need opinions

between these two scopes, which would you say has the better glass ?  (clarity)

I myself have never looked threw a  IOR  , but i have a lot  of NF I myself don't care for them. over rated for the money.

I've never looked through that particular IOR, but the IOR scopes I've seen had better optics than NF, though I think I like NF better from a mechanical standpoint.

I am partial to the IOR. That said though, the NF's that I have looked thru were quite good. I haven't had them both at the same time to be able to do any side by side.

For overall optical characteristics I would take the IOR.  For durability and optics not too far behind, the NF is the winner.  Very tough, call because the IOR's are not what most people would call flimsy.

If someone gives it to us for our birthday present, we takes either one, precious....

I have played with both and had the IOR quite some time (sold it to finance the 3-18x42 IOR which fit that gun better).

Both are good scopes, but optically IOR is appreciably better.  Mechanically, overall Nightforce scopes are probably tougher, but that depends on which IOR model you are dealing with.  I have not heard of any problems with the 2-12x32.

In the end it comes down to what you need and what rifle you are putting it on.

IOR will have better glass and appreciably wider field of view at all magnifications.  It has more field of view at 12x than the Nightforce does at 10x and the difference gets greater at lower magnifications. 

Nightforce has a bit more eye relief and larger W/E adjustment range.

Size wise, they are about the same, with Nightforce being a touch longer and IOR being two or three ounces heavier.  Neither is a lightweight scope though.

As far as reticle selction goes, IOR is only available with the MP-8, while Nightforce is available with four different ones.  In the end that comes out to whatever your prefernce is.  I like the MP-8 reticle and prefer it to most other similar designs.

One other feature to keep in mind is that IOR is equipped with a side-focus parallax adjustment, while the Nightforce does not have one.

My personal choice would be as follows:
If this is going on a hunting rifle with appreciable kick, I would perhaps lean toward the Nightforce with the longer eye-relief and the available FC-2 reticle.
For just about all other application I can think of, I would go with the IOR.  To me it is a more flexible design.

ILya

thanks guys for the input, it was alot of help. considering its a 5.56 round i think ill go with the IOR.  koshkin the mp-8 reticle you have, does it have the dot ? is the dot small enough for tight groups ? or is the plain mp-8 better for grouping ?

I wouldn't worry about the dot. You'll be able to use it for tight work group wise without problem.

cyborg, what reticle do you have ? another question i had was do either of you have the illumination and how affective is it ? is it worth getting on the scope ?

Mine had the older style MP-8. I love that reticle, I like the newer one also. Mine was illuminated, and I thought it worked very well. It was stolen, but I still remember how happy I was with it. I will one day have another one.

I really like the NF 2.5-10x32.  I like IOR glass, but have had - and heard of - issues with their tactical scopes and over-all Customer Service.  They do have great glass and their prices are lower than the NF.

It's a tough call.  I have had great success with Nightforce and have not had such good success with IOR.  That's isn't to say my experiences are not the opposite of some, or even the "norm", just what I know from personal experience.

cementhead wrote: thanks guys for the input, it was alot of help. considering its a 5.56 round i think ill go with the IOR.  koshkin the mp-8 reticle you have, does it have the dot ? is the dot small enough for tight groups ? or is the plain mp-8 better for grouping ?

RifleDude wrote: cementhead wrote: thanks guys for the input, it was alot of help. considering its a 5.56 round i think ill go with the IOR.  koshkin the mp-8 reticle you have, does it have the dot ? is the dot small enough for tight groups ? or is the plain mp-8 better for grouping ?   I'm not Koshkin, but I can speak to these questions somewhat, though not with regards to the 2-12X32.   If I'm not mistaken, I believe the MP8 reticle on the 2-12X32 is a first focal plane reticle.  If that's the case, the lines on the MP8 won't be as thin as the MP8 reticle on my IOR 4-14X50 Tactical, as mine is a second focal plane version.  For what it's worth, my reticle has the floating dot in the center you're referring to, and I love it!  I believe all the latest versions of the MP8 have the dot (Koshkin or anyone else, please correct me if I'm wrong).    The IOR MP8 is a fantastic reticle; and I can't think of another mil based reticle I like better than it for long range precision shooting.  However, if this scope has a FFP version of the reticle, you may sacrifice a tiny bit of precision for the desirable tradeoff of being able to more easily range targets at any power setting.  So, to me, everything would depend on how you intend to use the scope.  The NF will have a SFP reticle.  The only application where I personally would prefer SFP is if the scope was used primarily for group shooting on paper and/or shooting small varmints like prairie dogs.  Varmint shooting is what I use mine for, so SFP fits the bill perfectly.  For all other purposes, I would rather have FFP.   Koshkin is correct that the IOR has significantly wider FOV than the NF.  In comparing my NF and IOR scopes side by side, I think they both have about equivalent center field resolution, but the NF optics has lower contrast than IOR, and the IOR has a wider central "sweet spot" and considerably better low light performance.  I much prefer the NF's side mounted illumination switch with broader intensity range over the IOR's eyepiece mounted controls that don't quite get as dim as I'd like.  I also prefer the NF's W/E knobs over IOR by a considerable margin.   If it was somehow possible to squeeze the IOR's optics into the NF's tube, using the NF mechanics and cleaner external appearance, I would buy several of the resulting scopes!

IOR 2-12x32 is a SFP design.  The reticle has a small aiming dot in the center and it is certainly a fine enough aiming point for precise shooting.

ILya

koshkin wrote: IOR 2-12x32 is a SFP design.  The reticle has a small aiming dot in the center and it is certainly a fine enough aiming point for precise shooting. ILya

thanks guys for the help. its a tough call, they both seem like good scopes. i saw here on this site where IOR has a new scope out 2-12x36 with a bdc reticle and a 35mm tube. anybody try one of these out yet ? or even hear anything about them from anyone from