Range disgust.

Range time should never be associated with self-loathing, but nonetheless I am disgusted with today's session.  Even worse, it was a firearm range day:  rifle zeroing for hunting season (we start early up here).  Perhaps my mistake was that, owing to a years-long experience of very simple, straightforward zeroing sessions, I was mentally unprepared for things to go wrong.  They did.

The rifle was the Mannlicher Scout.  I had whomped up some handloads with 165s, and a backup set of 150s just in case the 165s didn't satisfy me.  The loading seemed to go swimmingly, and while I've only started to grind the reloadery into action recently, everything seemed to go well enough.  I carefully set once-fired-case shoulders back, had everything trimmed up nicely, and both gauge- and chamber-checked everything prior to leaving the house.

So, I was a bit surprised when cases were difficult to extract and two cartridges failed to ignite.  (One of those fired on a second strike, but the other didn't.)  The loads were acting much hotter than I'd have expected.  And I seemed to be chasing my sight settings all over the damn map, enough so that I probably should have just fired a few more rounds to make sure things could reasonably settle down.  With the cost of everything these days, this is really maddening!

Eventually I got frustrated enough that I put up a clean target and shot a few rounds of the factory FMJ ball that I keep with the Scout...and wouldn't you know it, they grouped, and at a point just about opposite of the cumulative back-and-forth of chasing the other stuff around.  Okay, so something--or multiple somethings--isn't right with the handloads.  Lovely.  And with my last couple rounds of ball, I believe I got the sights...right back to where they probably started the day.

The cosmic message was very clear, if aggravating:  given the now short time frame, acquire some factory loads for use this year, and don't mess around with load development until after the hunt.  Okay, I'm stubborn, but I will listen when a message is that freakin' clear.  Dammit.

(Okay, I realize that despite all my frustration, I must acknowledge that I still didn't fire a shot today that wouldn't have anchored an animal at the 100 yard line, and most shots up here are closer than that.  But still, I have a history with this rifle and I know what I can do with it, and it's frustrating to realize that something seems to be way off in my loads, and I need to scuttle them in favor of Plan B.  That's expensive in both time and money, at a time when I'm short of both.  But I'll do it, of course, because if I do get a shot I dang well want to know that if I fail it's on me alone.

Grumble.  I suppose I'm long overdue for such a hitch, but still...dang.

Squee. Assembly and first shots.

Boy, I have so much learning to do.  :-)

The AirForce TalonP arrived a couple days ago, along with the Leapers "scout scope" for sighting and the Hill pump to fill the tank.  Today, I got to put it all together and take the first shots.

I'd say "awesome", but that would shortchange the experience considerably.

So much of this is new to me that it will take a number of posts to cover it all, but I do intend to get around to it.  Here, I'll offer a simple pic or two and a short list of initial observations.  (And my next step is to tap the community of AirForce owners at Tom Gaylord's commentariat, for several no-longer-so-abstract questions.)

This is what I have now.  Stipulating that it is not yet tested, it matches the concept I had in mind nearly perfectly.

Click to behold the glorious embiggenationment of a totally quickie photo.

Really, all the elements except a viable Ching Sling are in place, and if this thing proves to shoot as configured, I'm going to be pretty stoked.

A few of the details of the other side (note the power adjustment wheel midway down the barrel housing, and the onboard pressure gauge at far right).

I was actually expecting that the scope just wouldn't clear the frame bridge, requiring me to get taller rings, but instead it just did.  Awesome.

Okay, so here's what I need to know next:

• What is the proper way to think about zeroing this airgun?
• How difficult should it be to rotate the power wheel?  (It seems really stiff.)
• Can the gun be dry-fired without the tank attached?
• What is the "lowest low" one can run the tank down to safely?
• What's the preferred way to store the gun?  This is more of a conundrum than you'd think, since if the action is closed and the power source (the air tank) is on the gun, it's kinda like storing a half-loaded gun (missing only the pellet);  and if the action is open, there's always the possibility of grit getting where it shouldn't.
• How might one go about getting a middle stud for a Ching Sling?

