cruze82 wrote:The hard thing I am finding is getting either of these scopes on my hand to fondle and I'm finding it hard to swallow the 4k price tag (with rings) on something I have never seen or held.
So my question is has anyone gone down this path and paid the money for top quality glass and how did you go about it?
The scope will be used for long range hunting and target shooting
5-25x56 B.E.A.S.T.™
Just my personal opinion here (not having a go, not knocking the scopes etc. etc.)
I've gotta say that, for me, $4k for a scope is a waste of money to be blunt.
There are so many options for 1/3rd of the price that are excellent. Not 'good for the money' or 'not as good but half the price', just straight up great scopes.
I bought my Elite 6500 after much research and reviews and it is excellent all round. Comparing to the above for a sec...
6500 (left) vs BEAST (right)
4.5-30x vs 5-25x
$950 vs $3,700
683 grams vs 1097 grams
30mm tube vs 34mm tube
50mm objective vs 56mm objective.
Pros for the 6500 - More magnification range, 1/4 the price, smaller, lighter, IMO better clarity (explained later on)
Pro's for the BEAST are arguable at best IMO...
The 34mm tube gives you 60moa of adjustment, while the the 30mm of the Elite gives you 52moa.
Doing some quick math here... (someone correct me if I'm wrong)
On the same fixed mounts... the Elite would take me out to about 1200ish metres before I ran out of drop adjustment. The BEAST would take me out to 1350ish metres.
Beyond that there is always adding a mount/rail with additional adjustment anyway to add range if you needed it. Personally I have the mildot reticles too which I can use to aim and effectively increase to 'drop adjustment' anyway. Having said all that I never shoot that far anyway so it's all a moot point for me, and you said your furthest shot so far is 546m so...
50mm vs 56mm objective... and on the subject of glass quality in general...
I have used the BEAST's a handful of times, can't say I'm intimately familiar with them but on the occasions I've used them there was certainly nothing to justify the cost of those lenses to me.
I picked up a few of the expensive Nightforce scopes at the Shot Show when it was here in Melbourne and I have to say I was pretty underwhelmed. To my naked eye (acknowledging that that's a completely subjective test and not scientific at all) they were not as clear/sharp as my scope.
My 50mm gathers light extremely well in low light conditions, has all the fancy glass coatings blah blah blah. Putting them to the test I would be seriously surprised if the BEAST did any better.
Didn't mean for this to be all negative and ripping on the Nightforce scopes but that's the way I see it. Open to hearing counter arguments...
Circling back to actual scope advice, following my train of thought with the Bushnells... The only thing is the 6500's have second focal plane reticles which you're currently not looking at. You could however look at the Elite Tactical series which has everything discussed above and first focal plane reticle like you're looking at,
XRS 4.5-30x 50mm with G2 reticle.ERS 4.5-30x 50mm with Mil-Dot reticle.Those are my thoughts.