600 yard steel shooting with 5.56 - 9/2/2017 - Sub MOA @ 1000 (lol but for real)

[Noodles]

I was breaking in the barrel.

:\ Alright.

I must say, it's remarkable that your first 5 rounds out of a gun you've never shot before are less than a 3/8th inch group. If I was seeing that I wouldn't touch the gun or barrel until the groups went to crap. Pretty amazing though, and that's including your cold bore, cold shooter, and an unfouled shots? That's something. And all of this including that 10% of your hand loads wouldn't chamber, meaning that you probably don't have great consistency on your OAL or shoulder, your gun must just not care about bullets to lands at all. Well, I'd just leave everything as alone since I've seen much more expensive guns and expert shooters not do as well!


On the gun and groups... Looks good. I think it would be FAR more helpful to you in the long run to shoot 3-5x 10 shot groups at 100 then 200, then 400 yards then beyond. You're going to learn much more about the gun and yourself by never evaluating anything on 3 or 5 shot "groups". Esp since you are experimenting with a new gun and new handloads, you know?

[Eurodriver]

I'm sorry for the confusion. I had already fired ~50 rounds of BH 5.56mm 77gr when I Shot that group. That was my first 5 round group out of the rifle with Onyx's handload recipe. I broke the barrel in using Krieger's recommended method for the first ~25ish rounds.

[Find ManBearPig!]

For its price range I can't see anything that remotely comes close to beating it. Crystal clear glass, easy to use zero stop, tracks great, tactile knobs (bear in mind the windage knob is capped so for quick wind adjustments you use the reticle or leave the cap off)

I know the hide has a big hard on for the Burris XTR II but when you call them out on the problems they have (illum breaking, for example) they say "Oh, well I don't use illum anyway". Plus a 34mm tube is just enormous on an AR...and it's a...Burris...

I may be in the minority, but if I'm going to spend $800 on a FFP 4-16 Vortex, I can swing the extra $450 for a 4-14 Night Force F1 without thinking about it. I cannot, however, swing the extra $1,600 for an ATACR or other top end NF. This scope fits the bill perfectly and I like it much more than the equivalently priced Vortex (even razor), Burris, SWFA, and Leupold offerings.

I hope they offer this in 5-20 by next year. It will be replacing my PST on my bolt gun if so.

So it sounds like it's a good buy then? I mean, I'm not really surprised, it is a Nightforce, it's just that good precision optics are typically so expensive, I always have to wonder where cost where cut when I see a model going for under 2K.

Also, the scope has ZeroSet, not ZeroStop or ZeroHold like the "higher end" Nightforce models. I was trying to figure out exactly what ZeroSet did, and I couldn't seem to find any clear answers, but from what I can tell, it looks like ZeroSet is a cap based zero stop. Am I correct about this? And, far more importantly, does it work well enough that I shouldn't care that the scope doesn't have the fancier ZeroStop or ZeroHold feature?

Oh, and while I'm in the process of bombarding you with questions, how good is the scope illumination feature?

I like the 14x for mirage reduction and FOV, but for my crazy paper punching desires I should've went with a higher mag. Realistically 14x is more than I'll never need for what this rifle should be doing, but I keep pushing the envelope and at 742 yards that 14x is just not really cutting it for a precise aiming point.

So I take it the problem here is not that the tool isn't good enough for the job, and more so that it just isn't the right tool for the job to begin with?

[Eurodriver]

Realistically speaking, I was shooting at 1000 yards with this optic today and I could spot my misses pretty well. So I'm not so sure 14x is really not enough magnification unless you're really trying to push the envelope (like shooting 2/3 MOA at 600 yards consistently) I was actually surprised how easy it was to shoot 10" gongs at 1000 yards with this optic (and rifle too, for that matter) With that said, the lack of magnification is obviously not the scopes fault. If you buy a USO 1-8x its going to be a great scope but its still maxed out at 8x.

The zero stop is cap based. You remove the cap, place it on zero, and then push the cap down into the scope body and screw it back on. It's super easy to do and it works very well. I dialed up 45 MOA to shoot to 1000 today and came right back down and it stopped 2 clicks below my zero stop. This is repeatable as well so if you are doing it in the dark you will know to always go back up 2 clicks to be at your true zero (for me, your scope may be different). Super easy to use and I have no issues with it whatsoever.

Illumination is great, but only the center of the reticle is illuminated. It ranges from being impossible to see in the dark to too bright for daylight use along the 10 settings.

To reiterate, I'm not sure what this scope is missing from its $2500 cousins. The windage knob is capped and it only has 10 MOA turrets but other than that I can't see what makes it $1300 less than the ATACR F1. It certainly isn't glass quality.

[Find ManBearPig!]

Realistically speaking, I was shooting at 1000 yards with this optic today and I could spot my misses pretty well. So I'm not so sure 14x is really not enough magnification unless you're really trying to push the envelope (like shooting 2/3 MOA at 600 yards consistently) I was actually surprised how easy it was to shoot 10" gongs at 1000 yards with this optic (and rifle too, for that matter) With that said, the lack of magnification is obviously not the scopes fault. If you buy a USO 1-8x its going to be a great scope but its still maxed out at 8x.

The zero stop is cap based. You remove the cap, place it on zero, and then push the cap down into the scope body and screw it back on. It's super easy to do and it works very well. I dialed up 45 MOA to shoot to 1000 today and came right back down and it stopped 2 clicks below my zero stop. This is repeatable as well so if you are doing it in the dark you will know to always go back up 2 clicks to be at your true zero (for me, your scope may be different). Super easy to use and I have no issues with it whatsoever.

