not spent a whole lot of time checking tracking. I did some minimal elevation tracking checks and they all seemed to do fine.  Generally, with scopes of this type, I prefer to not mess with the turrets, so I want them either covered or locking, which all of these were, except for March.  The Shorty came with March’s excellent low profile tactical knobs. These are some of my favourite turrets, but I think they are a little out of place on this scope. I would feel more secure with a covered design. I brought this up with my March contact, but he disagreed and said that he has never heard of their turrets being bumped.  Personally, I think March marketing people needs to spend more time with 3-Gunners and other AR people. That would give them a better grasp of this side of the market.

All of the scopes here stayed zeroed once zeroed and I really have no complaints about the quality and feel of the physical controls.  Subjectively, March has the crispest feel to the mechanics here, but I have always liked how March does the mechanics, so there is no surprise there.

In terms of optical quality, this ended up being a bit of a tricky comparison because of parallax and depth of field.  First of all, the CMR8 is clearly the weakest product here, but also the least expensive. The guys at HiLux said that they are working on fixing some of the distortion, so it should get better and at the time of this writing, it probably is (I need to check).  Most of the side by side was done with the Burris, GPO and March.

Before I talk about optics, note how short the March is.  It is difficult to make very short optics and the complaints I have about March’s optical system are a direct consequence of making it very short.

As an optical system, overall, I probably like GPO the most in this group.  However, if you stay in the 75-200 yard range, March has better resolution at a similar contrast.  Between 200 and 400 yards, the optical performance of the three scopes is pretty close. Once you get beyond 400 yards, the Shorty falls a bit behind the other designs here.  At closer distances, the Shorty also suffers if you stay at 8x, but dialing down magnification really helps and at closer distance with scopes like these, I always dial down anyway.  Basically, if I never shoot beyond 350-400 yards, Shorty is the better optical design. However, if I never extend the distance, I might as well save some money and get a 1-6x. All three of these scopes have fixed parallax at 100 yards or so.  Because it is so short, the March Shorty has really shallow depth of field, so it loses some resolution at longer distances as you get further away from its optimal focus. For the same reason, it seemed to pick up parallax error faster than the other two.  Significantly faster. At longer distances, both Burris and GPO were a lot friendlier. Interestingly, while XTR II and GPOTAC are both made by LOW and are likely related designs, GPOTAC had better DOF (depth of field) and less prominent parallax error at longer distances.  Still, XTR II acquitted itself rather well.

Flare was not very prominent with any of theses, although March had a bit more of it than the other two.  It comes with a sunshade that really helped, but it does make the scope longer (picture a bit further down).

With scopes that go down to 1X, the ease of getting behind the scope and a wide flat FOV (Field Of View) are really important and all three of these are quite good.  March has just a touch more distortion than Burris (and GPO is slightly better still) toward the edges as you move your eye laterally behind the eyepiece, but it is very reasonable.  I spent a fair amount of my time with these scopes shooting off hand and shooting quickly. I can see the differences between when I carefully look for them, but in practical terms there wasn’t enough to worry about or make a difference.  Whatever difference was there likely was driven by reticle variations more than anything else.

GPOTAC 1-8×24

Overall, I am pretty impressed with this scope, except, as previously mentioned, with reticle visibility at 1x.  I would have liked to see some tapered lines and thicker horseshoe or something similar that would make the reticle stand out more at 1x.  Also, since the scope I looked at is a prototype of some sort with illumination that is not as bright as on production models, I should probably revisit it with a full production illumination module some time.

It is really a very good general purpose 1-8x design and its only real weakness is performance on 1x in bright light which is reticle related.  Most scopes of this type have discreet illumination steps. GPOTAC illumination module is continuously variable, which I like a fair bit. In low light, it can be set extremely low, so it does not disturb night adapted eyes.  

Another thing I liked was that it was really easy to get behind (same as the XTR II).  Eye relief was quite flexible and parallax stayed in check very nicely out to 600 yards which was the extent of how far I took it.

I do not fully understand the need for exposed turrets on a scope of this type, but since they lock in place, I do not have a problem with it.

All in all, GPO 1-8×24 is a pretty good fit for a lot of applications, but for going fast with an AR, there are better reticles out there.  Outside of that, I really like this one, although for an AR-15, I do not think I’d be willing to dish out extra $500 for this scope over the optomechanically similar Burris XTR II.

