These two terms get thrown around a lot, by me most of all, while what they really mean is very much open to interpretation. I do not have the power to unilaterally define them. I can, however, at least explain what I mean when I use them.
The term crossover scope arguably came about due to the advent of western hunting. Out west, it is not uncommon to take a shot on game from a considerable distance often in pretty gnarly conditions. That requires something akin to a precision scope if you want to do it well. Modern precision oriented riflescopes are frequently large and heavy. While it is possible to drag one uphill with you, it is not something I recommend. Plenty of people do it and I applaud their mental fortitude. I've done it and I don't like it. It is hard enough to drag my fat ass uphill. I am clearly not the only one, since quite a few years ago Premier Reticles came out with their Light Hunter scope. That was a version of their 3-15x50 design, except with simpler and lighter turrets all stuffed into a 30mm tube. Optically, it was the same as the larger tubed scope, but it weighed a lot less. It gave up some adjustment range and turret features, but that's largely it. When Premier went under Armament ended up with their assets. The scopes were re-engineered and improved. Then re-designed again and merged with a different ongoing development project that resulted in Tangent Theta scopes. TT315M and TT315H are the spiritual successors to the Premier Light Hunter: 3-15x50 scopes with 30mm tubes, limited adjustment range, simpler turrets and spectacular optical performance. They weigh around 27 ounces.
In parallel, Bushnell made their 3-12x44 and 4.5-18x44 LRHT scopes for a while (eventually they Bushnell-ed them), Leupold developed the 3.6-18x44 Mark 5HD and, more recently, Vortex introduced a 4.5-22x50 Razor HD-LHT. The latter, along with the Tangent are probably the purest expressions of the crossover concept we have today.
What's a crossover scope, then? To me, it is a FFP scope with max magnification of no less than 15x, illuminated mrad (or MOA for the masochists among us) reticle, elevation turret equipped with a zero stop and locking or covered windage turret. The objective lens diameter should be between 40 and 50mm. The scope weight should be no more than 30 ounces. Many of these criteria are somewhat arbitrary, but I have to draw the lines somewhere. On the low end I am looking for magnification of not more than 5x for an occasional offhand or badly supported shot. It is important that the reticle works adequately well across the entire magnification range, which is one of the reasons I require illumination. That is also why, to me, tree or grid type reticles that illuminate the whole thing are a problem. I want a small center portion of the reticle illuminated: a dot or a crosshair. You can get clever with it and illuminate a few more hold points, but not the whole thing. That has a tendency to make the scope useless in low light.
MPVO stands for Medium Power Variable Optic and the concept originated when people started thinking "what if I wanted to make an LPVO like scope, but did not need 1x on the low end?" 1x definitely complicates everything and one thing we can do by getting rid of it is bump up the objective diameter a little and optimize optics better for mid-range magnification. Original MPVO concept was sort of like a "tactical tweener". The purest expression of that original idea is Leupold Mark 5 2-10x30, Vortex PST Gen2 2-10x32 also sorta barks up the same tree, but it really did not set the world on fire. The Mark 5HD is an interesting design that I plan to test in the not too distant future. Given the absolute reluctance of most manufacturers to make high quality FFP riflescopes with objective lens diameters between 30 and 40mm, the definition of an MPVO got extended to include larger designs with 40-ish millimeter objectives. For these, the definition is a little different in that one of the binding criteria is low magnification, with higher magnification being a lot more flexible. To me, one of the absolutely critical requirements of an MPVO is reasonable compatibility with commercially available thermal clip-ons. That means the low end FOV had to be at least 7.5 degrees or thereabouts. That translates to around 40ft @ 100 yards. Wider is even better (closer to 50), but 40 is reasonable. For most riflescopes, that's between 2.5x and 3x. For some short-ish eyerelief prismatics, you can get close to that FOV on 4x, but they are not variable optics.
The rest of the specs are simple: FFP reticle with some ability to hold over, locking or covered elevation turret preferably with zero stop (but reticle only distance and wind holds are acceptable, so no zerostop is OK), covered or locking windage turret, objective lens diameter between 30 and 44mm, weight of less than 30ounces. Lighter is naturally better.
There is some obvious overlap between MPVO and crossover optics, but I prioritize different features with these two scope types.
Here are the two configurations I would consider ideal that, hopefully, illustrate my point.
Ideal crossover:
30mm tube, illuminated tree reticle (Vortex XLR2 or similar), 3.4-17x50, side focus, 20 ounce weight, 3 - 3.5" eye relief, single turn 12mrad turret with 0.1mrad clicks, no low power tunneling, covered low profile windage turret, exposed low profile zerostop elevation turret. Essentially, I am looking for a fusion of Razor HD-LHT and USO FDN-17x.
Ideal MPVO:
30mm tube, illuminated abbreviated tree reticle (S&B's MDR-T6 or similar), 2.4-12x36, side focus, 20 ounce weight, 2.5 - 3" eyerelief, single or double turn turret with 0.1mrad clicks and at least 10mrad of available adjustment, locking zerostop elevation turret, covered low profile windage turret. Essentially, I am looking for a fusion of the Mark5 with Blackhound Emerge or something in between. Leupold turrets are near perfect for this application.
Neither configuration currently exists. Both are eminently makeable and whichever OEM currently makes the Razor HD-LHT 4.5-22x50 with sub 22 ounce weight, can pull off these exact configurations if properly motivated.
Unfortunately, there is no one out there except for me who thinks these will sell. The wait continues....
