It is hard to believe that the first dedicated Nightforce tactical scope, the NXS, came out over 25 years ago, and that excellent scope is still in production and has built a solid reputation as a durable and high quality scope. But the NXS has always had its flaws and while Nightforce has introduced even higher end models, such as the USMC adopted ATACR, there was room to make some changes and improvements to the NXS and that is where the NX8 fits in. We wanted to take an in depth look at the NX8 and see how it compares to the venerable NXS and see just how well it stacks up against the competition and in order to do that, we decided to bring in the 2.5-20x50mm model in the F1 guise which incorporates a first focal plane reticle, in this case, the MOAR.
The NX8 comes in a traditional Nightforce box and includes an owners manual, a removable throw lever, and the now common Nighrforce triangle Allen wrench used for slipping the dials and adjusting the zerostop. The scope also includes the very nice Nightforce flip up scope caps as well, but we also noted that the scope does not come with a sunshade like some of the other NF scopes. When you open the box the first impressions of the scope are positive with a quality appearance and feel and the hand signed inspection sticker has always been a nice touch and reassurance that the scope is well made. As is normal on every scope review we do, one of the first things we check is the country of origin on the bottom of the scope, and while we hate to say it, we have come to discover that it really does matter. Like the other high end offerings from NF, the NX8 is made in Japan and each has a serial number stamped on the bottom as well.
Starting our examination of the scope at the eyepiece, we quickly notice the first big difference between the NX8 and older NXS, the zoom ring is separate from the eyepiece. This has long been one of the criticisms of the NXS, that the entire eyepiece rotates when changing the magnification, this has been eliminated with the NX8. The eyepiece is now separate and rotates to adjust the diopter in what we term a “slow adjust” eyepiece with very fine threads to precisely tune the diopter to an individual shooter. The knurled lock ring at the front of the eyepiece is somewhat difficult to grab and loosen, especially when it comes from the factory tightened to the extreme like our test scope.
The zoom ring itself is moderately sized and not too tall and has a similar knurling as the diopter lock ring but it also has a raised portion with a threaded hole to accept the included throw lever if the operator chooses to use it. The area of the ring that has the power markings is canted slightly toward the shooter to help with visibility while behind the scope. The full power range from 2.5-20x covers exactly half of the ring, or 180 degrees, and the ring is very smooth through the entire range with an even amount of pressure being required throughout. It is not too stiff, but the throw lever does make it even easier to grab and adjust from the prone position behind the rifle. There is an indicator mark a the 12 O’clock position of the tube to indicate what power the scope is set at, but it is not really visible from behind the scope.
In front of the power ring there is about 2.55″ (65mm) of scope tube to use for mounting the rear scope ring. The tube is a 30mm diameter tube, which is typically the sweet spot between size and weight versus room inside the tube for internal scope adjustments. At the front of this portion of the tube, there is a rounded shoulder where the scope dials are mounted. Compared to many other tactical scopes, the shoulder is smaller and more elegant which we appreciate versus some of the blocky styles that have become popular.
On top of the scope shoulder is located the large external elevation knob with knurling on the top half of the knob. There is one level of markings covering a full 20 MOA of elevation in a single rotation with horizontal lines beneath the knob to use for tracking how many full rotations have been covered. The old original NXS scopes only had 10 MOA per rotation, but that has changed over the years. The NX8 also has a zero stop that can be set once your initial zero has been set to easily and quickly allow for coming right back to that initial zero. The 20 MOA of adjustment per rotation allows for taking a .308 using 175gr HPBT ammo from 100 yards out to nearly 700 yards before overlapping into that second rotation.
In order to get 20 MOA of adjustment into a single rotation, the clicks are packed fairly close together which can lead to unintentionally clicking one or two extra clicks past the desired amount. The clicks themselves are very nice with a very nice tactile feel and an audible indication. The factory indicates that the scope has 110 MOA of elevation adjustments and our test scope had 119.5 MOA, which is a good amount for a long range scope with modern caliber rifles.
On the right hand side of the scope is the windage knob, which makes a departure from the NXS series in that the windage knob actually has a dust cap. Because of this, the knob size itself is smaller than the elevation knob, but still incorporates the same 20 MOA of adjustment per revolution. The markings have a L or R indicating which direction the adjustments have been made and with a full 10 MOA of adjustment before the overlap happens. This allows for shooting a .308 in a 10 MPH direct crosswind out past 1000 yards without overlapping L and R markings. Because the knob is physically smaller, there is less leverage and dialing in just a click or two without overshooting your mark is a bit more of a challenge.
On the opposite side of the scope is the adjustable objective, or focus knob. The size and shape of this knob is the same as the elevation knob and its controls are the typical style found on all modern tactical scopes. There are not any specific range markings on the knob but just hash marks of different lengths to indicate close or far. There is the infinity mark at the upper end of the knob. The nice thing is that the full range of adjustment covers nearly the entire knob which allows for more precise focusing due to the longer adjustment range.
