vortex pst 1-4 showed up today...

[rc2125]

Been waiting for one of these for quite some time now! Stopped home for lunch, took some quick pics of the reticle(mrad version), pics are thru a double pane window with a junk camera, didn't have much time here, (wind & snow):

1x, steel tombstone target 300yds thru the kitchen window

4x, same steel target 300yds

4x, same steel target 300yds w/illum

4x, tree 75yds

1x, woods 50yds, w/illum

Turrets have impressively strong and consistent detent, yet are smooth to turn, didn't have much time to mess with it. Seems truly 1x @1x, with both eyes open there is no double image or eye strain, also no goggle eye effect when scanning. The scopemount won't be here til tomorrow. It seems as close to a "winner" as I've been able to find, for what I do(coyote calling,banging steel, some rifle matches,etc).

I like the reticle, in that it doesn't clutter up around the center dot. Seems to have Very forgiving eye relief. The illumination isn't as bright as I expected, but it is pretty bright, it does go superbly LOW for lowlight use. There is a major change in illumination from like setting 5 and lower. The settings go from basically only visible in-the-dark to ultra dim. Highest setting is a few notches below an eotech or aimpoint on they're highest level. The vertical and horizontals are slightly illuminated in lowlight

Edited January 6, 2011 by rc2125

[DWFAN]

thanks for the pics and mini review..

[TXMXRACER]

Thanks--I should have mine thursday.

[AlamoShooter]

cool, Great photos! good detail , inspires me to give taking a photo a try with my Razor. I gotta learn how to post photos

We hare just plain going to have to start a Vortex club

I will vote you in, if you vote me in

[dstroyed]

Looks nice. Mine will be here Fri.

[rc2125]

Looks like they got one for the capped turret fans also SWFA "HS" vipers

Got it all set up in an american defense ext scout mount, very nice mount. Eye relief on the scope is tremendously friendly. Tough to get much time behind it until the weekend to see if it actually does its job.

Just read about Jerry Miculek being sponsored by Vortex now.

Edited January 6, 2011 by rc2125

[lynn jones]

Looks like they got one for the capped turret fans also SWFA "HS" vipers

Got it all set up in an american defense ext scout mount, very nice mount. Eye relief on the scope is tremendously friendly. Tough to get much time behind it until the weekend to see if it actually does its job.

Just read about Jerry Miculek being sponsored by Vortex now.

you link is not correct.

check this: http://swfa.com/Vortex-1-4x24-Viper-HS-30mm-Rifle-Scope-P48290.aspx

[KentG]

Looks very nice!! Larue mount???

[AlamoShooter]

Looks very nice!! Larue mount???

He says its an American Defense mount. I have one that has a Vortex logo on it and the American Defense name too

[rc2125]

Looks very nice!! Larue mount???

He says its an American Defense mount. I have one that has a Vortex logo on it and the American Defense name too

Yes, AD ext scout 2 lever mount.

Finally got out to the range with it and the new rifle (dpms 3G1), am satisfied with both, they performed nicely so far. Running federal XM193 55gr right now.

The reticle is sweet, able to place shots on 10" plates way out. Using the reticle for holdovers was easy, even though they are kinda fine, at least they don't cover anything up. Scope tracked and returned to zero great, no hang ups dianling down, very precise, ran it up/down/left/right quite a bit between shots with no variance. We got 18" of snow at home today, ran to the range real quick to get data at distances and kinda see how the set up would do, only had about an hour to fire:

some @ 500yds, dialed several mil left/right/up/down between shots here:

few at 600, *holding over w/reticle, 4mil:

few at 700

reticle pic, 1000yds 4x (+2x mag on cell):

1000yds

Pass the pizza hut on the way home, complete with hitchin- rail/buggy-parking out front:

pizza hut pic

buggies

Got a few moments of bright sunshine yesterday, the claimed "daylight visible" reticle washes out to prettymuch nothing, tried a new battery just in case it may have been an old one. The design of the reticle does really well in bright sunlight though, without the illumination. Was hoping it would be brighter, since they are marketing it as "daylight visible".

