Pulled into the vortex - Vortex Viper PST 4-16x50 Riflescope

The Vortex PST, 4-16x50 PST is a scope which, if it bore a competitor's name, would cost twice the price, or more.

It utterly reeks of quality, care and precision in both design and manufacture. Not only in the handling and examination of the scope, but in the mounting, setup, zeroing and shooting in the field.

I found the adjustments to be exactly 1/4 MOA per click, with perfect tracking when "shooting the square", and a return to zero with a virtually meaningless error of less than 1/8th in. from the original 5 shot group.

Most importantly, the zero did not change throughout the zoom range.

The MOA/EBR reticle is a thing of wonder. Highly precise, without cluttering up the field of view, and being sufficiently "fine" as to not obscure the target.

Optically, the scope is astonishing at all magnifications, with neither pincushioun or barrel distortion. Lacking a standard USAF resolution chart, I can attest that at the 16x setting, that even the texture and fiber of the paper target were clearly discernable at 100 yds.

I did not observe any color shift or abberations while shooting in bright, normal sunlight. Having yet to use the scope in a dawn/dusk hunting situation, I cannot speak to those conditions.

Flare, chromatic abberations and other common flaws were absent in all instances.

My only wish for improvement on this scope, is a more positive "off" detent within the reticle illumination knob. It's too easy to unknowingly bump it into one of the "on" positions. I've used up a couple of batteries due to this. Were I to design it's improvement, the knob would be a "pull up to switch on" unit, with only the brightness settings affected by rotating the knob.

With that sole exception, I can give the Vortex Viper PST my strongst, most heartfelt reccomendation.

In every aspect except proven combat durability, this scope appears to be the equal (or superior to) any Leupold MkIV unit, and approaches the standard of a Nightforce scope. Only time, and .mil feedback from the front will provide those ultimate ratings.

If you're considering the purchase of a mid-price, high quality scope, this one should be on your final list for consideration.

Pros: Quality of scopes costing 2x more, or higher.
Cons: Minor quibble with reticle illumination control.

This review was written in the old system and had content requirements that are different than reviews written today.