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Nathan Foster

Hi John, yes its a tough call. I have been trying to convice Sightron to use the 3-16 S-Tac as a base design for a 16 power SIII but its taking some 'nagging'.

I was doing dog tuckers a few days ago, goats at 500 to 530 yards. Steph called 520 on one goat so I dialed up and got to work. The ranges changed as the animals moved but knowing the Practical, I really only needed a base setting, then aim with a wee bit of hold under for my first shot, neck shot second shot, neck shot third shot, body shot fourth shot, job done. The Practical is a very able cartridge. But I was using a 24 power which let me hone right in for the neck shots and the wind was in my favor so no major wind calls. I don't generally advise neck shots at this range, most folk are not able to practice enough to utilize this. Mentioning this here it is not really good leadership by example, especially when Mike is dispensing common sense advice on another thread regarding the 3" rule. That aside, with the 10 power, I cannot take any trick shots like this at longer ranges. It can shut you down a bit. It really depends on how you want to use the rifle, how far you want to push it.

I suppose one thing you could do, is try one of your existing rifles at 10x, see how you get on shooting targets out long. The 3.5-10 is a very able optic, fairly straight forwards to use at 600 yards but you may find that it gets a bit trickier to use at and beyond 700 yards if you do not practice with it regularly.

Sightron do have a 16x, but it the parallax ring is at the front and the turrets are 1/8 clicks. The scope is now also made in the Philippines rather than Japan. I have used thee original Japanese scope out to and beyond 1000 yards and its OK, but I would prefer to see the 3-16 S-TAC redesigned.