Edited January 9, 2011 by rc2125

[AlamoShooter]

Hey Nice shooting

Does the pst retical go to 11? the 11 setting on the Razor is bright but 10 drops way off.

[rc2125]

Does the pst retical go to 11? the 11 setting on the Razor is bright but 10 drops way off.

No, it doesn't. Got it out in bright sunlight, what little we had lately, and on 10 the red illumination fades away pretty good. Still works great just black, but not a bright as I had hoped, as they claim it is "daylight-visible" (I guess technically it is visible, but not eotech bright).

The 1 thru 4 settings are barely visible indoors, almost need your night eyes to see, good for when using in very lowlight. Setting 5 jumps up to a tad too bright for lowlight use, but dimly visible in normal daylight. The rest are like midrange aimpoint bright I guess, 10 being about the same as my aimpoint 2 levels below max.

Edited January 9, 2011 by rc2125

[AlamoShooter]

Well thats not great, the 11 is about 3 times as bright as the 10 setting on my Razor. I like the bright red for only a few shots.

Its really different that what we are used to with a bright red dot.

I was real surprised on some close double tap kinda shooting, = it worked good for me.

[raz-0]

Looks like they got one for the capped turret fans also SWFA "HS" vipers

Got it all set up in an american defense ext scout mount, very nice mount. Eye relief on the scope is tremendously friendly. Tough to get much time behind it until the weekend to see if it actually does its job.

Just read about Jerry Miculek being sponsored by Vortex now.

So is the capped turret version MOA or Mils? With a capped version, it has become very interesting again.

[rc2125]

Vortex said moa/moa 1-4 HS now, but may also do a mil/mil depending on demand, prolly 2012 if a demand for it.

[dchang0]

Got mine today too. rc2125 is correct, it is not daylight visible outdoors. It was heavily overcast today, with a white pallor over everything, and the reticle was only barely illuminated at 10. In brighter sunlight, it would be a black reticle.

Overall impressions:

1) It's 1.25X, not true 1X, by my estimation. But it's a very clear, sharp 1.25X, with no fishbowling or occlusion.

2) The glass is outstandingly good for this price range. Very, very clean at 4X with a nice, large field of view.

3) Turrets seem kinda large, but with the upcoming HS version, that'll be solved. I'd love them to be 5mm shorter--still enough to grab with gloves on, not tall enough to knock into things as easily.

4) The zoom ring is blocked somewhat by the brightness knob. Makes it hard to rapidly switch magnifications without a cat tail. But a cat tail might not do much, as it the zoom ring is very stiff.

5) The reticle is super clean and very easy to use both up-close and far out. I love how fine and sharp the stadia lines and crosshairs are. The outer, broken circle is just about the right size and thickness so that it never gets in the way of the target but draws the eye quickly.

6) Eye relief is phenomenally generous. I have mine mounted all the way forward in a Larue SPR-E, and I shoot nose-to-charging-handle. It seems to have about 3" of eye relief--almost as nice as my TA33.

7) Turret operation/features are very nice for a scope in this price range. The little accoutrements like the fiber optic markers, etc., are especially sweet.

Edited January 20, 2011 by dchang0

[Scott_at_Vortex]

Got mine today too. rc2125 is correct, it is not daylight visible outdoors. It was heavily overcast today, with a white pallor over everything, and the reticle was only barely illuminated at 10. In brighter sunlight, it would be a black reticle.

Overall impressions:

1) It's 1.25X, not true 1X, by my estimation. But it's a very clear, sharp 1.25X, with no fishbowling or occlusion.

2) The glass is outstandingly good for this price range. Very, very clean at 4X with a nice, large field of view.

3) Turrets seem kinda large, but with the upcoming HS version, that'll be solved. I'd love them to be 5mm shorter--still enough to grab with gloves on, not tall enough to knock into things as easily.

