K16i vs NX8

[WS6]

I got behind it and moved my head slowly from top to bottom and vice versa and it seems dead center to me. Not sure how you’d get a “centered” full picture with your eye not in-line with the scope. To me, “eye box” means that you’re centered in the sight picture and the degree to which you can move your head up, down, left, and right while keeping an effective sight picture (minimal scope shadow) is what makes up the eye box. If you agree with that same definition, then I don’t see how center of the eye box can be off-line with the center of the scope.

Maybe you are not one of those people. I found that for me, with a 1.70" mount, I could get full picture but the image was warped a bit, at my natural center. When I moved down a touch, I still had full picture but unity on 1x was much crisper.

[RHINOWSO]

Truth^
The law of diminishing returns kicked in for me long ago, and I don't want to think about the time or ammo pissed away that could've been put toward something productive...

Agreed as well, I see the lemmings rush to the latest and greatest - only to rush to the next latest and greatest, wash - rinse - repeat.

I know that some people who are either in the industry as trainers or legit pipe hitters need the latest stuff and train enough to make changes worth it - but I'd say 95% of people just buy for the instagram likes and never get good enough with any of their stuff. Be it optics, carry pistol, whatever.

[pointblank4445]

Agreed as well, I see the lemmings rush to the latest and greatest - only to rush to the next latest and greatest, wash - rinse - repeat.

I know that some people who are either in the industry as trainers or legit pipe hitters need the latest stuff and train enough to make changes worth it - but I'd say 95% of people just buy for the instagram likes and never get good enough with any of their stuff. Be it optics, carry pistol, whatever.

The bitch of it is, there are certainly several areas of kit where one can indeed BUY the capacity for enhanced performance, and I believe the LPVO is one of them. It may not move at the speed of say NVG/IR tech, but it is a moving target in terms of advancing tech and I get why people struggle with it given that and typical industry/internet BS that muddies the waters.

I guess I would amend my earlier quite to down play to this:
I could have stopped well short and ended up with nearly the same conclusions a long time ago with about 66-75% certainty that I was doing what was right for me. What I did buy with my effort is that I'm able to sit here with 98-99% certainty that I did right by me. So I got that going for me...which is nice.

[notorious_ar15]

I have a K16i with the 3GR reticle, which I find to be a nice compromise between a traditional scope and the circle-dot design. I'm getting older, and the "cross" seems to give me less eye strain.

[JoshNC]

So I got that going for me...which is nice.

And I said, hey! Llama! How about something, you know, for the effort?

[pointblank4445]

And I said, hey! Llama! How about something, you know, for the effort?

I've always said you're a man of good taste, Josh...never failing to deliver.

[SDG8]

Just something to keep in mind, just because the internet says the eyebox is much bigger on the K16i than the NX8 (which it is, can't get around that due to scope design) doesn't mean that the eyebox is unusable on the NX8.

I've had both K16i (SM1 reticle) and the NX8 (mil reticle) and have chosen the NX8 as my go-to LPVO for now. If something comes out that is heads and tails better while keeping the same or smaller footprint/weight, then maybe I'll consider it.

I made the compromise on eyebox for the durability and reticle design and footprint for a 12.5" "mini-recce". One of the top 3 criteria that I want in a LPVO is a bold reticle that can be used without illumination. Until you get 50,000 hours on a battery like an aimpoint, that will be one of my top requirements...and maybe even then it will still be a huge consideration since it serves as a failsafe.

Additionally, I run 1.93 mounts and if you listen to the internet, there would be no way I could get a consistent cheekweld on the NX8 with that high of a mount...but it's a non-issue for me. It's even less of an issue the more training time I have behind it.

I also currently have a PST2 and have done a couple drills head to head with the NX8 testing the eyebox and illumination on each scope. The only time eyebox was a noticeable difference between the two was when going strong shoulder to support shoulder transitions...though this is more of a training issue and is even questionable whether I would even do that "real world". Times on first shot and target transitions were similar between the two scopes when illumination was used, but there was a slight speed advantage with the NX8 when illumination was off. The bold reticle is very easy to pick up and this is why I chose it.

In the end, you just have to decide what is most important to you, which unfortunately means you may have to get them in hand to check out on your own.

Would you mind showing me a picture of where you put your nx8 on your upper?

[Ironman8]

Would you mind showing me a picture of where you put your nx8 on your upper?

Are you talking about fore/aft position? This is based on stock position/length of pull and eye relief, so where I put it may not be where you put it. Or is there something else you want to see?

[SDG8]

I was told that people put their nx8 close to the front of the upper receiver( similar to an aimpoint ) instead of the rear of the tube being flush(ish) to the charging handle.

I don't know if that made sense.

[Ironman8]

If you shoot nose to charging handle then yeah you’d have to push it forward and probably use an extended mount. The scope itself is longer than the upper receiver btw. Mine is about as dead flush to the back of the upper receiver as you can get (charging handle sticks out maybe another 1/4”. The front of the objective falls about at slot #4 on the rail.

I shoot with my stock on position 3 on an A5 tube btw.

The NX8 does have shorter eye relief compared to something like a Razor. And come to think of it, I’ve seen most NX8 setups falling about where mine does on the back of the receiver.

For comparison, my PST2 rides on a different upper that sits about a half inch further forward (rear of ocular) compared to the NX8.