In terms of direct competition price wise, GPOTAC goes head to head against the very popular Nightforce NX8.  That is some tough competition. While I am not a Nightforce groupie (there are some Nightforce groupies on every internet forum confidently stating that the reticles of the NX8 is woven from unicorn hair and illuminated by little elves living inside the tube among other nonsense) by any means, NX8 looks impressive on paper being nearly as compact as the March and equipped with extremely bright reticle illumination.  The little time I spent with the NX8 suggests that it is a better scope than the GPOTAC on 1x, while GPOTAC seems to be better at 8x. Reticles are in the eye of the beholder. One thing I dislike immensely about the NX8 is the exposed elevation turret. Interestingly, for some inconceivable reason they offer a version with covered turrets, but for LE/Mil only. Still, it costs the same as GPOTAC and is enjoying immense popularity.

March Shorty 1-8×24

As I mentioned earlier, from a technical standpoint, I really like what March has accomplished here and, if you are staying inside of 400 yards, this is an excellent option.  The things I take issue with are primarily related to the decisions made by product planners, not by engineering. As a general disclaimer, I took all of my concerns to March before publishing them and while they got a little defensive, they were fairly mature about it.  That’s a good thing. I’ve seen people really get their panties in wad after much milder criticism.

Most of my criticism has already been mentioned, so I am not going to rehash it too much: depth of field is shallow and the turrets should be locked or covered.  Reticles are in the eye of the beholder.

Interestingly, I really liked this scope as a 1-6x.  As a general purpose design, March’s larger 1-8×24 with side focus is a far superior option since adjustable parallax takes care of the bulk of my concerns.  

Also, with March scopes, reticle illumination control is a large rubberized button inside the parallax turret. With the Shorty, they use essentially the same turret housing, except it does not rotate since parallax is not adjustable.  However, on a tactical scope, a large rubberized pushbutton is not an optimal solution since it is really easy to press accidentally. In addition, March has two illumination modules: Hi and Low. Each has four brightness settings.  I have used both and the low module works well in low light, but is not nearly bright enough for anything else. The Hi module is too bright for low light, while still not being bright enough for daylight. It is just right for the dusk.  All twenty minutes for it. The saving grace here is that March has a third illumination module that they never talk about for some reason. It is a six position module where the rubberized button is just ON/OFF and there is a rotary lever that lets you choose between six settings.  This module has a lot more dynamic range and March should really be shipping the Shorty with it. You can probably request it in this configuration if you are so inclined.

When I summarized my take on the Shorty for the guys at March, it became apparent that while we agree it is a niche product, we disagree on what that niche is.  I am perhaps criticizing the Shorty a bit too unfairly, but I think I have to make clear that with all my reticle and DOF complaints, if I could get it with covered or locking turrets, I would have bought the Shorty on the spot with either of the two available reticle (FMC-1 which I slightly prefer is on the left) and with the six position illumination module as pictured below.

FMC-1 Reticle

FMC-2 Reticle

March 6 position illumination module

Overall, the scope’s strengths really outweigh its limitations and the only thing that is a real deal breaker for me is the exposed non-locking turret.  I know how to deal with the rest of it and I can think of many applications for this design.

That having been said, while I do not think they will listen to me, I would really love to see what March engineers could do if they were tasked with making and ultra compact and light weight 1-6x or 1-5x design.  For an ultra light AR carbine with a good barrel, I would comfortably sacrifice a little bit of top end magnification for better DOF, light weight and compactness.

I also like the mounting solution: a single wide ring which makes positioning the scope on the rail very easy.  The scope March sent me had the sunshade, covers and cat tail included. I am not sure how it is configured for retail, but if I were to choose the right configuration, I would leave the sunshade in the box and keep the scope short.  The more time I spent shooting with the scope the more I appreciated its strengths and ignored the weakness, although I did stay inside of 400 yards for the most part.

Burris XTR II

I have already written about this scope in a different article, so I am not going to say too much here.  In the field of 1-8x FFP scopes, this is sort of a “goldilocks” product. It is well priced, very robust, optically good, and comes with a very serviceable reticle.  It is my go to scope for an accurate AR-15 carbine that I want to use across the course for everything that the 5.56 cartridge is capable of this side from varmint shooting.  It is $500 less expensive than GPOTAC and $800 less expensive than the Shorty, while giving up very little in performance. At some point, I will get it side by side with the Nightforce NX8 to see if the compact size and nuclear bright illumination of the NX8 are sufficient to make me pay the extra money it requires.  Maybe there will be something else announced at SHOT that peaks my interest. Until then, the XTR II sits on my AR.  The most direct competition for the XTR II comes from Primary Arms Platinum which is likely the same basic scope with a more mall ninja friendly reticle.  However, PA does have a mrad based version out and a better Griffin Mil reticle is coming out too.  I look forward to testing it side by side with the Burris.