4) The zoom ring is blocked somewhat by the brightness knob. Makes it hard to rapidly switch magnifications without a cat tail. But a cat tail might not do much, as it the zoom ring is very stiff.

5) The reticle is super clean and very easy to use both up-close and far out. I love how fine and sharp the stadia lines and crosshairs are. The outer, broken circle is just about the right size and thickness so that it never gets in the way of the target but draws the eye quickly.

6) Eye relief is phenomenally generous. I have mine mounted all the way forward in a Larue SPR-E, and I shoot nose-to-charging-handle. It seems to have about 3" of eye relief--almost as nice as my TA33.

7) Turret operation/features are very nice for a scope in this price range. The little accoutrements like the fiber optic markers, etc., are especially sweet.

It sounds like to me that you do not have your ocular adjusted correctly. The PST is absolutely a true 1x, you can actually get it to go below 1x ,unless you have 10/10 vision, by having the ocular focus adjusted too far in. I would guess that you may have yours too far out. Also you should have around 4" of eye relief at a minimum(different eyes vary), this also could be affected by not having the focus adjusted correctly. If for some reason you dont think you are getting a true 1x after readjusting the diopter please let me know.

Scott

[raz-0]

Vortex said moa/moa 1-4 HS now, but may also do a mil/mil depending on demand, prolly 2012 if a demand for it.

Well, moa/moa is what I would like anyway. Hmm...

[rc2125]

The one I got is as true 1x as it gets, took just a few minutes messing with the focus to get it just perfect.

[AlamoShooter]

The one I got is as true 1x as it gets, took just a few minutes messing with the focus to get it just perfect.

I have some photos up on my thread for the Razor. the Eye Ocular has a bunch of range to it. = it will make things clear up real good . But I think If you set it for up close the image will suffer farther out.

I can set my scope to look 8 feet away and make it clear so that no change in details of a map looking in or to the side of the scope. I make a small change for 10+ yards as compared to 8 feet though.

The photos I did have the roof line traveling into the photo at 10 yards =no break at all perfect 1X

One thing to looker at too is if you set your Ocular with glassed on = it will not be the same with them off.

This is one of the first scopes I have had that I can see better with-out my Px glasses than with them.

Jamie

[AustinT]

Got mine today too. rc2125 is correct, it is not daylight visible outdoors. It was heavily overcast today, with a white pallor over everything, and the reticle was only barely illuminated at 10. In brighter sunlight, it would be a black reticle.

Overall impressions:

1) It's 1.25X, not true 1X, by my estimation. But it's a very clear, sharp 1.25X, with no fishbowling or occlusion.

2) The glass is outstandingly good for this price range. Very, very clean at 4X with a nice, large field of view.

3) Turrets seem kinda large, but with the upcoming HS version, that'll be solved. I'd love them to be 5mm shorter--still enough to grab with gloves on, not tall enough to knock into things as easily.

4) The zoom ring is blocked somewhat by the brightness knob. Makes it hard to rapidly switch magnifications without a cat tail. But a cat tail might not do much, as it the zoom ring is very stiff.

5) The reticle is super clean and very easy to use both up-close and far out. I love how fine and sharp the stadia lines and crosshairs are. The outer, broken circle is just about the right size and thickness so that it never gets in the way of the target but draws the eye quickly.

6) Eye relief is phenomenally generous. I have mine mounted all the way forward in a Larue SPR-E, and I shoot nose-to-charging-handle. It seems to have about 3" of eye relief--almost as nice as my TA33.

7) Turret operation/features are very nice for a scope in this price range. The little accoutrements like the fiber optic markers, etc., are especially sweet.

It sounds like to me that you do not have your ocular adjusted correctly. The PST is absolutely a true 1x, you can actually get it to go below 1x ,unless you have 10/10 vision, by having the ocular focus adjusted too far in. I would guess that you may have yours too far out. Also you should have around 4" of eye relief at a minimum(different eyes vary), this also could be affected by not having the focus adjusted correctly. If for some reason you dont think you are getting a true 1x after readjusting the diopter please let me know.