Here are a few observations in general:

• I do think this is going to be what I wanted it to be.  Sweet!
• There are so many details to this system that are new, to learn.  Sweet!
• There are several things that I now understand much better from having now held things in my hands.  Proportions and dimensions especially, but also more subtle things like the distinct advantages of the (two) different styles of onboard tank.
• I intend to try two different sighting systems, as I learn about the gun.  One is this Leapers glass, representing the potential ideal, and the other is a small, nonmagnifying dot sight, representing the potential for maximum compactness.  (I may even try a Leupold scout scope on it some day;  at one-third the weight of the Leapers glass, it may prove to be the right "in-between" option.)
• This, I think, is going to be how I really learn about sight offset.  Very well!

Here are a few about the gun:

• The power is obvious.  Steel rimfire spinners...spin.  No, it's not a .22LR, but I doubt I'll need to quibble about pellet weight for any of the game I'm thinking of pursuing up here.
• I now understand a lot better how this gun can be thought of as loud, for an airgun, while its stable-mate in the AirForce lineup, the EscapeSS, can show very nearly the same peak SPL on a simple meter, but be considered far quieter.  The shape of the sound signature seems to explain that, to my ears.  But...even though it is considerably louder than my Bronco, this is not a sound that is going to scare my girls, and that is important to me.
• The carbine-ness of it is right on.  Total length is 26" on the nose, with a 12" length of pull, and both sight height and cheek weld on the tank is comfortable.  The balance is definitely forward, with that giant glass, but it seems to mount easily enough.
• Trigger seems to be very workable, at least initially.  The (Garand-style) safety is smooth.
• I now understand the value of a valve protector.
• This is a very clever design;  unconventional looking perhaps but well-thought-out.

Here are a few about the scope:

• Holy crap-tons, Batman, this thing is large and heavy!
• Truly impressive light gathering and optical quality.
• Build quality seems pretty solid.
• The illuminated reticle gizmo may actually be useful, and "fails over" to plain black. 
• I look forward to learning the mil-dot system, at least for my airgunning.

Here are a few about the pump:

• I suspect I'm going to be happy I ponied up for the Hill unit (there are other hand pumps that are cheaper, but everyone seems to suggest that the Hill is truly that much better a pump).
• There are lots of little things that I'm learning about dealing with high-pressure air in a small tank.  For just one example, I've already noticed the gauge on the pump and the gauge on the AirForce tank being out of sync (and you're supposed to trust your pump, first!).
• Refilling in the field is a great idea, but must take into account that pump is heavy!  I may choose to acquire a spare tank or two for field work--they would be much more portable.
• It seems pretty clear that safety procedure for high-pressure air is worth investigating further.  Very well, here I go!

Yeah, that's "brief" for me.  There will be more later, when the new chronograph (many thanks to my parents for that) arrives and I get to do some meaningful performance testing, and of course for the zeroing operation.  Perhaps this weekend...  :-)

Squee.

Gear squee: the hunting airgun is ordered.

One of the things I simply must appreciate about airgunnery is that so much of The Stoopid that attends all things firearm is notably absent.  You can order, online from a site like Pyramyd Air, your favorite short-barrelled, folding-stock, sound-suppressed, full-auto rifle or pistol, with as much tactical plumbing as you care to hang off of it and ammunition by the five-thousand, and they'll ship it all to your door, for nothing more than a credit card number, with a smile and a thank you.

A lot of that gonzo stuff I've got little or no interest in, but that's just damn near civilized.