DNT's 7-35x56 has been here since February and I have managed to have some reasonably significant amount of time with it to date. This video is mostly in the nature of a "first look", although a bit more extensive than that. I will follow up with a careful examination of the reticle and low light performance.
https://amzn.to/4iGPl9w
So far, I am quite impressed with what the scope offers for the money.
Talking to one of the owners, he said he wants to be the undisputed bang for the buck champ under $1k. It is too early to be sure, but he might have a point there.
So far, I am quite impressed with the optic for what it costs and everything I have heard about customer support has been good.
The scope I have did have a minor glitch with the focus cell (I talk about that in the video), but it seems to have worked itself out. Perhaps there was some sort of a minor machining mark somewhere in there that got polished out.
Beyond that, it has been a good scope for me. I tried it on a ...
Here is another scope that has been here entirely too long without a formal review.
Delta Javelin 4.5-30x56, along with Athlon Ares ETR 4.5-30x56, stands at the top of the ladder of Chinese-made precision scopes I have seen to date.
To be fair, there are some new ones that are popping up that I have not tested yet (like the Telson 5-25x56) and some excellent ones that are less expensive (like DNT 7-35x56). Still, of the ones I have had a chance to spend some serious time with, it is Javelin and Ares ETR. Athlon has a Gen2 of the ETR that was announced this year, that I am very curious to test against the Javelin. Compared to the Gen1 ETR, I thought they were extremely close optically, but I slightly preferred the turrets and the reticle in the Javelin. We'll see if Athlon's Gen2 will change that.
I talk about Delta a good bit, but the brand is still not very widespread in the US. Still, there are several people selling them including Don at @AnnexDefense . Since he is a member here, I...
As I was getting this final video ready, I could not help but think that I have been talking about this LRF bino incessantly since December when I first got my hands on it.
https://alnk.to/eONAsar
I was very impressed with it when it arrived and I am very impressed with it now. I thought it was worthwhile to do a video wrap-up, see if any questions come up (i.e. something I forgot to address) and cover all the unintended omissions in an article.
Leica is, occasionally, a mystifying company in terms of their market strategy, but there is never any doubt about their technical capability. They can and do make absolutely exceptional optical instruments. There is new leadership in Leica's US office and I walked away from a meeting with them very encouraged. They seem to be listening to the market and have some good things in store.
In the meantime. as I said in the video, as far as LRF binoculars go, this is the best image quality I have seen to date combined with a very consistent LRF. ...
Hey ILya, do you know if the March 4.5-28x with the non shuriken turrets and shuriken turrets are identical other than the turrets?
Hey ILya, have you had an opportunity to look at this new one?
https://www.snipershide.com/shooting/threads/i-spy-new-baby-razor-g3-4-24.7252761/#post-12086413
What are your thoughts on the new 5-40I dlr from Kahles for prs and nrl hunter? I was looking at either a zco or tangent to upgrade from my atacr, and came across this. Area 419 did some testing, but I would like to know your thoughts on this before I spend the money on it.
My understanding is that their warranty used to be problematic, but they have improved their warranty and customer service.
I am not crazy about their reticles, I really like my mil C, but could probably live with the skmr + if the brightness, fov, depth of field, and paralax forgiveness are a big improvement from what I have now.
Well, since I was running a little low on AAC Precision 175gr 308 ammo, I ordered another batch. This one came from a different lot than the batch I had before.
I have about 13 months left to be in my 40s, so I figured this is my last opportunity to get cheeky with this project title.
As I mentioned during last week's livestream, I am kicking off a large review encompassing seven different riflescopes that really share only one thing in common: their objectives are in the 42-44mm range.
Here is a comparison table of the specs for the scopes I have on hand. Note that the Swampfox Warhawk 2-10x44 is not going to be in this comparison very much. I'll do a separate video on it. The biggest reason for that is simply that this spec table is becoming too long and comparing so many scopes all at the same time is exponentially more difficult. I was going to take out either the Warhawk or the Blackhound since neither of them have a zero stop, so I flipped a coin and Blackhound got to stay. I will go over it a little bit below the table.
I did not set out to have this particular line-up in mind, but I like this riflescope type, so I ended up with all of these on hand.
Some of these scopes I have lready reviewed quite thoroughly, namely the Blackhound and Tract.
If you look at the specs carefully, you'll see that these range from true ultrashort designs (GPO and March), to "kinda short" designs (Leapers, Delta, Leupold and Blackhound) to a conventionally sized Tract Toric. Some of these lean toward the MPVO category. Some are unabashedly aimed at the Crossover market. Tract stands alone as a relatively conventional hunting scope, except configured very nicely to do everything as necessary. Another scope that would fit this category very well also that is no longer here is Vortex Strike Eagle 3-18x44. I might reference it occasionally.
I have a good amount of mileage with all of these, although I have not yet released a final review on every design. Still, I can offer some initial thoughts in order of ascending price.
Like any self respecting firearm enthusiast I always have some number of projects going on concurrently. One of them is a fast twist 22-250 bolt gun.
Every once in a while Tikka makes a run of 22-250 T3x rifles with 1-8” twist barrel and I happen to have one. That dramatically changes the varminty character of the 22-250. With a modern 80gr bullet, it is a nicely viable hunting rifle for small and medium game (just about perfect for pronghorn). It is also a very capable long range number. At the altitude where I live, it does not go subsonic until you get to about 1400 yards.
1-8” twist will not stabilize the heaviest available 22 bullets, but works well enough for anything up to about 80grains, depending on the bullet construction.
