Post up thoughts and comparisons, please…Real world or first hand knowledge ideally…
Both can be had for same price. Both FFP. Similar magnification. 34mm tubes. Both excellent reticle designs.
Gonna be perched atop an FNH SPR .308.
Was sold on the Steiner but the MK6 is awfully tempting.
Thanks to all…
There are active discussions of both at sniper’s hide. I’ll repeat from what I’ve read there. The Steiner has a lot of promise but it appears that quality control isn’t perfect, and many people have scopes that don’t track quite right - usually off by .2-.3 mil around 10 mils up. That’s not awful, but not great and people are unhappy. The Mark 6, despite being around longer, appears to be even worse but more erratic - some examples are apparently off by large amounts in their elevation tracking. People are also reporting canted and off-center reticles in both of those scopes. Steiner will at least try to fix it - Leupold has a ridiculous factory spec tolerance for reticle cant (3 degrees if I remember correctly). Search and read up before you buy either one.
I would not buy any high price Leupold, based on both what I’ve read any my personal experience with several scopes (a defective out of the box VX-R, a Mark 4 that had a dusty reticle, got it cleaned and came back damaged from the warranty department, etc.). I think Steiner will eventually be fine but now may not be the best time to try them, at least on the T5 series.
The Burris XTRII, despite being in a somewhat lower price bracket, is getting uniformly good reviews and seems to have perfect tracking and quality control in the samples that SH members are seeing. This is particularly ironic since Steiner and Burris are now related (common ownership, under Beretta) and the XTRII is made in the Philippines while the T5xi is made in the US.
There are also some really good clearance deals right now, particularly on Steiner military 4x range scopes and various Kahles scopes. Check Eurooptic for those deals.
My. MAN. Thanks for heads up.
Read this blog post and poke around the rest of the blog. Really good write ups on the selected scopes (only the Mk6 so no head-to-head for your question).
http://precisionrifleblog.com/2014/09/19/tactical-scopes-field-test-results-summary/
No experience with Steiner other than binos-which are awesome.
Mk6 line of scopes is great. They are very durable and perform great in the field. The 3-18x is one of the most compact scopes in that class.
Give Mike Cecil of CSTactical a call 916-670-1103. Knowledgeable and helpful. He carries both of the scopes you list. You may want to consider the NF F1 4-16.
I personally went through 3 of the 3-18 Mark 6s with the illuminated TMR, trying to get one with a centered reticle.
I had pics in one of the threads on snipershide, but due to the sellout…er I mean update to the new format, they were lost.
Thanks for the info. I am also in the market for a 3-15 and was wondering why no one is talking about leupold anymore. Heard from a local sniper that they bought two leupolds recently and they wouldn’t track either. Nightforce for me.
Nightforce has been a quality choice for a long time. You rarely (if ever) hear about any tracking or durability issues with them. But you certainly pay enough for the features you get. I’m also not impressed with the Digillum, at least in the sample size of one 2.5-10x42 that I recently had in my hands.
OP, if weight is not an issue the Vortex Razor gen2 3-18x50mm would be an excellent scope for your FN SPR. Or the 4.5-27x56mm. Those scopes are getting flawless reviews on sniper’s hide from basically anyone who’s tried one, and they are in the same ballpark or only a little higher price-wise. They are fairly heavy scopes (46 and 48oz IIRC) but the reviews are glowing on all other aspects.
Austrian maker Kahles is becoming more popular here and their high end scopes don’t tend to be quite as heavy as comparable options. Might be worth a look. Some deals to be had on closeouts of prior generations.
The digilum took me a while to get use to. Now, its almost second nature. I think the trick is to leave it set so it turns on at the lowest red intensity.
The 2.5-10x42 is an amazing scope. Its an expensive scope, but it just works. Everything. Tracking, clicks, parallax etc. There’s something to be said for that.
However, for a .308, I’d want something with more magnification. I’d look at the NF 4-16 or 5-25 F1.
My MK6 1-6 tracks properly and the reticle is centered perfectly.
From a long term perspective, I choose Leupold - lifetime warranty and I do not see them going belly up anytime soon.
I have time on both, both of my samples have been fine and I am running the Mark 6 3-18 illuminated TMR on my 308
I should add that the Bushnell LHRS 3-12 is a great scope for a 308
hell of a deal