Nightforce Competition test results.

[pjifl]

I am in the privileged position of having four new NF Comp. riflescopes here at the moment. Although it was secondary, they have all been on a Collimator which has the capacity to detect errors of a few seconds of arc (which is 1/30 of a minute). Even smaller with an auxiliary scope for extra magnification.

In the light of a recent thread on 'Accurate Shooter' and some comments that were bandied about on testing riflescopes, I would like to comment on my measured accuracy of this batch of riflescopes.

By increasing magnification with an Auxiliary scope, it is usually possible to see tiny errors which are well under what will win F class shoots. This applies to every brand of riflescope in existence whether cheap, expensive, common, or exotic. Perfection does not exist except in the mind !

ALL of this batch of 4 show no measurable error down to 1/30 minute. Without going into detail, by far the most common error I usually see in riflescopes is a slight POI change when zooming. This can be a continuous drift caused by imperfect centering of the graticule or a non straight internal finish in the Zoom tube, or else a small 'kick' from side to side on zoom reversal which is more common. With cheaper scopes this may be 1 to 2 minutes.

repeat - in this batch of 4 NF Comp scopes I saw NO DETECTABLE ERRORS OF ANY KIND DOWN TO 1/30 MINUTE.
NO ZOOM ERROR, NO TURRET BACKLASH, NO FOCUS POI ERROR and an EXCELLENT RESOLUTION TEST.

NF should be congratulated. Just one gripe of my own. I do think NF should look at their range of Graticules suitable for F class shooting. Unfortunately, they have been too much influenced by comments from ignorant shooters in my opinion.

Frankly, I am impressed. I had seen occasionally a few tiny errors in previous ones I have measured on my Collimator. For example, the one I used to win the FO shoot at the recent NQRA shoot in Townsville showed about 1/20 minute zoom reversal error.

These four were not tested under recoil. I did build a special Collimator setup with the facility to do some recoil testing but gave it away to DaveMc who had more need of it and will eventually build another improved one when I have time.

I do not think there is any perfect way to test riflescope performance, but I would beware of much of the grumbling about and excuses made on the web by shooters blaming everything on riflescopes.

Peter Smith.

[Tim N]

Peter,
Thanks for the testing and results, I have a couple of the same current batch and now feel confident with them.
The only minor point I have is the 40x written in the scope(petty I know) which I guess is something to do with the size of the dot.
Odd that 40x isn't marked on the zoom dial.
Otherwise very happy with my new scopes

[pjifl]

There is a dimple on the zoom ring in place of the 40X, It may not be exactly on the 40X point because the Graticule is calibrated to this setting such that they represent true Minutes or mRads or whatever at that zoom setting.

They obviously do this afterwards on a precision collimator so the Graticule Markings are correct but depending on each scope the mark may be in a slightly different spot.
It is really a mark of attention to detail by the makers to allow for small manufacturing variations in every individual scope.

I never bothered to check the scale mark calibration of these four scopes because I was replacing the Graticules anyway. Then I made a new mark corresponding to the correct new Graticule scale mark Calibration which was very close to theirs.

Peter Smith.

[Pommy Chris]

I had an issue with the early one, but my later ones were fine, I won Lower light with a Nightforce comp IMO probably the best FTR scope available now. I have two Vortex Golden Eagle which are very good indeed, but they dont have that last tiny sharp at max power that the Comp has. Mine is almost there really almost head to head with the Nightforce, but the one Betta has is not as good, still ok, but not like a Comp. The Vortex is better is some ways like eye relief and knobs, but the comp still has it on optics quality control wise. If Vortex got QC right and all scopes the same then it would be in very interesting indeed..
Chris

[DaveMc]

Hi, I would just like to follow up with my own comments on testing. I have rigorously tested 8 comp scopes over the last couple of years (different scopes to the ones Peter has been dealing with so 12 in total now) Including recoil simulation and side impacts. My observations were the same as Peters. Almost zero detectable errors (although my setup can really only see down to 1/16 of a minute or so.). The dot is put on here in Australia on the zoom ring when on the collimator in SA so I have found all scales to also be extremely accurate.

This does not mean there is no faults in all NF scopes but these are very encouraging results and the optics are superb.