But there is a lot more in the realm of airgunnery than just things that bring out the tax-stamp crowd in the firearm world, and I now have the order in for my first general-purpose and hunting airgun.  For more than two years now I have followed airgun ace Tom Gaylord's outstanding blog, and my first two steps into the air-powered world (the Air Venturi Bronco .177 breakbarrel rifle and the Airsoft 1911 'green-gas' powered pistol), selected largely on analysis fuelled by Gaylord and his "commentariat", have been huge successes.  I've got a lot more planned with what I've learned, but between the economic realities of life in Alaska and spending so much time (absolutely by choice!) with the girls, I tend to do a whole lot of planning before the spending, to make sure that when the time comes, it's done wisely.  And so there is...rather a lot of mental energy behind this order.

I wanted short, light, and more than enough power for the local spruce grouse and snowshoe hares that are the intended quarry for hunting.  Firearm folks have a (very) general rule of thumb for establishing "enough" power for hunting big game, whereby a cartridge that develops 1000 foot-pounds of kinetic energy is considered adequate for taking deer-sized game, and 2000 fpe is considered adequate for elk, moose and bears.  (This oversimplifies, of course, but lots of people are aware of the measure and thus it is a helpful point in discussion.)  In a similar way, the airgun world considers a 12 foot-pound airgun to be adequate for squirrels, many birds, and cottontails, and a 20 fpe airgun to be adequate for larger woodchucks, raccoons, and critters of that size.  (There is a further world within airgunnery that uses larger bore sizes and larger projectiles to go after even bigger game, but that's a specialty and not the mainstream.  I may well get there, but first things first.)

There are actually a number of choices that would have fit the power bill, but most of those are the size of (large) firearm rifles, and as heavy, with lots of attributes that I don't like.  Ultimately, I narrowed it down to two candidates:  the Benjamin Marauder pistol, and the AirForce TalonP pistol.  The "P-rod", as the Marauder pistol is known, would have been a fine choice, with the advantages of being an 8-round repeater, internally sound-suppressed (we're talking under 100 dB peak, and most of its sound well below that level), more efficient in shots-per-fill, and somewhat less expensive to feed with .22-caliber diabolo pellets.  It develops 15 fpe, which is hot stuff for an airgun with just a 12" barrel, and is plenty accurate enough to put pellets of 14-28 grains into sub-1" groups at 25 yards.  It comes with both a plain pistol grip and a carbine buttstock attachment, which I would just use permanently.  That one is, absolutely, planned for the future, but for the first one, I went with the AirForce gun.

 Click to embiggenate.  (It's worth it.)

Like the P-rod, the TalonP is a "precharged pneumatic" airgun, and one of its selling points with me is that (again like the Benjamin) its air tank is small enough that it can be reasonably filled in the field by hand, with a hand pump that resembles a bike pump built for truly high-pressure air (2000-3000 psi).  It doesn't get nearly as many shots per fill as its larger-tanked AirForce siblings, but for hunting especially, the idea of 10-15 full power shots before a field-fill, instead of nearly 100 shots before requiring a scuba tank, doesn't bother me at all.   And, the large-tank AirForce rifles do not permit shortening their very long length of pull, which is an important thing for me.  (The basic AirForce gun design is very clever and modular;  one of the nifty points is that the air tank actually serves as the buttstock.)  The TalonP and the Escape rifle series (derived from the TalonP), though, use this smaller tank and then add an adjustable buttstock extension that allows you to set your length of pull from 14 all the way down to 10 inches.  Bingo!  I can set it at my preferred 12" or 12.5", or down even lower for when my kids are ready to start shooting airguns.

The basic frame design will remind firearm folks of an AR, in having an EBR aesthetic and considerable modularity.  AirForce advertises it as a shooting system, and they do have a point, with interchangeable barrels, tanks, and of course rail-mounted gizmos.  One of the design points I intend to take advantage of is an adapter that turns the standard 11mm airgun dovetail atop the barrel into a Picatinny/Weaver mounting surface, and elevates nearly to the level of the frame's top-bridge so that the whole thing is nearly a flattop surface.  If I've done my pencil work correctly, this is going to permit me to mount an actual scout scope out there in front, and I've been meaning to try out the new Leapers glass anyway, so if this works, I'm not just going to have my first hunting airgun, it's going to be a "scout-style" airgun. 