Scott

Hey Scott, good to see you on the forums! Enjoyed shooting with you in Arkansas, and it looks like Vortex is doing a good job of making inroads in the 3gun crowd.

Austin

[dchang0]

It sounds like to me that you do not have your ocular adjusted correctly. The PST is absolutely a true 1x, you can actually get it to go below 1x ,unless you have 10/10 vision, by having the ocular focus adjusted too far in. I would guess that you may have yours too far out. Also you should have around 4" of eye relief at a minimum(different eyes vary), this also could be affected by not having the focus adjusted correctly. If for some reason you dont think you are getting a true 1x after readjusting the diopter please let me know.

Scott

Thanks, Scott-- I gave the diopter adjustment a try. It hits 1X just fine.

I assumed it was set at 1X out of the box, but it occurred to me that that's not possible, since everybody's vision is different--my bad!

Eye relief doesn't change all that much, but I'm not complaining. I like it where it is, because I can't mount the scope any further forward and don't wish to increase the length of pull.

Edited January 21, 2011 by dchang0

[Pro2AInPA]

I'm going nuts trying to decide to order one of these or not. They're in stock at one of my favorite dealers . .. better decide soon as I'm sure they won't be in stock long. It's for an open rifle . . . think it's a good choice in conjunction with an offset red dot?

[Kyle O]

Seem to me if running in open, id prefer maybe 3-9x since you have a red dot already, kinda redundant to have two 1x, and only up to 4x total.

[hjustein]

Got mine today too. rc2125 is correct, it is not daylight visible outdoors. It was heavily overcast today, with a white pallor over everything, and the reticle was only barely illuminated at 10. In brighter sunlight, it would be a black reticle.

Overall impressions:

1) It's 1.25X, not true 1X, by my estimation. But it's a very clear, sharp 1.25X, with no fishbowling or occlusion.

2) The glass is outstandingly good for this price range. Very, very clean at 4X with a nice, large field of view.

3) Turrets seem kinda large, but with the upcoming HS version, that'll be solved. I'd love them to be 5mm shorter--still enough to grab with gloves on, not tall enough to knock into things as easily.

4) The zoom ring is blocked somewhat by the brightness knob. Makes it hard to rapidly switch magnifications without a cat tail. But a cat tail might not do much, as it the zoom ring is very stiff.

5) The reticle is super clean and very easy to use both up-close and far out. I love how fine and sharp the stadia lines and crosshairs are. The outer, broken circle is just about the right size and thickness so that it never gets in the way of the target but draws the eye quickly.

6) Eye relief is phenomenally generous. I have mine mounted all the way forward in a Larue SPR-E, and I shoot nose-to-charging-handle. It seems to have about 3" of eye relief--almost as nice as my TA33.

7) Turret operation/features are very nice for a scope in this price range. The little accoutrements like the fiber optic markers, etc., are especially sweet.

It sounds like to me that you do not have your ocular adjusted correctly. The PST is absolutely a true 1x, you can actually get it to go below 1x ,unless you have 10/10 vision, by having the ocular focus adjusted too far in. I would guess that you may have yours too far out. Also you should have around 4" of eye relief at a minimum(different eyes vary), this also could be affected by not having the focus adjusted correctly. If for some reason you dont think you are getting a true 1x after readjusting the diopter please let me know.

Scott

Scott,

Thanks for posting that, I recently picked up a Viper PST 1-4x and it was making me think I was crazy because the 1x setting seemed to be more like 0.8x! I will go adjust it now.

Otherwise I LOVE the scope, the reticle is amazing and so is the glass. IT has nice repeatable, positive clicks on the turrets, and the MRAD/MRAD stadias and turrets are SO easy to use together. I am also a huge fan of the .2 MRAD clicks, they are course enough to make quick changes, but not too course.

My only wish is that the illumination was a bit brighter, but it is no big deal, it is very usable as is.