I beg for forgiveness in my tardiness in posting up on SHOT. You've heard of the proverbial one-legged man in a butt kicking contest? For the last several months I have been the one-armed, two-arthritic-legged, insomniacal man in a getting-his-butt-kicked contest. I am only now catching up with the work that I left for later when I went for SHOT. Please to forgive your humble servant.
First up is :
Blaze.45 wrote:
Primary Arms 6.5CM Apollo
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Desert Tech MDR
Primary Arms 6.5CM Apollo.
https://www.primaryarms.com/pa-3-18x50m ... cm-reticle I spent about 35 minutes at the PA booth... Some of that time was waiting for an available rep, and the rest was spent with a rep name of Ian. He is an engineering support tech for PA, and the fellow who performs the endurance testing.
The bottom floor of the SHOT Show is not the most ideal environment for checking out the clarity of the glass of various scopes, but it did look good to my uncalibrated eye. I focused in on the furthest details which are usually pretty dark as I am looking up in the ceiling a few hundred feet away. I just hate looking through a rifle scope along where people are walking, even if said scope is attached to a fake rifle stock. It's just a terribly strong habit to try to break.
Objects like wiring and cables for hanging ventilation looked clear. Those small (1/8" maybe?) cables remained sharp despite the low light conditions in the ceiling.
Some specs of the Apollo scope :
SLx6 3-18x50 FFP3x-18x - 50mm obj.
~ 4" of eye relief. Pretty nice I thought.
12 Step illumination, powered by a CR232.
Locking turrets. (Pull up, adjust, push down to lock.)
Primary Arms Optics come in 4 "tiers" in ascending price/quality.
Classic CLx ("unlike some other brands, we don't use the word "value" as a euphemism for "junk." [...] budget conscious [...] We take the time to 100% inspect every product at our facility here in Houston..." ) No country of origin is named for their CLx line.
Silver SLx ("heart of our lineup") No country of origin is named for their SLx line.
Gold GLx ("all-new Gold Series, engineered in Houston and constructed in the Philippines [...] exacting standards. latest technology and upgraded materials... intuitive solutions")
Platinum PLx ("flagship scopes manufactured and assembled in Japan with superior glass clarity and best materials [...] maximize the capability of the latest ACSS reticles")
The 6.5CM Apollo is in the PLx tier.
The 6.5CM Apollo is in the SLx tier. Thank you for the correction Isildur.
Which brings us to the
ACSS reticles.
ACSS Reticle ImagesI'm easily impressed, being a country bumpkin who has loved the heck out of iron sights, but I think I was even more impressed with some of the ACSS details. I have heard many people talk about how some reticles are "too busy"... I have even parroted comments like that myself sometimes, because simple just seems to feel right(er) than busy.
But the truth is that for me I only see the part of the scope view that I need to see at the moment that I am looking through it. I mean that I am not distracted by all the other bells and whistles going on around my target inside the scope.
So, if you like the old school crosshairs more than BDC and new fangled wind hold dots, you may not enjoy the ACSS reticles as much as I do.
ACSS core features : (From several of the other scopes, core features listed in the PA catalog.)
1. Chevron tip provides infinitely small aiming point blah blah blah (I don't even notice anything other than the point.)
2. Bullet drop compensation ladder provides holdovers for increasing target range. Nice small ladder too. I like.
3. Wind hold dots provide holdovers for crosswinds as target distance increases.
4. Vertical and horizontal automatic ranging determines distance to target.
5. Moving target leads provide holdovers compensating for target speed.
6. Breathalyzer that paints a circle of expected inaccuracies based on BAC for a given distance to target (DMOA, or Drunk MOA.)
Alright you caught me. I made the last one up.
But the reticle is not too busy for me. I thought that in a long range target shooting situation, every one of those "busy" options could be very cool to have.
ETA : An image of the reticle for Apollo-6.5CR
Attachment:
ACSS-Apollo-6.5CR.jpg
Alright, a couple of details. Ian showed me a pretty nifty (aftermarket) fold out magnification lever.
The parallax adjustment is inside the illumination ring.
Lifetime Warranty : I love PA's description of their lifetime warranty.
Quote:
Limited Lifetime Warranty Products
If your Primary Arms Optics product is covered by our Limited Lifetime Warranty, you don’t have to be the first owner or even prove you bought it from us. Manufacturer defects, materials and workmanship problems, and even normal wear and tear are covered. Open box, blemished, or refurbished items with a lifetime warranty enjoy the same warranty protection as their new counterparts. Where repair or replacement for these products is not possible, credit will be given towards a new Primary Arms product.
I asked if this scope had been tested for 50BMG. A: No. Ian does the ruggedness testing with .308 to 1000 rounds.
The reason that he doesn't test for 50BMG? Costs too damned much. hahah
Also, he pointed out that PA is located in the city, and it's a bit of a pain to drive to a range that he can properly run out 1000 rounds of 50BMG.
This write up is done by a relative new guy to scopes. Have used them all my life, but generally leaned to iron sights and simple cheap scopes <$300. Any errors or omissions, please let me know and I'll try to get straightened up myself and fix the write up so as not to mislead others through my ignorance.