The AirForce design is a single-shot, with a bolt that you push forward to open and backward to close.  My biggest concern with that is how easy it will be to load individual pellets in the cold (snowshoe hares are hunted from August through March, and definitely through the winter), but other than that, the design seems like a proven winner.  I'm not worried about it conflicting with my firearm technique, since it's not a repeater, but on the other hand, with a Garand-style safety, forward glass, short LOP and reportedly excellent trigger on it, I do suspect I will be tempted to work snapshots. :-)   I don't know yet for sure, but I may even be able to fit a Ching Sling on it somehow, which would make it an awesome little field piece.

And then there is the power.  The TalonP is a .25 caliber gun, which is known to propel its 25-43 grain diabolo pills fast enough to achieve nearly fifty foot-pounds of energy.  (Consider that 9-pound "magnum" spring-piston rifles, usually about 45" long and requiring forty to fifty pounds of force to cock for each shot, generate less half that figure.)  Being unsuppressed, it's known to be louder than the P-rod (peak SPL is about 103 dB, and much of its sound signature is up near that peak), but it's still far quieter than any .22 Long Rifle*, and yet nearly half the power.  (The Escape rifle series, which is based on the TalonP's frame and tank, can generate nearly 100 foot pounds with a 24-inch .25 caliber barrel, and I could achieve basically that same performance by swapping out my 12" barrel for a 24".  Maybe someday, but for now at least I want the short:  the TalonP with LOP set at 12" is going to be about 26" long, where even the P-rod is going to go at least 30", and my "short" Steyr Scout .308 is starting to look enormous at 39".)

It's going to be overkill for snowshoe hares, for sure, and even moreso for spruce grouse--at least at close range.  But that much power also means I've got a lot more available range to work with, and the AirForce guns are renowned as tack-drivers.  What this all means is that I should be able to apply that power out to ranges that are very unusual for smallbore airguns, with the accuracy required to hit reduced-sized targets.  (Check out Tom Gaylord's series on the TalonP.)

I'm psyched about this project.  It's the product of a lot of cogitation and learning, and may well represent "starting at the top" for design and function, for what I wish to do with it.  I do have long-term plans to add a few others to the stable, including the aforementioned P-rod in carbine form (having a 15 fpe airgun, especially one renowned for being so quiet and an 8-round repeater to boot, will be a nice niche to fill), an AirForce EscapeSS in .22 caliber (for the ability to shoot the cheaper and more ubiquitous .22 caliber pellets at the 50fpe level with sound suppression), a Crosman 1322 iron-sight carbine for fun (and, its ~5fpe level is certainly adequate for birds and squirrels at close range), and a good .177 pistol for developing pistol accuracy (I'm currently leaning toward the CO2-powered replica of the S&W M&P 45, for that, but the jury's still out), but one must begin somewhere, and this seemed to be the right combination of desiderata to serve the most purposes.

Now, to wait.  Then, the squee.  And then, the T&E.  Finally, with a little luck, a day on snowshoes with the five-year-old, a hare or three within range, one good shot each, and the subsequent task of figuring out how to prepare the little beasties for the table.  :-)


_______________________
* A .22LR out of a rifle generates around 140 dB, and adding a good suppressor reduces that to between 115 and 120 dB.  Even loud airguns are quieter than suppressed firearms, and some airguns, such as the P-rod's big brother the Marauder rifle, are known to be so quiet that the loudest sound you hear is the (muffled) thonk of the hammer knocking open the air valve.

Gunsmoke projects may be completed soon!

As it happens I had several fairly exciting phone calls today.  Of those, the one I was not expecting was the one from Gunsmoke in Denver, and boy, was that an exciting call.  It seems that my last two 'smithing projects--the ones I left when we moved to Alaska nearly six years ago now--have now come up for completion, and I wound up talking with the smith actually working on each piece.

