&
12.5-50x56 PMII Scopes Schmidt & Bender 5-25
By Chris Parkin
Specification There are many, many choices available to the shooter to optimise these scopes to the owner’s intended use. We now have the choice of ‘first focal plane’ (reticle size increases with magnication) or second focal plane (constant reticle size) whereas, initially, only FFP was available. Interestingly, Leupold are now offering an FFP option on their ‘military’ models, as do Nightforce.
1-5 to indicate which of the five full 15 MOA rotations you are within. This is something of a mouthful to describe but in use it becomes clear and more importantly, makes it impossible to get `lost` in the heat of the moment (who hasn’t) and one quick turn back to the stop takes you back to your known zero.
The windage turret also has increment options and is marked both `left` and `right` from the zero position. If you go for a multi-turn elevation like I did, the windage becomes double turn and again utilises ‘windows’ - this time when you adjust right, they go yellow and when dialling left, white. Simple!
Mounting and zeroing on your particular rifle can of course ‘rob’ you of some of the elevation adjustment but these scopes are designed to be fitted to inclined rails, with anything between 10 and 40 MOA built in. Again, the intended use is clearly long range! When the scope is zeroed, a small hex. key (supplied) is used to slacken off and re-zero the turrets. Although the elevation turret has a zero stop, it will allow you to go a few clicks into the ‘negative’ as a temporary measure if needed.
Nice combination – the Schmidt and the DTA
Similarly, there is a choice of milradian (Mil) or minute of angle (MOA) turrets and even a choice of incremental ‘click’ - quarter/eighth MOA or full/half Mil clicks. Finally, choose clockwise or anti- clockwise rotation of your turrets for +/- elevation. This is of course marvellous for the user but it must be a nightmare for a dealer hoping to stock these scopes – how can you ever have the correct one?
And, we still haven’t finished - now choose the reticle you would like - P3 Mil-dot - in this case but others are available, more suitable to target shooting. Depending on the click increment you choose, the elevation and windage knobs are either double-turn (1/4 MOA) or multi-turn (5 full rotations in 1/8 MOA).
If you choose the double-turn option, you get 72 MOA from the zero stop to maximum. When you enter the second rotation of the turret, the little ‘lighthouse’ windows turn yellow to indicate you are now reading from the yellow scale, not the white one. On the multi- turn, as seen below, the windows show the number
In Use
After fitting and zeroing the scopes, I reset the turrets back to their stops as I expected to do a lot of ‘dialling’ to test these boys. With both having mil-dot reticles, it was easy to dial-in or `measure` targets as, although the milradian is not a MOA, it is easy enough to work out using 3.6 MOA to 1 milradian conversion.
The substantial price of these scopes will likely preclude their use by the novice but the experienced shooter will be keen to take advantage of the offered options to tailor it for his/her preferred use. The overall weight of the scope will probably prohibit its use on some competition rifles where weight is an issue and this is a pity, for the first time you look through that Schott glass – WOW!
It is realistic to expect that 50 power will only get used when the air is cool and clear as, at full magnification, mirage can become excessive. But, no scope can cheat mirage or haze as they are a feature of the atmosphere through which we observe any target. When you do use 50 power in good clear conditions, the image is crystal clear, edge to edge and the colour
40
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104