Reviews & Ratings for Nikon MONARCH 3 Rifle Scope w/ Custom XR Turret - 4-16x42mm — 2 reviews — Page 1

I purchased this for a long range build. All the features of the scope are great. I love the custom turret. The fact that you can dial multiple revolutions without losing your place. The glass is clear. It has a great side focus for parallax. Great build quality. Where this scope losses out is at magnification above 8x. Once you get above 8x and all the way to 16x the scope gets increasingly cloudy and the eye relief become much more sensitive. The slightest movement will cause you to lose your sight picture. If this scope was for medium range it would be fine, but the 10-16x adjustment is nearly useless. I opted for a Leupold Mark AR MOD 1. Better glass and eye relief. Also much lighter than the Nikon.

First off, I'm not down on Nikon. I have two other Nikon scopes a 3x P223 and a Prostaff 2-7x, and I have been very pleased with them. They have clear glass, hold zero, and I especially like the finger adjustable turrets with zero reset capability.
This Monarch 3 XR, 4-16x42 has been another story. The first one I received would not zero. The POI moved randomly around the target with no regard to the adjustment clicks. Needless to say I returned it to OP and they sent me a replacement.
I now have the replacement scope mounted and zero'd. The click values on this one are accurate, however the eye relief is very sensitive, and it takes a lot of head adjustment on the stock to get a clear sight picture. Move just a little and it blacks out. Also, the clarity on full zoom 16x is poor and neither the ocular focus nor parallax adjustment help much.
I expected much better from a scope at this price point and can't give more than 3 stars.