Want to get me giddy with excitement?  Discuss the details of a 1911 or scout rifle construction project.

Heh...how about a twofer?

Sounds like the 1911 project (LW Officer's frame, Commander slide) is already nearly completed, and the smith felt the existing barrel should be replaced (locking lugs were worn), as long as we were doing all the extra work.  This certainly should not hurt the accuracy of the piece, which is already probably better than I am, and as the saying goes I have never regretted an investment in quality in Things Gun.  So, in addition to the frame slimlining (a feature I have become a firm believer in), improved sights, and general smoothing things up, this piece will now come with a handfitted barrel.  Yeah, I'm looking forward to confirming that it runs;  after that it will probably only rarely measure much below body temperature.  :-)

That news was awesome enough by itself, but then I got handed over to the fella working on my 03 Springfield, which I'm having done up as a "Springfield scout" as the late Col. Cooper would have called it.  After all this time it's almost hard to believe it's actually happening.  The rifle was my grandfather's, and I wanted to turn it into something that I would reach for frequently--which is not a trivial consideration, given that my stable also contains the magnificent Marlin 45/70 (another Gunsmoke project from some years back) and a Steyr Scout.  I had a definite image of what I was after here...and in the end it looks like we may do even better than that.

I'd requested an improved trigger and a more ergonomic safety than the 03's original swing-over design;  I hadn't realized that the replacement trigger unit actually incorporates its own Remington M700-style safety, solving both problems at the same time with just a little fitting.  The smith discussed how to feng shui the '03's bulky cockingpiece and removal of the original safety lever, and I think the result should both be very aesthetically pleasing and highly ergonomic.  (I was impressed in listening to his eye for design--which sounds counterintuitive but it came through nonetheless.)  We discussed the barrelband front and ghost-ring rear reserve iron sights, and the mount for the forward glass.  After discussing it a bit, I think I will indeed have him acquire and mount one of the new Leapers glasses out there, and will revert to a standard Leupold scout scope if for some reason the Leapers doesn't work.  He wanted to confirm that I really did want a short length of pull on my stock (I requested 12.5" even though I'm a pretty big guy;  I became a fan of short stocks years ago and see no reason to change that now...), and we set the barrel and Ching Sling specifics.

Then he made a suggestion that I'm still squee-ing over a bit:  he suggested that he might be able to incorporate a detachable magazine not just on the rifle, but in the buttstock as well, a la the Steyr.  Oy vey!  I'd figured I'd stick with the 03's standard, blind, 5-round magazine, which features the very clever cut-off system that permits single-loading above a full magazine, and simply use the 5-round buttstock cuff as the reserve ammunition supply.  But hold the phones, now...a 5- or 10-round magazine in the rifle, and a 5- or 10-rounder in the buttstock as backup...that would indeed be quite a nifty feature.  He asked me if I would consider converting to .308, since he might be able to adapt it to M14 magazines, and if I didn't already have the Steyr I'd be tempted to do that.  But I want this to remain a .30/06, mostly because I want to run 200-grain bullets for hunting large critters, and while the .308 is essentially the same for most loadings, with bullets of 200+ grains the '06 really does have a measurable advantage...and critters up here do tend to run on the extra-large side.

I told him I'd mull that magazine idea, and he's going to get me an estimate of how much extra that would add to the cost of an already extensive project.  I'm sure it will not be cheap, but again, I've never regretted spending for function, and if a detachable 10-round magazine can be done well, then...daang.  I admit I'll then have something I've never seen before.

But the prospect here is so exciting, I may have to start loading for '06 starting, like...now...just to keep from getting overheated.  :-)

And...I loves me some Pyramyd Air.

Wow, that was quick.