This is the type of scope I have a lot of interest in.

Thanks largely to Light Optics Works (LOW) being a pretty decent Japanese OEM, the quality of a long range scope you can get under $2k has really exploded in recent times.  It seemed like nearly every brand was getting something made by LOW.  Naturally, other OEMs started getting into the game and offering increasingly good product at competitive prices.  Now, I can get a full featured scope that is reasonably decent anywhere from $600 to $1700.  There are obvious differences within that price range and that is one of the things I am looking to explore.

In the past, SWFA had this segment largely to itself, thanks to the success of their 3-9×42 SS HD, 3-15×42 SS Classic and 5-20×50 SS HD.  Frankly, I still use these and the 3-9×42 is one of my all time favourite scopes due to its simplicity and ruggedness.  If you are looking for track record, it is hard to do better than these.  That having been said, the new players are more full featured designs with more modern reticles.  I fully expect SWFA to not take it lying down, but in the meantime, I figured I should make an overview of what is out there.  In the video below I talk a little bit about three of the contenders: Athlon Ares ETR 4.5-30×56, Vortex Viper PST Gen 2 5-25×50 and Delta Stryker HD 4.5-30×56.

I also have a lot of mileage with much less expensive, but very decent Athlon Ares BTR 4.5-27×50, so as I go through this review, I will talk about it as applicable.  A bit further down (below the video and some advertising) is the spec table where I show several additional scopes that I will add to the conversation a little later in follow-up videos.  Sig Tango6 4-24×50 and Vortex Razor AMG 6-24×50 are both designs I happen to like, albeit for different reasons.  I will talk more about them as I go down this path.

By Bill (Glassaholic)

Background:

I have a confession to make – I have always been frustrated with the gap between 3-15x/4-16x scopes and 6-24x/5-25x scopes; I don’t feel the 3-15/4-16 provides quite enough top end for long range shooting (for me personally) and while the 6-24’s and 5-25’s provide enough top end, many come by sacrificing necessary FOV on the short end for close up shots.  It’s baffled me why few manufacturer’s make 5-20/4-20 range scopes, but that is changing as we’ve seen more and more offerings filling this gap.  The name “Tract” may not be a household name among the sport optics industry as they are new to the scene and have mostly catered to the hunting arena thus far; however, in early 2018 the “new” Toric 4-20×50 FFP scope was introduced and that caught my attention for reasons which should now be obvious – it is an ideal magnification range for my use.  A visit to their website: https://www.tractoptics.com/about will provide most of the information you need to know about their company and product lines.  However, here is a brief summary:  The company was founded in 2015 by Jon LaCorte and Jon Addis both of whom have their roots in the sport optics giant – Nikon.  With their knowledge of the industry and experience working with Nikon they realized there was a market that many manufacturers were missing and decided to start their own company and offer a “direct to consumer” pricing model.  What is “direct to consumer” you may ask?  Basically, it is a manufacturing model that cuts out the “middle man” of the dealer, thus allowing the manufacturer to sell direct to the consumer at a better price point than they could if they had to use a dealer network and pay for dealer margins.  Obviously, dealers don’t like this, but the consumer does.  One other recent startup company who is also using this pricing model is Revic with their PMR428.  The Toric is made in Japan by the same manufacturer who is known to put out other high quality optics, but one of the unique features of the Toric is that they are using German Schott HT (High Transmission) glass.  Given the specs, one might think this scope would easily push the $2000 price point or higher; however, due to the direct to consumer pricing the scope currently sells for a little over $1100 direct from Tract.  The new Tract Toric 4-20×50 FFP scope seems to be a match made in heaven with Japanese manufacture and Schott HT glass, read on to see if this scope lives up to what the specs promise.

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});

Review Disclaimer

Please understand this is a “subjective” review as anything that involves the human eye as an instrument for measurement should be classified as “subjective”.  Asking someone “what is your favorite scope” or “who has the best glass” is almost akin to asking “what is the best color”, we can all give our opinions but at the end of the day, it is still our opinion and often times those opinions are further jaded by bias and we all have our bias’s whether we admit it or not.  I have been reviewing high end scopes since 2013 and am no stranger to what would be considered tier one, alpha and elite scopes, so it is with this knowledge and experience that I make an effort to give a fair and honest review.  Understand I am not a brand loyalist (someone who is committed to only using and promoting one brand), I look for the tools that will better serve me in my sport and if one brand makes a better tool then I don’t have a problem investigating the viability of that tool for my own personal use.  I am not paid by any manufacturer to do these reviews, I do them out of my own pursuit for an optic that will fit my needs and enjoy sharing my findings as a benefit to the sport optics community.  One final thought, we typically do not review multiple copies of the same scope and there can be sample variance from the same manufacturer so keep in mind this review focuses on one copy of this scope.

