Went to do some 100 yard testing yesterday after installing EGW 20 MOA rail on the 10/22 and took Vortex Crossfire II 6-24x50 and Viridian 6-24x50 to compare.
Just as I got the Vortex scope zero'ed, another shooter (recently moved to the area) drove up and asked if he could set up next to me for 100 yard powder work up. I said "sure". He set up Savage 110 Elite Precision 300 PRC with Arken EP5 5-25X56 FFP MOA scope and bipod/monopod. I went, "Nice!" but I was hoping to do some scope comparison.
He asked if I verified distance to target and I told him I already "measured" to be around 100 yards. He pulled out a range finder and told me "105 yards" with a smile.
While he shot .3 gr powder charge increments, I was actually getting smaller 4/5 shot core group sizes around 1"-1.5" with Aguila 40 gr CPRN (He eventually got smaller groups on par with mine as his powder charges got higher). He looked at my Lead Sled Solo setup and told me he would pull out his Lead Sled on his next range test. We chatted while changing out targets and I switched out scope to Viridian and got to check out his set up and look through the Arken scope. Yes, turret definitely had a nice and positive "click" with bright and clear field of view and he said turret tracking was dead on.
With 20 MOA rail, for both Viridian and Vortex scopes, vertical reticle adjustment returned towards center (I was 6" off center with Vortex scope mounted out of the box with Monstrum V2 rings). Since bright sunlight comparison just shows bright clear field of view for my eyes with these 50mm scopes, I waited til later in the afternoon around 4:30 PM with target area darkened by shade. Comparing to Vortex and Arken, Viridian still produced sharp field of view without distortion to edge at 24x power but was not as bright as Vortex and Vortex produced slightly sharper image but inch grid target lines were clear and 22LR bullet holes were readily visible for Viridian -
https://www.thehighroad.org/index.php?resources/inch-square-grid.22/
While turret tracking improved, before I could repeat the box test, my group size began to increase likely due to barrel needing its third cleaning with round count approaching 6000 (10/22 barrel has been bore brushed twice). In comparison, Vortex turret felt mushy and vague.
So what do I think about the Viridian Serac?
Especially having looked through Burris FF E1 6.5-20x50mm and Vortex Crossfire II/Arken at low light shaded 100 yard inch grid targets, these are my thoughts:
- At $150 and free shipping, not sure if you could find a better scope in the 6-24x50/30mm tube with tactical locking turrets (and likely good lifetime warranty service through Viridian) that is sold under major brand name.
- Low cost Viridian 30mm high profile rings worked well (Only tested with 22LR)
- Came with flip up covers
- Side focus parallax verified accurate at 100 yards
- Turret with positive "click", locking rings and good tracking pending (Will repeat box test after cleaning 10/22 barrel)
- Full sun/low light shade brightness on par with Burris FF E1 6.5-20x50/Inch tube for my eyes
- For 22LR shooting at 50/100 yards, good low cost "consideration"
So what do I think about the Vortex Crossfire II?
- At $172 and free shipping (Now back to $299 everywhere) happy with bright and clear field of view, even under shaded low light viewing inch grid lines and 22LR bullet holes.
- Great lifetime warranty service
- Came with sunshade
- Adjustable objective verified accurate at 100 yards
- Capped turret that is mushy and vague
- Full sun/low light shade brightness on par with Burris FF E1 6.5-20x50/Inch tube for my eyes
- For 100 yard 22LR shooting, no need for tactical turret so Vortex Crossfire II with capped turrets would be fine
After cleaning the 10/22 barrel, will bring Bushnell D&D/Burris FF E1 to the next range trip.