Here's the deal, briefly:  

If you know anyone who is either already into the Jeff Cooper "scout scope" concept, or who would like to try it out,  please pass on this news.  A promising new glass from Leapers is now available, and the outstanding folks at Pyramyd Air have agreed to carry it.  It may not be for everyone, but it seems worth trying out.

Here's the story:

It was only recently I found the back-post on Tom Gaylord's blog about SHOT Show 2013, in which he reported on a new scout scope offering from Leapers, a variable-power glass promising a full field of view.  (For anyone who has been around the scout scope concept for a while, that is a Big Deal.)  I must have missed it the first time around (I've been reading Tom's outstanding airgun blog for over a year now), and frankly I don't remember exactly what it was that caused me to look there so long after the fact, but Hugo Foxtrot Sierra, am I glad I did.  :-)

And it now seems that Pyramyd Air will carry the glass.  The funny part is that I may have had a small hand in that.  At the bottom of the comment stream to the SHOT post (the thread starts here), you can see me getting all excited about it, offering up some reasons I think people might be interested in the scope.  And suddenly Tom reports that Pyramyd Air will indeed stock it.

Awesome.  I look forward to seeing what they offer it for, if MSRP from Leapers is $200.  (I don't have a Spidey-sense yet for how street prices and MSRP relate in the airgun world.)  That already seems like a great value for what this represents.

The planning part of my mind has already decided that I may need at least three of these.  (That part doesn't bother to wait around for the fiscally responsible part, before making plans.  :-)   Provided that the glass does what it seems to promise, I'm currently thinking of using it on the following:

• An '03 "Springfield scout" .30/06.  I originally conceived this as a backup to the Steyr, and it would remain that, but...with a 2-7x variable that gives up nothing but (a lot of) weight to the fixed 2.5x, this might well become the primary hunting rifle as well.  Left at 2x, but with the ability to dial up to 7 if appropriate...with significantly improved field of view and light transmission from a 30mm tube and 44mm (adjustable) objective...with adjustment-friendly turrets and available illumination on an etched reticle (i.e., not subject to breakage, and simply black on any illumination failure)...and for $200 or less?  Hell yeah, I'll try that out.


• The Benjamin Marauder .22 air pistol I've got such a jones for right now.  The trick will be mounting, but if that can be sorted out this would seem to be a great fit.  The "pistol" comes with a carbine buttstock, and I would think the advantages of the scout scope would fit that system very well.  Among other things it would clear up the loading area for the rotary pellet magazine.  With airguns especially, if I am learning things properly, the advantages of an adjustable objective and adjustment-friendly turrets are considerable.


• An as-yet-to-be-conceived Airsoft bolt rifle.  The way discussions are going with Tom Gaylord's commentariat, it seems that a spring Airsoft bolt rifle just might be capable of enough precision to make a viable firearm trainer, and so the idea of building one up as an "Airsoft scout" is up in the fore-brain right now.  Again, the trick will be mounting, but I'm hopeful on that.  With the magnification left low and/or the target perspective considered carefully (smaller targets for the closer ranges), this might allow a whole lot of practice cycles for a very efficient use of funds.


• A flattop AR .223.  As I learn more about the AR platform, I find myself coming back to the idea that it might be possible to set up a carbine with scout features.  For a while it seemed like this would be counterproductive, but I'm not at all sure that's right any more.  And the Leapers unit would make lots of sense on a gun I see as being a real sport-utility piece (defensive, varminter, and with Barnes X-bullets, some light big game at moderate range):  friendly adjustment turrets, a useful magnification range, and all the available speed of the intermediate eye relief concept.  The way the AR is arranged, the scout scope is not an essential item the way it is on a traditional rifle (the other AR setup option for me is to use a conventional glass along with the "backup irons" that are offset 45 degrees from the top rail, which is actually more intuitive than I'd have guessed) but the consistency and redundancy of using the same scope style across everything still appeals, and may not give up much in the end.