Tract Riflescopes

The Specs

One of the first things we look at (or ought to look at) when a scope is announced or captures our interest is the specifications.  This can give us information about the scope and its intended use, things like the magnification range, the front objective, FOV, size, weight, reticle and turret information can help inform us whether this particular scope would be a good candidate for our own personal use.  Often times I am asked on the forums, “what is the best scope for me” and I often respond with “what is your intended purpose: how far do you intend to shoot, what kind of rifle is it going on, will you only be shooting during the day or will you have low light situations, do you have a SFP or FFP preference, will you be shooting, paper, steel or game or a combination of all the above, do you care about how heavy the scope is?”  These types of questions or rather the answers to these questions help us understand better the environment the scope will be used for, which helps narrow down the choices from the vast array of options.  While this review focuses on the Tract Toric I did have some other scopes available to provide a basis for comparison, here is a list of specs for comparison:

Here’s a few of the scopes I had on hand one of the days I was testing:

The scopes from left to right:  Bushnell LRHS 4.5-18×44, Vortex PST II 3-15×44, Schmidt & Bender Ultra Short 3-20×50, Tract Toric 4-20×50, Leupold Mark 5 3.6-18×44

Reticle:

Over the past few years the conversations on the forums have shifted somewhat whenever the question is asked “what scope should I get?”.  Of late, you can often find someone (myself included) recommending the poster consider the reticle first and then choose the scope.  This is a testament to both how reticles have changed as well as their importance in long range shooting and how good the scopes have improved regarding reliability and optical performance.  The new “craze” of late seems to be the .2 mil hash Christmas tree style reticles like the Kahles SKMR3, Minox MR4, Sig Sauer DEV-L, Vortex EBR-7B to name a few.  Unfortunately, Tract doesn’t have any design like this (though I am trying to convince them to consider it) and only offers a 0.5 mil hash reticle; however, if a plain mil hash reticle floats your boat then the Toric has you covered.  I should note that Tract also offers an MOA reticle for those who prefer MOA over MRAD.

Image disclaimer, the below through the scope images are to give an idea for how the reticle looks only, please do not use through the scope images as an indication of IQ, the image is always sharper to the naked eye than it is for a camera due to lens, focus, position, vibration, etc.

Ignore the blurry reticle image below, that was my fault, the IQ was crystal clear at 4x and the reticle easily usable.

Illumination:

Illumination is almost standard on every modern FFP scope made with few exceptions (ahem Leupold!), but getting illumination “right” so it does not bleed in low light, but can also be dialed bright enough to be used during bright sunlight can be difficult to accomplish.  During my testing I found the Tract Toric’s daylight illumination to be one of the best I’ve seen to date even among tier one optics, being very usable even in bright sunlit situations, keep in mind we’re not talking red dot bright here, but bright enough to see the red stadia lines.  Low light illumination was nicely balanced with no discernible bleed.  The Toric has an on/off setting between each illumination click.

Illumination was brighter to the naked eye than the image shows below.

Turrets:

Another very subjective opinion is turret feel and it seems that no two manufacturers have the same feel of turrets, nor does it seem that many can agree on “what is the best feel”, so if you prefer a heavy thunk, a light tick or a high pitched ting when you move between mils, this is going to have to be something that you experience yourself.  Personally, I do not get too caught up in turret “feel” or sound, what matters more (to me) is whether I can accurately and quickly spin my turrets to the position I need for the shot, and I’ve found I can do that with relative ease with most manufacturers turrets these days.  That being said, I can say the Tract Toric has decent turrets, they are a bit on the “large” side but the benefit of that is cold weather handling with gloves will be very easy to manipulate the turret.  The Toric utilizes a standard 10 mil per rev turret and offers 20 mil of total travel which with today’s modern cartridges like 6.5 Creedmoor will be more than enough to get you well beyond 1000 yards should the need arise.  One of my favorite features of the Toric’s turrets is the locking mechanism, when in their “natural” closed state, there is no chance the turrets will be bumped to a different setting, you have to lift both the elevation and the windage turret in order to adjust and the tension to do this is light enough to easily make the change with bare hands or with gloves but providing enough resistance they won’t accidentally unlock.  Tract also provides a unique zero stop mechanism that can be inserted into the turret housing.  I will say this, some manufacturers offer a “toolless” design that allows you to reset zero but the Toric requires the use of a 2.5mm Allen wrench to unscrew the cap, as a future enhancement I’d love to see Tract offer a toolless alternative so the turrets are a bit more field friendly, because if you forget that Allen wrench and find yourself wanting to make adjustments in the field, you’re out of luck.  When the turret is unlocked there is a slight wiggle before the turret will click to the next .1 mil mark, but not enough to throw off dialing your solution.  “Turret purists”, as I call them, may have an issue with the sound and feel of the Toric, but for the price I would say only the Vortex PST II has a better “feel”.

