LPVOs in 2023 and beyond

[okie john]

If the bear is fully visible in the open then a red dot would be a good option, if it was wanting to eat you, it’d be a great choice.

But hunting thick timber for me requires magnification to see just what is that black spot over there behind those trees. Bino’s fall in here but sometimes I had trouble placing the dot where it needs to be especially if the black spot moves. My case was deer not bear so keep that in mind.

That’s where a LPVO shines. PID with enough speed to work and a precise aiming point.

That's pretty much what I'm thinking.

Some years back I hunted black bears in southwestern Oregon and I found the Trijicon Accupoint 1.25-4x with the red triangle reticle showed up very clearly against the bears' dark fur, particularly in low light.

Edited to add: I also tried an Aimpoint Comp 9000L on my CZ 550 9.3x62 (same rifle I later put the Accupoint on) for bears and the difficulty I had was target confirmation (might not be an issue for you in a tree farm, but in a logging area black bears can look remarkably like tree stumps when not moving--particularly in areas that have been burned in forest fires) and then identifying precise shot placement on the bear. A little bit of magnification was a real help, particularly in low light.

Here's a pic of my 9.3x62 with an Accupoint 3-9 on it. I preferred the 3-9 to the 1.25-4x, even at closer ranges, because the scope was much brighter and I've never been bothered by shooting at 3x, even close up.



Note the burned trees. Having a bright red triangle for a reticle was nice for those conditions.

There's plenty of logging on the farm where I'll hunt and plenty of charred stumps. I have a Nightforce 3-10 SHV in mind for this because the reticle is illuminated. I'm also looking at Trijicon's Credo HX 1-4. I've killed a Roosevelt elk plus a bunch of blacktails under similar conditions with a fixed 4x, so 3x would be fine.


Okie John

[Wake27]

That's pretty much what I'm thinking.



There's plenty of logging on the farm where I'll hunt and plenty of charred stumps. I have a Nightforce 3-10 SHV in mind for this because the reticle is illuminated. I'm also looking at Trijicon's Credo HX 1-4. I've killed a Roosevelt elk plus a bunch of blacktails under similar conditions with a fixed 4x, so 3x would be fine.


Okie John

The Razor 1-6 is the LPVO gold standard IMO. Is there a reason that wouldn’t work?

Excellent 1x performance, great light transmission, super bright dot for contrast, likely plenty of top end mag for your use, and durable enough that it can get slammed around accidentally and probably still be ok.


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[TWR]

https://www.eurooptic.com/Trijicon-C...tin-Black.aspx

I have this scope but calibrated for 5.56 and it’s the only one in Trijicon’s Credo lineup that is truly daylight bright. The hunter holds BDC works just in case a longer shot presents itself. At 18 oz, it’s hard to beat in my opinion.

[Unobtanium]

The Razor 1-6 is the LPVO gold standard IMO. Is there a reason that wouldn’t work?

Excellent 1x performance, great light transmission, super bright dot for contrast, likely plenty of top end mag for your use, and durable enough that it can get slammed around accidentally and probably still be ok.


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Reliability is why I went with NF over Razor. The Razor is optically pretty, though.

[Wake27]

Reliability is why I went with NF over Razor. The Razor is optically pretty, though.

As in, not breaking it?


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[Unobtanium]

As in, not breaking it?


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Or just having it randomly break due to no known cause.

[Sensei]

I agree that my 1-8X ATACR is noticeably more “robust” than my 1-10X Razor. Having said that, my reasons for choosing the ATACR over the Razor are not based on a concern that the Razor is going randomly break. While not a tank like the ATACR, the Razor passes my minimum durability for a combat optic.

I choose the ATACR because the glass is noticeably better than the Razor’s. This is especially true at the extremes of magnification. The ATACR is almost like looking through an Aimpoint CompM 4 at 1X while there are noticeable edge distortions with the Razor. At their maximum magnifications, the ATACR has much less edging distortions. Granted, the Razor markedly improves when you back it off the 10X down to 8-9X.

Keep in mind that I place a premium in 1X performance on a LPVO. It must have a daylight bright reticle and reasonably clear glass before I’ll even consider it. That is because I’m far more likely to encounter threats under 100 meters that I need to rapidly engage on 1X than make precision shots beyond 800M. Both the Razor and ATACR also pass this minimum 1X performance but the ATACR is noticeably better to my eye.

The fact that the ATACR is built like a tank is just added confidence, and I’m more than happy to pay for it in the form of less top-end magnification and $500 extra in costs.

[stomridertx]

Here's something out of left field that's missing in the industry.
I wish this optic still existed. It was made in Japan it only weighed 8.9 oz. It had over a 14mm exit pupil on 1x and by all accounts was excellent to get behind. Turrets were super low profile and it had long eye relief. If it was updated with a modern reticle, I'd pick it all day over a micro prism optic. Now that offset dots have taken off, I wish I had bought 5 of these when they were still around. The original optic with an offset T1 style dot and a lightweight mount would kill for a weight conscious build. I'm not sure if the Weaver classic line was made at LOW or another Japanese factory, but if someone dusted this off and made some minor tweaks it would be a great option to have again.

[Tokarev]

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[stomridertx]

I put the new PA Slx 1-6x24 with the ACSS Nova reticle on my 15-22. This damn thing needs to calm down, it's way better than I expected. Pulling numbers out of my arse: if people say the Viper PST 1-6 is 90% of the Razor, this is 80% of the Razor. The 1x performance is REALLY close. I haven't looked at anything through it I'm actually shooting at yet, but it's punching above its weight for sure. I let my wife look through it and she wants to replace her red dot with one of these. The mil drops work out decent for .22lr zeroed at 25 yards. If Primary Arms released a PLX version of this scope, it would challenge the Razor 1-6 if they could get it lighter. This reticle is better than the VMR-2 and the illumination is bright enough to play in that league. China starting to figure out glass like this is scary, but I also believe strongly in market competition. Most of us can't put the best stuff on everything we've got.
*Update: I think my numbers are too generous, this is 70% of the Razor and the PST is 80%. The difference is more in fit, finish, and turrets than glass although the Razor is still in a different league. This scope is wasted on a .22lr and I bought an Aero Ultralight SPR mount to move this to my wife's AR-15. The weight savings over a PST make this viable for her gun, and the glass quality and 1x performance are there with this scope.