Nightforce Optics

Several of my long range friends have gotten Nightforce because they have MOA hash marked reticle and MOA dials as opposed to Leupold Mk4 that has mil dots/hash reticle and moa dials. The conversion from mils to moa clicks is confusing to me so since I did not have the $ for a Nightforce I have a Sightron S3 on my 1000 yd. (only 800 yds. so far) rig. In comparing it to the Nightforce I can just barely see a difference in clarity at 1000 yds (focusing on windows of a house, not shooting). I do believe Nightforce is a slightly better scope but I'm not sure I can tell the difference up to 800 yds. over a Leupold MK4. Nightforce has more options though. I have Leupolds on all my rifles except for the Sightron.

HaHa, I just read through all of them and see I already posted and forgot. Funny
 
Andy the Aussie said:
Sadly when the measurements were done I figured that the Nightforce was just not going to fit on the rifle, a combination between fixed rear sight, short mounting rail and turret placement/eye relief. :(

I did however just SCORE a Leupold 6.5-20 MKIV yesterday at a better than "good" ;) price, it should arrive tomorrow.... :D :D
Click to expand...

You'll love that scope I think, my brother-in-law has one on his Rem. 700 .308, it's a very nice scope with super clear glass.
 
Enjoy the new scope Andy :thumbup:

I have both MK IV's and NF NSX's - and both are great.

The alumina pop up caps Leupold do are well worth buying even though the scope comes with Butler Creeks. More sturdy and reliable.

If you want to stretch the legs of the SSG at a distance - a set of incline mounts or an incline rail would help.

The Leupy has 70 MOA internal movement but you're likely to lose 35MOA if you go for a none inclined mount. As a rule of thumb you can half the available movement on a parallel mount. 35 MOA should still get you out to 1000 yards with the right .308 load but a 20 MOA incline mount will make it easy to do with more ammo.

The "MOA/Mil" issue is not so bad if you just use the reticle to aim off after seeing the splash of the first hit. It is quicker and simpler.

My MKIV is the 4.5-14 x 50 in SFP and it ranges on 14x for Mils - so I think yours will range on 20x ( the top power band ). For hunting use the optimum exit pupil ratio ( which is 7 for the human eye ) will be on 6.5/7 x power with a 50 mil objective ( 7x7=49 - as close as dammit). So if using the lowest power for dawn/dusk shooting - the Mil reticle can be used in MOA easily - the spacing between the dots on this power will be 10 MOA or 10 inches at 100 yards. There are 3.6 MOA to a Mil at 20x so at 10x the distance doubles to 7.2 MOA and at 6.5x you add a further 2.8 MOA to make a total of 10 MOA.

10 MOA is easy to use in assessing corrections to dial in if you see bullet splash and don't want to aim off. Just subtend the space between the dots into "10" and work out what you need to do.

It is both "easy" to use and "hard" to understand at the same time :D
 
The MKIV is great, no worries. If you're mentioning a SIG SSG, great rifle dude! I think the SSG is probably one of the best .308s made, curious as to what you paid for it. A friend of mine cleaned up at a long range competition a few months back with an SSG and Leupold scope - he beat out all kinds of setups.

Nightforce is good glass, but don't get suckered into making tiers out of brands. Vortex makes some glass that can go head to head with anything out there, but you'll pay for it. The thing is, companies like Vortex keep innovating at a much faster pace than Swarovski and Nightforce - just because something costs more it gets a reputation among shooters that have never even seen it in real life.
 
Thanks guys.... it is a Steyr SSG (an original early 80s P1) that now resides in a McMillian stock. Added the newer picatinny rail so I don't have to stick with the Steyr dovetail QD mounts (as much as I actually like them). The rail has no MOA inbuilt as best I can tell. I am still deciding on rings at the moment, both what will work and what is available here.

The MK4 I have has the TMR reticle, hash marks as opposed to dots and 1/2 increments as I understand it. A bit of a learning curve there I see. If you are familiar with the Kahles ZF69 and No 4 reticle I have been using to date you will see the big difference I face... ;)
 
It is not for everyone but I didn't find it too limiting in the range of the 6x Kahles. It does get tough when ranges get loooooonger though ;)
 
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