Tracking:

I took the scope out to my local 1000y range the other day and I felt the scope tracked better than I can shoot, when I did my part I rang steel from 375 out to 1000 yards, the most impressive shot of the day came on a cold bore after eating lunch – got into position (prone), aimed at the 1000 yard 10” plate, check wind, check level, breath, squeeze and a couple seconds later the report of lead on steel.  Outside of some anomalies the majority of $1k+ scopes manufactured today have very good tracking, if your scope exhibits any anomalies (e.g. does not track) I recommend that you send it back to the manufacturer and request they fix it, any $1k+ scope manufactured today should track true, if it does not then it is a manufacturer’s defect and should be repaired.  I highly recommend you perform your own box test (https://www.snipershide.com/snipers-hide-scope-calibration/) to verify tracking after properly mounting your scope.

Ergonomics and design: 

Smooth parallax that goes down to 25y, ample mag ring resistance, locking elevation and windage all make for one fine package in this short body scope – I say this because the Toric is only 13.7” long, that’s just 1/10” of an inch longer than the Schmidt & Bender Ultra Short 3-20.  The only downside to the Toric’s design is its weight, at 34oz this is one of the heaviest 30mm scopes out, a full 3oz heavier than the Burris XTR II 4-20×50 which boasts a 34mm tube and 7 more mils of travel, but it still falls under my threshold for tactical/hunting scopes which for me is at 35oz.  The Toric does come with pretty much useless front and rear caps, they are small plastic covers that fall off easily, if Tract added a couple bungie cords to make them bikini caps that would have been much better, the saving grace here is that Tract offers some very nice Tenebraex caps at a reasonable price as an option.  One last thing to mention is the Toric only comes in one color and it’s not traditional rifle scope black, it’s actually a gray color, but dark enough that it doesn’t look odd sitting atop most rifles.

Eyebox:

There are some terms that are thrown around in the community that may have different meaning to different people, one of the most misunderstood in this regard is eyebox, which is most often confused with the spec for eye relief and while having long eye relief can be a good thing it does not define how good of an eyebox a particular scope has; I have seen scopes with long eye relief that have a really poor eyebox and scopes with shorter eye relief that have a forgiving eyebox.  So, let me give my definition for eyebox which will help you understand what I’m looking for – put simply, eyebox is the ability to be able to quickly obtain a clear sight picture when getting behind a scope.  Something else that can affect eyebox performance is where you mount the scope and your cheekweld, if you mount too far forward or too far back you will experience a “tunneled” sight picture and if your scope is high or low and your cheeckpiece is not in the right position then once again you’re going to have a distorted sight picture making for a difficult eyebox.  So rule number one is getting the proper mount of your scope on your rifle, my recommended method for getting the proper position is to put your scope at its maximum magnification setting (this is where most scopes have their worst eyebox performance) and then place the scope in the rings without fully tightening, now, close your eyes and bring the rifle up to your natural hold, open your eyes, do you have a clear sight picture?  If you have to wiggle your head or adjust your position slightly, then you do not have the proper mounting position, move your scope forward or back and repeat the process.  You may also need to adjust your cheekpiece, if you have an adjustable one that’s pretty simple (if you do not then I recommend you get one or look into a good stock pack like the ones from Triad Tactical).  The goal is that every time you bring the scope up to your natural hold, the sight picture is spot on, if you do this then even scopes with a very finicky eyebox’s should perform decently for you.

With that winded explanation in mind, how does the Toric perform in regard to eyebox – for an ultra short design I would say it performs very well, keeping in mind that designing Ultra Short scopes and getting them to perform alongside their regular length peers is not an easy task which is usually reflected in the price of the scope; however, more recent trends have shown some newer designs like the Toric which do not break the bank but still offer very good eyebox performance and my testing showed again and again that the Toric was very easy to get behind.

