Very clear glass, odd illum control - Vortex Razor HD LHT 4.5-22x50mm 30mm Tube First Focal Plane Rifle Scope

I mounted this scope on an 18” Aero Precision SPR-style rifle using an Aero Precision Ultralight SPR mount.

The weight of this scope is very light for the features and quality, so Vortex did a great job meeting the goal of making a crossover tactical/hunting scope! The glass is superb, and I find myself not using my spotting scope inside of 300 yards. I really like the thin bezel. It nearly disappears when you’re behind the scope. The reticle is well conceived and provides the necessary information without extra clutter obscuring the target environment.

The negative aspects I’ve noticed are minor, more annoyances than anything:
1. The illumination is not daylight bright. Using the brightest setting in full sun against a target in the shade, the illumination is a subdued red, almost maroon. This probably works find at dawn and dusk, but it left a lot to be desired during the day. For comparison, it’s not nearly as bright as a Primary Arms illuminated optic; however, this may be a design choice to prevent reflection inside the scope.
2. The illumination control is a poor design choice. It’s usable, but I think the tradeoff for weight reduction vs user experience isn’t worth it. The button is not very tactile, requiring a precise press to produce a tactile click. A rotary knob with ‘off’ stops between brightness settings would have been my design choice, even if there was a small weight penalty. The poor user experience of the push button overshadows any weight benefits, imo.
3. Little progressive zoom between 18x and 22x. This could be due to physics or a mechanical limitation, but the zoom from 4.5x to 18x is smooth and progressive with markings for even numbers. Then, with little movement of the zoom collar, it jumps from 18x to 22x with no marking for 20x. Is this a gimmick? The eye box and eye relief at 18x is fairly generous. It quickly becomes quite restrictive with a comparatively small rotation of the zoom collar. I’m sure I’m not understanding something about the physics. As a pro, the eye box is actually pretty good at maximum zoom, better than other scopes I own that have much lower magnification.
4. Eye relief at high zoom levels may require special mounting on your rifle. (Note for beginners: always confirm eye relief at the maximum zoom level while mounting, as this is the most restrictive setting.) This is mostly an aesthetic issue for me, but it may be a fitment challenge for some. I used a cantilever mount specific for a high magnification optic, and the fit is acceptable on my AR. Even with the long cantilever arm, I still had to shift the mount a couple of T-notches forward compared to other scopes I own with 1-10x and 4-16x zoom levels. I see this being a problem on some bolt action rifles with smaller mounting rails because it will require careful selection of a scope mount to achieve the proper eye relief and interfacing between components.
5. Elevation turret is odd. I like the locking feature, but why make one rotation equal 6 mils instead of 5 or 10? This is just strange and makes the math unnecessarily annoying. If I need to come up 10.5 mils, for example, I can’t go 5 clicks past one full rotation. I have to scratch my head and read the turret closely. Who engineered this?

Conclusion. Do I recommend this scope? Yes, mostly for hunters. The glass is excellent for both hunters and long range shooters, but the design choices and controls leave a bit to be desired for long range shooters. There are better purpose built scopes for that particular application. Had I not gotten this scope at a discount, I probably would have been more selective in the feature set. For what I paid, I’m satisfied.