And of course other ideas percolate as well.  The Marauder (air) rifle might also benefit from the magnification range and adjustments;  it seems that lots of people put much bigger glass on their "M-rods", but jeez, with the Steyr I can hit reliably at 400 with a 2.5x, so I'm still thinking that an available 7x is going to be plenty for even a long-range airgun.  (Do these guys know something I don't?)  As well, if I do get serious about Airsoft (and I suspect I will, soon), it would be smart to set up an Airsoft AR the same way the firearm is set up, both with the glass and any backup irons, Ching Sling, etc.  (And then there are the .22 rimfire versions of both the bolt-gun and the AR carbine, which would also benefit from setups that mirror the centerfires they support...  See where I'm going with this?  :-)

The 2.5x Leupolds will still stick around, of course.  They work well, at least out to the limits of which I am capable.  The Steyr will continue to wear its original glass (I know exactly what I can do with that system, and feel no need to change it), and I like the idea of having quick-detach scout scopes available for rifles whose primary sighting system is irons, like the Marlin 45/70.  Clamp the scope on for load development, then remove to set zero and carry afield.  Or, hunt with it--certainly wouldn't be the first time!

I'm excited about this new option.  (Can you tell?)  Call it enthusiastically hopeful.  Now, it's certainly possible that the new Leapers glass offers little advantage to someone who already understands the scout scope concept.  After all, magnification over 2-3x is usually unnecessary for sighting (since we don't glass for targets through riflescopes, right?), and can even be counterproductive as the disparity of focus between the two eyes (which are both open and tracking, right?) gets larger.  And bells and whistles always come at a cost, which in this case isn't so much in dollars, but in weight.  They should buy something for that cost.

I have a hunch that they do, here.  How much, I'll have to see for myself once I acquire my first example.  But the promise of improved field of view, improved light transmission, and the durability of an etched reticle, with the available options of dialing up and illuminating the reticle--and at a cost which seems very reasonable--may make the option worthwhile.

Kudos to Leapers for offering the glass, To the invaluable Tom Gaylord for making me aware of it, and to Pyramyd Air for carrying it.

UPDATE:

Edith Gaylord updates us both with a link at Pyramyd Air, and indirectly, with the offering price:  $180.   Excellent!

This is significant.

Via airgun ace Tom Gaylord, I recently learned about a new "scout scope" offering from Leapers, which promises a full field of view from a variable-power, intermediate eye relief glass.  Tom had seen a 3-9x;  this one is a 2-7x.

The negative:  at over 25 ounces it's almost painfully heavy, compared to the workhorse Leupold fixed 2.5x unit (7.5oz) I've grown so accustomed to.  Yowch.

The unknown:   how low this unit can mount may be open to question.  I also don't know how Leapers scopes hold up.  IIRC, Gaylord said he found the optical quality on the scope he saw, to be comparable or better than a Leupold Vari-X II, and he would think that the durability and overall quality should be about the same. 

But boy, the rest of it is all very intriguing.  Field of view, the raison d'etre here, is listed (at 100 yards) as 32' at 2x and 10' at 7x;  compare this to Burris' 2-7x scout scope (21' at 2x and 7' at 7x), or to a conventional eye relief 3-9x variable at 33' at 3x and 13' at 9x, and you begin to understand the significance.  (The Leupold 2.5x scout is 22' at 100yd.)  Exit pupil numbers, on a 30mm tube and 44mm objective, are impressive.  Turrets promise to be friendly.  The illuminated reticle options seem more like a frill than a requirement, but they might be nice, and the etched reticle itself really does seem like a nice touch.

2-7x is a pretty useful range, for a variable, and hell, for someone accustomed to scopes fixed at 2.5x, dialing up to 7x is going to seem huge.  For the price (Leapers has MSRP showing two bills) that would seem to be a good value.

So!  Plans duly modified.  Start by testing it on the AR platform, and if it works out there, maybe add a copy to the 03 Springfield Scout.