Optical Quality:

Probably the most subjective test there is of a scope is identifying optical quality; there are so many factors that go into a good optical formula that it’s hard to quantify, which is why there is no spec by any manufacturer that defines the quality of the image/glass, for that you have to rely on either looking through the scope in the poor lighting of a store or if you’re lucky, find a store that will allow you to take multiple scopes outside on a stable mount and look through them side by side in good lighting and then go back right after sunset and look through them again, because I have found that many scopes perform well in good lighting conditions, but when the light gets low, you begin to see a separation of quality.

Things I look for in a scope for optical quality are resolution, color, contrast, control of CA and low light performance.  If a scope performs well in all these areas then I consider it to have excellent IQ (Image Quality), if it suffers in one area but excels at others I am usually okay with that, but if it suffers in two or more than it really needs to be a niche scope for me to want to keep it and/or recommend it.  I determine optical quality by first setting up the scope properly for the diopter and parallax and then conduct a combination of tests both near and far, as well as perform an analysis at 100 yards using a modified Snellen eye chart as well as a High/Low Contrast target.  However, keep in mind that atmospheric conditions can affect the outcome of any tests not performed in controlled environments, I do not have access to these environments, so I do the best I can with the conditions nature provides.  I also try to compare the review scope(s) to another that I am confident in its optical performance as well as a few other scopes of similar design to get an idea of overall performance.  One final note, most of the time I only review one scope and there can be sample variation so if you hear of everyone else raving about the quality of their scopes (same model) and yours just does not perform, it may be wise to send your scope in to the manufacturer to have it tested.

For this review the Tract Toric 4-20×50 FFP was put up against a Bushnell LRHS 4.5-18×44, a Vortex PST II 3-15×44, a Vortex PST II 5-25×50, a Burris XTR II 4-20×50 and a Sig Sauer Tango4 4-16×44.

• Resolution – there are few scopes in the Toric’s price range that one could consider punches above its weight class, one of those scopes is the Bushnell LRHS/LRTS which has a phenomenal track record for having excellent optical quality rivaling closely with scopes that cost twice as much. I can confidently say the resolution of the Toric was superb for its price, easily matching the LRHS on hand and maybe even performing slightly better in certain situations, the fact that Tract was able to get this quality from a short body and 5x erector vs. the LRHS’s long body and 4x erector is pretty amazing.  Looking at detail like blades of grass, grain in wood, rocks and dirt revealed the Toric was truly a best in class in IQ, this was also apparent in the Snellen eye chart test.
  Tract Toric = Bushnell LRHS > Burris XTR II => Vortex PST II 3-15 > Vortex PST II 5-25 > Sig Tango4
• Contrast – Contrast and resolution kind of go hand in hand; however, contrast can be another term that might be misunderstood so let me define – the ability of the scope to differentiate between smaller and smaller details of more and more nearly similar tonal value (this was pulled, in part, from an excellent article on Luminous-Landscape https://luminous-landscape.com/understanding-lens-contrast/). Using the contrast chart and determining detail in distant objects you begin to get a feel for “how much” detail a scope provides.  The Toric once again proved to be a peer of the stellar Bushnell LRHS with overall contrast, the Bushnell may have had a slight edge in high contrast while both were equally superb in low contrast testing with the Toric maybe having a slight advantage.
  Tract Toric = Bushnell LRHS > Vortex PST II 5-25 > Burris XTR II => Vortex PST II 3-15 > Sig Tango4
• Color – in recent years I have found more and more scopes getting better at color, whether improvements in multi-coating or better manufacturing techniques of the glass itself I’m not certain but it is nice to see this improvement.
  Tract Toric = Bushnell LRHS => Vortex PST II 3-15 => Vortex PST II 5-25 => Burris XTR II = Sig Tango4
• CA – another hotly debated topic is chromatic aberration which is typically seen at the edges between high and low contrast objects in what is termed as fringing and usually comes in a band of color along the green/yellow and magenta/purple spectrum, some are greatly annoyed by this optical anomaly while others insist they cannot see it, one thing to know is it has nothing to do with your ability to hit a target; however, Ilya has mentioned “It is not terribly critical for aiming, but it is important for observation and image fidelity during twilight before your eye transitions into scotopic vision.” This is one area where the Toric struggled a bit against some of its newer peers, Vortex has done the best job with their new PST II line IMO.  CA can rear its ugly head even with some tier one optics, but seeing heavy CA in a $3k scope vs a $1k scope is very different and for its price point I found the Toric’s CA to be acceptable.
  Vortex PST II 3-15 => Vortex PST II 5-25 > Bushnell LRHS > Tract Toric = Burris XTR II > Sig Tango4
• Low Light – My testing takes into account all the above but in low light settings, usually after the sun sets and into where it almost gets too dark to see. In these conditions I like to set my scopes at 12x to take advantage of the exit pupil with fading light while still providing enough magnification to stress the limits of the scope (and my eyes).  The amazing thing here is that all scopes performed admirably well in low light, contrast this from scopes I reviewed 5 years ago and the “budget” scopes then just couldn’t cut it while today’s scopes seem to be built for low light performance.  I had to look long and hard at minute details in fading light to truly discern which scopes performed better, when not side by side it would be very difficult indeed to determine which, if any, performed better.  The larger objective scopes still have a slight advantage over the smaller objective designs, but the difference is getting quite small with newer designs.  The Toric performed extremely well in low light testing.
  Tract Toric > Vortex PST II 5-25 => Burris XTR II > Bushnell LRHS => Vortex PST II 3-15 => Sig Tango4