Illumination is great, but only the center of the reticle is illuminated. It ranges from being impossible to see in the dark to too bright for daylight use along the 10 settings.

That all sounds good to me. As I said before, whenever you've got something like optics where it usually cost a lot to get good quality, and there is a "budget" option, I'm a bit wary of the product, but it sounds like Nightforce sorted things out well with this scope, and managed to hit the elusive "ideal" price-performance compromise. The Sniper's Hide review on the scope basically said the same thing as well.

To reiterate, I'm not sure what this scope is missing from its $2500 cousins. The windage knob is capped and it only has 10 MOA turrets but other than that I can't see what makes it $1300 less than the ATACR F1. It certainly isn't glass quality.

Yeah, I'm wondering where that money is going for the ATACR now as well. Usually with this sort of stuff the money goes towards the glass, durability, and the turrets, but it sounds like the glass and turrets don't leave much to be desired on the SHV, and I assume durability on both scopes will be excellent seeing as both are Nightforce. Maybe I'll get in touch with Nightforce myself and see what they have to say out of curiosity. I've been having good luck with people in the firearms industry being upfront with me so far, so I assume there is a decent chance I'll get an honest answer. My bet is that Nightforce will tell me that the cost difference is down primarily to the turrets and glass, but maybe there will be something else I'm missing...

...Perhaps the reason the ATACR cost more is because it comes included with a power throw lever and scope caps?

[Eurodriver]

This is a total shot in the dark and may be completely unfounded, but after looking through an ATACR and the SHV F1 on the same day at the same range on the same magnification I would say it uses the same quality glass exactly.

Whether NF is just making a killing on profit for the ATACR or it has internal components that I can't see which are higher quality (which is probable) I'm not sure, but if the only area I would not say the SHV F1 is compromised in is the glass.

The obvious caveats with this of course that I haven't put more than ~180 rounds through it or done any scientific testing, etc etc.

Again, I will 100% be buying the 5-20 when it is released. I like it that much. Two NFs for the price of one!

[Rekkr870]

This is a total shot in the dark and may be completely unfounded, but after looking through an ATACR and the SHV F1 on the same day at the same range on the same magnification I would say it uses the same quality glass exactly.

Whether NF is just making a killing on profit for the ATACR or it has internal components that I can't see which are higher quality (which is probable) I'm not sure, but if the only area I would not say the SHV F1 is compromised in is the glass.

The obvious caveats with this of course that I haven't put more than ~180 rounds through it or done any scientific testing, etc etc.

Again, I will 100% be buying the 5-20 when it is released. I like it that much. Two NFs for the price of one!

In the same price range as the SHV F1 check out the Bushnell LRHS scopes as well as the soon to be released LRTS scopes. 10 mils per rev turrets, excellent zero stop feature, durable, superb glass, and Bushnell's excellent warranty.

Sent from my LG-H900 using Tapatalk

[MarshallDodge]

Realistically speaking, I was shooting at 1000 yards with this optic today and I could spot my misses pretty well. So I'm not so sure 14x is really not enough magnification unless you're really trying to push the envelope (like shooting 2/3 MOA at 600 yards consistently) I was actually surprised how easy it was to shoot 10" gongs at 1000 yards with this optic (and rifle too, for that matter) With that said, the lack of magnification is obviously not the scopes fault. If you buy a USO 1-8x its going to be a great scope but its still maxed out at 8x.

The zero stop is cap based. You remove the cap, place it on zero, and then push the cap down into the scope body and screw it back on. It's super easy to do and it works very well. I dialed up 45 MOA to shoot to 1000 today and came right back down and it stopped 2 clicks below my zero stop. This is repeatable as well so if you are doing it in the dark you will know to always go back up 2 clicks to be at your true zero (for me, your scope may be different). Super easy to use and I have no issues with it whatsoever.

Illumination is great, but only the center of the reticle is illuminated. It ranges from being impossible to see in the dark to too bright for daylight use along the 10 settings.

To reiterate, I'm not sure what this scope is missing from its $2500 cousins. The windage knob is capped and it only has 10 MOA turrets but other than that I can't see what makes it $1300 less than the ATACR F1. It certainly isn't glass quality.

I shoot long range with a Vortex 4-16 HS and agree that you can get it done with less magnification.

To me, the ATACR is just a nicer all around optic than the SHV, and would guess that the internals are a lot more rugged along the lines Nightforce has built in the past.

[gt40]

Watch this video of the 80x March scope at 1,000 yards. I read that once you get above 60x the mirage dissapears.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82hbMWbMdwA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03qtXpoObfM

[Eurodriver]

I figured out what the issue was with the FTFs. I guess I was too much in a hurry or something last time I loaded ammo, because my shell holder was just barely touching the sizing die (it is an RCBS small base). I gave it a 1/4 turn and now all my brass is properly sized. I was wondering why I didn't have to resize any brass last time, but it was because I didn't bump the shoulder back enough to really stretch anything.

Prepping 200 cases is not easy.

Clean
Deprime
Swage primer pocket
Lube
FL size
Lyman M Die expander
Trim
Chamfer
Clean again.

It took me over 3 hours and I don't even have a primed case yet the real kick in the nuts though is when you get half way through the process and the brass gods decide they want to be fed. I'd guess that at least 20 minutes of my day was spent prepping brass that eventually ended up in the trash due to errors/tool issues/etc

Jnielsen is going to get a buyer for his brass catcher soon. I'm not going to lose any of these things.