Sightron has been known for making riflescopes that are surprising good at their price point. The Sightron VIII - 8, (not V-I-I-I or V-3), is not now not just a good value, but is one of the best scopes in its class. I suppose it is like the scholarship student at the snooty prep school winning the highest academic award, or something along those lines. The top of the line Sightron scope has truly put the scope maker on the map. Sightron has always been a good scope, but this model is a great scope. And, Sightron has made a seismic jump. It has made the jump in magnification range from 5x to 8x. That is not easy. You might expect to see some distortion around the edges and eye box and eye relief, but none of that is here.
At its top-end 40x magnification with some of the best glass on the market, Sightron is placing itself in the same class as the higher magnification Vortex Razor, Schmidt and Bender PM-II, March, Nightforce and ZCO, to name a few. Scope buyers for both ELR and ultra-high precision air guns will want to take a hard look at the Sightron-8.
With 34mm and 35mm tubes having become become standards in the industry, and an occasional 36mm on the highest-end scopes, the SVIII boasts a 40mm tube. The SVIII from Sightron comes with ED glass, their ExacTrack W&E System, multi-coated lens, and a ton more features.
The SVIII 5-40x56 ED is a Zero-Stop First Focal Plane riflescope. It features ED Glass, a new internal zero-stop mechanism, and a First Focal Plane illuminated LRM reticle. Designed for long range target shooting and hunting, the scope provides 20 MILS of windage and 40 MILS of elevation with .1 Mil tactical knobs. The windage and elevation knobs have 10 MILS per revolution. The new 40 mm body tube is waterproof, shockproof and nitrogen charged. Minimum focus is 10 meters.
The SVIII features ED (Extra-low Dispersion) Glass provides Long Range Shooters the brightness and clarity required for accurate target acquisition. The large oversized tactical knobs are finished in black matte with high visibility markings to quickly identify your scopes settings. The Windage knob is marked for left and right so there is no second guessing when making adjustments. The new internal zero-stop mechanism provides a tactile and audible positive stop for dead-on zero settings.
For superior performance, Sightron created a new MC-777 multi-coated lens coating for increased light transmission and improved clarity. Sightron’s patented ExacTrack Windage and Elevation system is standard on all models. All reticles in this series are illuminated with a side mounted 11 position off/on rotary type dial which uses the CR2032 Battery. The side mounted focus system has been redesigned for improved minimum focus performance.
Opening the Sightron box, the first thing that hits you is: This is a massively large scope. At just under 17" and 3 pounds and the 40mm turrets and 56mm objective lens, this is a different unboxing experience altogether. When designing a scope, you want optical performance, reticle travel, clarity of picture turret manipulability, and low profile and light weight. Well, you cannot get it all, and when you are fitting in a high performing scope with many of glass parts, size and weight are going to suffer, and at Charlie's, we thing Sightron made the right trade-offs. This is not your grandfather's hunting scope.
Hold the scope, there is an immediate impression of outstanding quality. The design is quite spartan, but the emphasis is on mechanical and optical perfection.
The 40mm diameter gives a significantly-larger area through the tube. The 40mm area is more than 1/3 more than the area of 34mm scopes.
Leveraging the larger tube diameter, the Sightron SVIII 5-40×56 riflescope provides 40 MRAD of elevation adjustment. At 100 Yards, that represents no less than 140-Inches of elevation!
The 1/10 MRAD click adjustments for the turrets give increments of 0.36-Inch at 100 Yards. The turrets themselves are ideally-weighted for rotation and provide 10 MILS of adjustment per revolution. The clicks are all precise and easy to feel. There’s an indisputable feeling quality when making elevation and windage adjustments. The only thing missing in the rotation of the turrets is a top indicator of what rotation you are on, but that is easily seen at the bottom hash marks. The massive size of the turrets makes the clear, legible markings extremely easy to read. This is another big advantage for shooters: The smaller numbers at close distances and poor lighting are easier to see.
To engage the Zero Stop, the top knob comes off, and the precision engineering can be seen in the internal mechanisms of the turrets. The knobs are not lockable, which is a nice to have feature, but in positioning this scope against the Alpha scopes in the long range category certain trade-offs had to be made. Both turrets are equipped with Sightron’s exclusive ExacTrack adjustment system. This provides proper alignment between the adjustments and the erector tube by maintaining the same constant and accurate point of pressure at zero, right out to extreme adjustments. The result is consistent repeatability and accuracy of adjustment.
Image quality is extremely high. The Extra low Dispersion (ED) glass in this scope is not just a set of initials. Sightron has also employed an engineered internal optical design to minimize any distortion, but of course, this results in the added weight. with an unique optical design. In addition, its exclusive MC-777 multi-layer coating process is used on both surfaces of each lens within the optical path. The result is minimum internal reflection, strong resolution and high contrast images. The very bright image observed through the scope is also a product of this multi-coating, together with the large – 56mm – diameter of the objective (front) lens.
The left side turret houses the parallax correcting mechanism and, on the outside, the reticle illumination control. The parallax correction knob does not have distance figures marked on its circumference. There’s just hash lines.
The Sightron SVIII 5-40×56 riflescope does focus right down to a claimed 10 Meters minimum distance, which puts it on a par with the Nightforce ATACR 7-35 and March and ZCO scopes. While perhaps counterintuitive, this very low focal point is perfect for competition air gun shooters, who will be a sizable part of the market for this scope.
What you do not realize right away is: where on earth will I find the right rings for a 40mm scope? Well, maybe by the time you are reading this, Spuhr and Audere and maybe ARC, Badger and Geissele will have great third party mounts and rings. For now, Sightron includes a modest set of 40mm rings and an Allen wrench in the box
| Magnification | 5-40x |
| Objective Lens Diameter | 56mm |
| Eye Relief | 3.8 - 3.7 inches |
| Field of View -Meters | 7.22m - .9m @ 100 meters |
| Field of View -Yards | 23.7 - 2.97ft @ 100 yds |
| Tube Size | 40mm |
| Turret Style | Tactical (Resettable) |
| Zero Stop | Yes |
| Click Value | .1 MRAD @ 100 meters |
| Minutes Per Revolution | 10 MRAD |
| Max Elevation Adjustment | 40 MRAD @ 100 meters |
| Max Windage Adjustment | 20 MRAD @ 100 meters |
| Parallax Setting | 10 meters to Infinity |
| Focus Type | Side Focus |
| Reticle Type | LRM IR |
| Focal Plane | First |
| Illumination | Yes |
| Finish | Matte Black |
| Waterproof | Yes |
| Anti-Reflection Tech | MC-777 Fully Multi-coated |
| Fog Proof | Yes |
| Length | 16.8 inches |
| Weight | 49.0 oz. |
| Sunshade | Included |
| Manufacturer's Part Number | 29001 |
For a review, see Hard Air Magazine on the Sightron 5-40x56 / 40mm ED Illuminated Scope
Photos courtesy of Sightron Optics, Hard Air Magazine and Recoil Magazine.
Sightron
Vortex