Conclusion:

The fit and finish of this scope is truly impressive for it’s price point, I am really liking the overall design and don’t mind the matte gray finish as much as I thought I would, the addition of the sunshade and optional Tenebraex caps are nice touches to complete the package.  The short design of the Tract Toric 4-20×50 FFP makes this an ideal scope for many rigs from bolt action rifles to AR platforms as well as covert style rigs.  Are there better scopes, yes, but none of those scopes offer the same performance and size at the Toric’s price.  Sure, it has a couple issues with CA and weight but with it being as short as it is and having the excellent IQ it has, this will more than make up for its shortcomings for many shooters.  I would like to see Tract come out with a .2 mil Christmas tree style reticle as well as a possible future enhancement offering lower profile turrets with a toolless zero design.  For optical purists looking for the best glass at an “affordable” price this scope deserves your attention; to get a “better” scope you’re going to have to fork over 2x and in if you want a quality ultra short it’ll cost you 3x as much.  The Tract Toric is one of the best scopes available at its price and higher.  I highly recommended this optic for those looking for a great scope in the $800 – $2000 class.

At home on an AR platform, this is my 14.5″ bbl with pinned brake for reference.

The Leupold Mark 5HD, Kahles K318i and Schmidt & Bender Ultra Short 3-20×50:

While not part of my initial review, I did have a Leupold Mark 5HD 3.6-18×44, a Kahles K318i 3.5-18×50 and a Schmidt & Bender Ultra Short 3-20×50 on hand.  At over $3k the comparison to the $1k Toric seems a bit unfair with the Kahles and Schmidt, but both offer a similar magnification range and short design with the Kahles coming in a full 1.4” shorter and the Schmidt Ultra Short coming in at only 1/10” shorter.  Resolution and contrast are close between these scopes which is a testament to the quality the Japanese manufacturer’s continue to put out, that being said the Kahles is an even shorter design and the Schmidt has a greater magnification range while both handle CA better, the Kahles and Schmidt also have “better” turrets in regard to overall click feel while the Kahles boasts one of the best Christmas tree reticles in the business with the SKMR3, but all this comes at a cost, at 3x as much as the Toric you have to ask yourself “is it really worth it?” and for those who simply can’t afford tier 1 optics, the Toric is a fantastic compromise.  You might be wondering why the Leupold Mark 5 isn’t mentioned above and that is because I do not consider it to be a tier 1 optic, impressive for such a short package at just over 12″ but optically it struggles, the Mark 5 had worse CA in my testing and at half the price the Toric easily bested the Mark 5 optically, that being said the Mark 5 has my favorite turrets to date.

From left to right, Schmidt & Bender Ultra Short 3-20×50, Tract Toric 4-20×50, Kahles K318i 3.5-18×50 and Leupold Mark 5HD 3.6-18×44:

About the author:

Bill has been around firearms since he was a young boy and enjoys shooting for fun as well as hiking around the Rocky Mountains in search of big game.  Bill was a professional wedding and portrait photographer for over 17 years which gave him his obsession for good “glass” and translates into his pursuit for the perfect scope (which he’ll readily tell you does not exist).  Bill served in the US Army in the late 80’s and in 2012 he caught the long range bug and began having custom precision rifles built, as well as building some AR platform rifles himself.  Bill’s passion for shooting has driven him to find gear which will best serve his shooting style and he enjoys sharing the knowledge he picks up along the way with other sportsman.

