Long Range Shooting Review - Nightforce BEAST 5-25x56 F1 Scope Review

After three years use of the Nightforce BEAST F1 Scope with Tremor 3 reticle in the field mounted on various rifles, here are my thoughts.

The scope is the most expensive and chunky scope I have tried or owned (from over 50) and I have used it across the US, for hunting and target shooting out to long ranges.

It has worked flawlessly despite being thrown around in planes and vehicles, the same can't be said for the original rings supplied that constantly slipped and caused issues. Once I had switched out of those rings to various mounts from LaRue to Seekins all was solid.

The glass as you would expect is stellar, and the Tremor reticle looks "busy" with its Christmas tree and wind dots but has worked under very fast shooting conditions with no problem.

The only issues in a sense is that I have not really used the full benefits of this scope over others and that the ability to dial both 0.2 and 0.1 MIL on the turrets with a vast elevation range with a single turn of the turret (12 Mils per revolution) and great elevation adjustment in the scope: Elevation: 34.9 mils. Also, I have not made that much use of the reticle design for moving targets or wind.

So I love the glass, it suits my eyes better than some other high end glass I have tried, and I love the rugged design and simple reliable turrets. It tracks perfectly.

The things I like less about this scope are the weight, the overly complex zero stop setup and the larger/taller turrets.

I can't part with it, but I do use many of the other Nightforce scopes on my other rifles, all in first focal plane, from the base SHV on my Mountain rifle, to the ATACR line that offers similar glass without some of the extra features I don't use.

I have just acquired two NX8 scopes that I plan to use on my other hunting rifles, see the reviews of those for more details.

In summary, the BEAST is just that, a big, capable, reliable and great scope more suited to competition than carrying on the mountain where the extra weight and features come in the most useful! Yes i have carried around in the mountains, and yes it worked perfectly but I now prefer to find a compromise on weight/size vs functionality and that is where I hope the NX8 will be ideal.