On top of the focus knob, located in the center, is the illuminated reticle control button. Nightforce calls their illuminated reticle the DigIllum and the button is the digital controls of the illumination. The entire reticle lights up and the button is somewhat unique, though more and more scopes are moving toward this type of design. Just press the button for 1-3 seconds to turn the illumination on or off. Quickly pressing the button and releasing it will brighten the reticle until it hits the max, and then it will reverse direction and dim the reticle until it hits the bottom of the range. There appears to be 6 brightness settings and it will flash 3 times when you have reached the limits, top or bottom. If you hold the button for 5 seconds, it will change from red to green or back again. The whole process is somewhat more complex than it needs to be and is not as straight forward as a traditional knob system, but it does work. Our biggest gripe with the system is that the dimmest setting is way too bright for typical illuminated reticle use. In an effort to no drown out the target area, the illuminated reticle should just barely be visible, but that is not the case here even on the lowest setting.
In front of the shoulder, the forward tube area is only about 1.25″ (32mm) long which is not a lot of area in what to locate the forward scope mounting ring. But with the normal use of single piece rails, it really is not an issue these days. The scope tube ramps sharply up to the bell housing where the 50mm objective lens is housed. The bell is threaded to accept a sunshade, or in this case, the nice Nightforce flip up scope caps.
Overall, the scope is very well made and is a robust, but compact size. All of the markings on the scope are easy to read and the anodizing is very even and of high quality. The scope does come with the traditional Nightforce lifetime warranty and the folks in Orofino Idaho where they are located are always nice to work with. Nightforce has an excellent reputation and we have not had any issues with the several Nightforce long term scopes (15+ years) we have had on our rifles here and we expect no different with the NX8, but we cannot base a scope review on reputation alone. We needed to mount the scope and put it through its paces.
For the shooting portion of our test, we mounted the scope to our Remington 700P test mule rifle chambered in .308 which has a Warne steel 1-piece 20MOA canted rail. We used a set of Nightforce 30mm Ultralite “Low” rings (A118) and used our scope leveling tools to mount the scope. Because we were using a one piece rail on a short action Remington, we had no issues placing our scope rings and getting the scope mounted very quickly.
Our shooting day was on a brisk clear fall morning here in Montana with temps hovering just above freezing but with the sun shining. This particular shooting area had targets out to 1 mile in which to examine the glass side by side with a Leupold Mk6. It was difficult to determine any differences, the glass on both scopes is of very good quality. Throughout our shooting, the nice elevation clicks were noted, but the more difficult windage clicks were a bit of a chore to deal with.
The MOAR reticle is a nice reticle of which we appreciate its clean design with minimal distractions beyond the numbering. Because this is the F1 version of the scope, the reticle is located on the first focal plane and grows and shrinks with any magnification changes and it all appears to be well sorted, but with an 8x magnification range from 2.5-20x, the numbers and markings are so small that they are useless at anything below about 6x. For a longer range scope such as this one, the practicality of an 8x range can be questioned, though the 2.5-20x is more practical than the 4-32x, but that is a debate for another day, or article.
If you are not familiar with how we test scopes, please read this article here. Using some Federal Gold Medal match ammo, the rifle and scope zeroed very easily and the clicks and adjustments are repeatable and seemed to track well during this portion of the test. To test the click sizes, we did our typical test of shooting one group, which measured about .8 MOA, dialed in 20 MOA of left, then shot another group, this one was .4 MOA, and then finally dialed back in 20 MOA of right and fired a final round to insure it came back to the first group, which it did. We then measured the distance between the groups at 21.06″. 20 MOA at 100 yards technically measures 20.94″, but because there is error in this test introduced by group sizes, we allow for 5% of error to be considered passing, and anything below 3% to be excellent. The error for the NX8 measured only 0.6%, so we were very pleased with that result.
One of the areas where scopes with a large magnification range, such as 8x or 10x, tend to falter is with the internal mechanisms that have to adjust through that entire range as all those moving parts shift inside of the scope. This usually becomes apparent with reticle drift that happens when changing the zoom from the lowest to the highest setting, or when adjusting the adjustable focus. To test for these we mount a bore sighting grid to the rifle and then watch for any drift during these adjustments. For the NX8, the reticle stayed planted throughout its entire zoom range of 2.5-20x, but we did notice reticle drift on the very low end of the parallax adjustment range. This is not uncommon and for a scope with this magnification range, we are okay with some drift when focusing on a target that is only 30-60 yards away. The reticle was solid on the entire focus range above this area.
While the bore sighting grid is mounted, we also adjust the scope through a wide range on both the horizontal (windage) and vertical (elevation) axis to check to be sure the reticle does not wander while moving along each plane. The NX8 did very well here as well which was no surprise given its precise adjustments during the shooting phase. Operationally, the scope is a solid performer and should do well for most shooting scenarios.
The NX8 scope with its 30mm tube is a less substantial scope than the ATACR scopes and the 8x magnification range covers just about every shooting scenario. But while the scope is a very good all around scope, there are a few niggles we did not like such as the windage controls and of course the illuminated reticle limitations. But the real question is would we be comfortable taking this scope into combat with us? Yes, we certainly would, and that is really where the rubber meets the road. Not too long ago a $1900 scope would be considered at the top of the price spectrum, but now, its is considered the upper middle tear in terms of pricing, but it is still a lot of money. Thankfully though, you do get a very solid and competent scope for that money, which earns it the SC Endorsement tag.
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