I was busy trying to wrap up my article on 8x erector ratio low power scopes, when I got an e-mail from Geoff from Burris saying something along the lines of “we’ve got this whole Burris blog thing going, do you have any interest in writing a guest post on what to look for in a low powered optic?  In return we will say thank you and link back to your website”.  I asked what I can say and what I can’t if I agree to put something together and he came back with what effectively amounts to “you can say whatever you want, but I would really appreciate not getting fired over this”.

In general, I have to commend Burris folks like Geoff and Sky for still talking to me after all the crap I’ve given them over the years.  They are good people and I have a lot of appreciation for their ability to take criticism and use it to make better products (or it might simply be masochism; they are not fessing up to the details).

That having been said, I think Burris gets a few things wrong and a lot of things right with LPVOs (low power variable optics) being a category really get right.  That mostly goes for Steiner too, so I threw a couple of references in there for Steiner P4Xi, assuming that is not enough to get Geoff fired.

Here is a link to the Burris blog post in question.

I like ARs and I like sorta “general purpose” scopes.  In the past, a general purpose scope was something along the lines of a 3-9×42, since everyone always assumed that a “general purpose” scope meant a medium magnification variable on a hunting rifle.  I bet that ARs of all sorts are outselling traditional botl action hunting rifles by a good ratio right now, which is forcing a re-definition of what a general purpose scope really is.  As the available erector ratios go up, scopes like the the 1-8×24 and similar are becoming the new norm for general purpose use.  Still, they have their limitations and I am extremely curious how it is going to develop further.

August 20, 2018

Sig being sorta new (still) to the optics world, I take my sweet time before I publish publish reviews of their products.  I spend a significant amount of time using the optics I review and the newer the brand the longer I take.  I am sure the guys at Sig do not like it, but I think a little extra diligence is worth my time.

I’ve been doing sort of a market overview of different 4x prism sights and I think Sig is the last one I needed to cover for it to be fairly complete.  Check out the video below and then the spec table and some additional commentary immediately after.

First of all, I just noticed that I made a mistake on Elcan FOV in the video.  It is 6.5 degrees, not 7.  The spec table below is correct:

Most of the comparison was between Sig and Elcan, but I also had the Leupold HAMR on had for a little bit, so I had them side by side.  Optical quality was similar, but Sig is definitely the larger sight.  I do not talk much about Browe, but it is effectively a re-hash of Trijicon 4×32 with a bit more clever electronic integration and the things I do not like about the 4×32 ACOG carry over to the Browe optic.

I think the only 4x prism sight I have not messed with yet is the newish Bushnell Accelerate which really competes in a different price bracket.  I will try to get my hands on one before I move to 3x or 5x prism scopes that seem to be getting somewhat numerous.

One of the reasons I like sights like this is the balance. In the picture below, Bravo4 is next to Burris RT-6 which is one of my favourite inexpensive 1-6×24 scopes.  There may not be all that much of a difference in weight, but the weight of a prism scope is further back, so it effects the balance less.

In a nutshell, I liked the Bravo4 a lot.  It does a lot of things well and very few things badly, but the outstanding feature I keep on coming back is that enormous immersive field of view.  If this is the type of scope you like, you owe it to yourself to check it out.

It is not replacing Elcan on my rifle yet, largely because I really like to shoot pretty far out with it and Elcan is a better precison scope between the two.  I also like the dual mode illumination system of the Elcan, where with a bright center dot I can use it the Byndon aiming concept and with dim full reticle illuminatoin I can easily use the whole reticle at night.  That having been said, I already have the Elcan.  I’ve had it for a number of years and I have a lot of trust in it based on experience.  If I were just starting out now and given that Bravo4 is around $400 less, this would have been a very difficult choice.

I will, however, take the Sig over the 4×32 ACOG.  Wide FOV and comparative ease of getting behind it, really give Bravo4 an edge.  In all fairness, it is a newer design, so it better have something on its primary competitor.

An accurate, but lightweight AR is probably the best platform for a scope like the BRavo4, Spectre OS or ACOG.  This AR is set-up with an utlralight Brigand Arms handguard so that the balance point would be right at the back of the magazine well:

I am very curious to see what kind of aftermarket support Bravo4 will get, but I already see a beefier dual lever mount out there and I am sure more accessories will come.  I would really like to see a lower red dot mount.

With all that, my criticism of Bravo4 is really minimal.  I like this sight a lot and it easily earns my recommendation.