Well here it is, my new made in Japan Razor HD II 1-6. Is this the Rifleman’s Glass I have been looking for?
No need for a full review; this optic has been reviewed to death and has a reputation among the three gun crowd. They trust it; I have no question it will perform as expected. So why did I choose THIS 1-6x variable? Going into this shooting season, I want to be the guy with one gun. One Gun. I want to shoot across the course and then rock the rifle at local carbine competitions with the season hopefully culminating with a 3 gun event.
I needed one optic to do all the jobs.
I initially wanted a 2.5-10 with all the *perfect* features. Zero stops, daylight bright illuminated reticule, a 2nd focal plane that offered a clean sight picture, 1/2 x 1/2 turrets with an MOA / MOA setup, lower on the weight, 32 mm objective, all kinds of crap. I hunted for days but couldn’t find what I wanted. Instead I compromised.
I purchased the Razor HD II as the do all optic. It only meets some of the criteria above, but let’s take a look at why I think it can swing every sport I could throw at it:
Anata wa hontōni nihonjin ka? Un!
Razor HD: Made in Japan
The optic tells you where it’s from. Not China, not the Philippines, but Japan. I have done a bit of research about Japanese glass and at one point I was in talks to import some classic bodied Colt 4x carry handle style optics years ago. It didn’t pan out due to crazy life circumstances. My family is three members less since I moved to my current state and I have moved homes twice in 4 years. I couldn’t swing the imports but In the process I learned that Japanese glass is well received as it is made to high standards like many other Japanese products.
The Razor HD II keeps up with that Japanese quest for precision. First lets discuss some negatives in relation to my old ACOG. The 24mm objective will gather less light than the 32mm objective of the ACOG. The Razor HD weighs 25 oz which is almost three times the weight of the ACOG. It requires an expensive mount. Adding the mount will make it weigh more than three ACOG 4x32s…
24mm Objective gathers less light than the ACOG, but the Razor makes up for that in other ways.
But it also does some things that my ACOG just didn’t have or couldn’t do. It has a wide eyebox with 3 inches of eye relief vs the 1.5 inches of the ACOG. A half-minute German #4 inspired reticle should allow me plenty of precision for any of my sports. The bullet drop JM reticle will get me on target fast from 0-600 yards and it was calibrated for a 18 inch barrel. The optic uses a 200 yard zero instead of a 100 like my old ACOG. The brightness is truly red dot bright at settings 5-10. Under the caps it has 1/2 x 1/2 minute adjustments for adjusting my dope which the ACOG could do, but with the tiny dials I would lose myself in the rotations. It is 6x vs 4x. Lastly, I can adjust the focus so the optic will always be sharp even if my current RX is getting a little old.
Hard to get lost on these dials. One full rotation is 50 MOA.
It takes 50 MOA of adjustment before the turret goes through one rotation on the elevation. I don’t have to worry about getting lost in the turret without a zero stop since I wont be turning it past one rotation EVER. I can adjust the elevation and windage on the fly for any High Power shooting, and I can cap those turrets when I take this gun to carbine events. At 1x the optic looks true to colors with both eyes, and it does a great job of looking nothing is there save for floating cross hairs.
I think it will fit the spirit of my project well. As soon as the mount gets here, I head back to the range to workup loadings for the Criterion Barrel and will be doing some additional accuracy testing.
The competitive season is quickly coming upon us. Let’s hope mastery of one gun can elevate my shooting this year to another level.
Nice, ive been looking at Primary Arms 1-6x but the weight and bdc have been a turn off for my go to carbine. I prefer mil dots with mil adjustments.
I think on an 18″ one rifle like yours it will work well. It will be heavy but not unbearable imo. I prefer pinned A2 front sights and i was curious why you went with a folder. Now I understand and think at 1x you made a good choice.
You’ve got a great build!
I’ve got one and love it. Built like a tank and heavy as one. True 1x, clear glass, no fish eye effect and multiple illumination levels. Night and day difference over the Burris MTAC it replaced.
Something about this reticle doesn’t make sense. Aren’t the horizontal hash marks half the size needed to be of any use?
According to Vortex (http://www.vortexoptics.com/uploads/web_man_rfl_razor-hd_jm-1.pdf) subtention for the hash marks are 2.865, 2.15, 1.7, and 1.435 MOA. At the range each hash is supposed to as a holdover for, this equates to 9 inches (.75 feet / tand(2.865 moa) / (3 feet / yard) ≈ 300 yards).
I’d think that the hash marks would be much more useful for ranging a target of they were twice as long. You could use whole marks to range an 18″ target (average shoulder width) and still use half marks to range a 9″ target (dinner plate / 3 gun target?)
Am I missing something?
I’m not 100% sure on this, but I think that the hash marks in the JM-1 reticle are sized for wind calls, rather than ranging.
The answer, which I half expected, is that this reticle was designed for 3 gun, which used a lot of 9″ targets.
http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_2_277/263404_JM_1_Reticle_Subtention.html&page=1#i2617444
The hash marks are sized to line up with an MGM flash target, which as noted is the most common long range target in 3-gun.