Video Transcript
If you're looking for an optic to drop onto a bolt gun or onto a DMR, SBR type build, and you don't want to throw ATACR money at the problem of getting glass, the NX8 4-32 is an excellent option. You're going to have the optic just like so. You're going to have their little, sort of, lens cleaner in their little pouch, which is super nice. Definitely throw this in a kit bag or into your cleaning kit, or you can even attach it to your chest rig or onto your plate carrier using a little clip. A tool that has three different sizes of hex and torques. This is super valuable. Definitely hang on to this. It even has a little hole here that you can tie it off with a piece of paracord or something or a key chain in it or something. But we're going to be using this later. So we're going to be using this later.
Definitely have in mind that hidden inside the box, you are going to have this little orange pouch that says, do not discard. Inside of this is a throw lever that you can attach to the optic. There's a little insert that is protecting the little hole with all the threads. What you're going to do is you're going to pop that out, throw the throw lever in, and that just allows you to manipulate the scope a little bit easier. Generally speaking, though, I'm going to attach this immediately to the scope. It's not something that I just decide, oh, I don't want it on the scope. No, I'm going to use it on every single scope. So the first thing I do is pop that out, throw the throw lever on just so I don't lose it. And if I lose the little insert, it's not a big deal.
We also have the manual. This is going to cover the entire NX8 line. The NX8 line for Nightforce, for those of you who don't know, is sort of their less expensive version of the ATACR. So they're a little bit more cost-effective than going all the way up to the ATACR glass quality is still great. You still get all the same medical options. And they have some different ranges of magnification that are unique and are very useful. You also get a swag pack full of stickers if you're into that sort of thing, putting them on your pelican so it gets stolen at the airport. So I have a 4-32 on this M40A6.
It's going to be a 30 millimeter tube, so most standard mounts out there are going to work, which is super convenient. One downside to it being a 30 millimeter, though, that I learned the hard way, is there's not a lot of dive board options out there that put Picatinny out here in the front. Nightforce has one. There's a few others out there, so that is something to keep in mind with the scope. The top turret for elevation is uncapped, just like the majority of Nightforce scopes out there. I originally thought that was a bit of a problem, but once I started dialing on targets and mounting dive boards and stuff, this is not something that generally you're going to twist by accident or adjust, even if you're wearing the rifle slung, because you have other things on the rifle to protect it. Having it uncapped is actually very useful for quickly dialing onto targets, so I actually like that it's uncapped. The windage, on the other hand, is a capped turret, so that is going to protect it from jostling against something in the truck, or maybe you are wearing it on your back or something. So that is capped. You can always remove this if you just want to dial easily.
It does have an illuminated reticle. I will say, though, on the illuminated reticle, do not expect daylight brightness, like you would on a 1-6 or a 1-8. It really is to just let the reticle be a little bit more visible when you're using a night vision clip on, or you're at very specific times of night, or at dusk. For the most part, I'm not shooting illuminated. You can't see it in the day. You're not going to see anything, but you can hit that, turn it on, hit it a few more times to cycle through some different brightness modes. When it comes time to change the battery, you're just going to twist the battery compartment, revealing the 2032, so standard little red dot battery.
Drop the new one on, and then thread this back on. Now, when it comes to zeroing the optic, there are two little hex screws on the side of the turret. On the windage, there's one. On the elevation, there are two. You're going to take your Nightforce tool, and you're simply going to loosen these. Don't take them out all the way. You don't have to. You can, but you don't have to. And then without jostling the turret, if you are in the process of zeroing, you are then going to lift straight up. It's going to pop free. And now, you can recenter this to zero, drop it back on nice and gently, tighten down the screws, and you're set. The elevation turret can be set up as a zero stop. So if you loosen the four screws here on the top of the turret, can then manipulate the little ring independently. So if you twist this all the way to the bottom and you're not affecting your zero right now, it will touch the zero stop. And then if you drop this for zero, you know, hey, if I twist the turret all the way down to the bottom, I'm at zero. You could do it at night. You could do it without even looking. And then you just start twisting it the opposite direction for your elevation.
However, if you want to leave room for speed drop, if you want to be able to convert your mill-based scope into a BDC reticle utilizing a calculation of your muzzle velocity, height of optic to bore, the accuracy first model of speed drop, which is going to be like 1.2 to 1.7 mils that you're going to want to go down in, that allows you to use your scope as a BDC. So one is 100 meters, two is 200 meters for your mills inside the reticle. It's useful for rapid target engagement. Not everyone utilizes speed drop or wants to utilize speed drop. But if you do, what you're going to do is you're actually going to leave space. You're not going to take this all the way to the zero stop. You're actually going to leave around 1 and 1 1,5 mils worth of distance, which I can estimate by dropping this on and then going down from zero. It should be good.
Now I'm going to tighten this down, all four little screws again. And I still haven't affected my zero yet. Now I take my elevation turret and very gently and carefully align the zero with the center, pushing it straight down. Then without adjusting it, tighten both side screws. Now I can dial down mils. So it's a little too much. So I could pop this off, move the little stop a little bit. But now I can dial down 1.4 mils for my speed drop to convert the scope into a BDC for rapid target engagement, which is super cool. You can repeat the same process for the windage turret. So it's got a single screw here. You're going to loosen that, pull it out, reset to zero, push it back in, hopefully without adjusting anything. I will say the most important thing you can do when setting up a precision gun is upon re-zeroing your elevation and your windage turrets, shooting a confirmation group.
If you're new to some of this, re-zeroing turrets, it is very likely that in the process of shifting things and moving them around and tightening the cap back on, you are going to be adjusting your scope so that when you go and shoot your target again at 100 meters, you're actually going to be slightly off, maybe 0.1 left, 0.1 low. And then you're going to repeat the process. You're going to make your adjustments and then re-zero the turret all over again. It can be a little frustrating, but with time, you are going to get better at resetting your turrets to the point that when you shoot your confirmation group, everything's fine. Nothing's moved. And then you can move on and the gun is properly zeroed.
As far as the parallax adjustment goes, there are no numbers for guides. All you have is the infinite little loop-de-loop. So what you're going to have to do is when you're at the 100 meter line and you are checking your zero, just play with the parallax so you get the cleanest image possible. Wobble your head up and down while seeing if the radical is shifting on your point of aim, so your tiny little one inch dot or whatever it happens to be. And you're just going to twist this parallax knob until your radical stops dancing on that point of aim, at which point your parallax is set and you can actually take accurate shots into that small pacer to ensure you get a good zero. You can also set the doptor here in the rear. I have my unlocking ring or locking ring covered up with electrical tape, which I highly recommend. Once you have it set, we'll go ahead and take it off for now. Basically, you want to break the diameter piece free from the unlocking ring. And now you can adjust your diopter to what you need.
Spin the locking ring back down. They're going to tighten like opposite of each other. So you get them nice and tight. If this is set, then I take my electrical tape or my standard tape, whatever it happens to be. I'm just going to tape over that. This ensures that it stays in place, something I highly recommend to keep your precision equipment precise. You'll see I already have the throw lever installed that comes with the scope. That's just going to thread on nicely. And you'll just do hand tight. I highly recommend you use it. Much easier than grabbing your own hand and trying to manipulate it.
H4-32 also comes with front caps already installed, as you will see right here. So really nifty for just protecting your optic from dust collection and all of that. I will say, when I am shooting with this, my ball cap kind of gets in the way. So I usually rip this one off, throw it in my pouch, kit, pocket, whatever. And then when I'm done shooting, I can just drop it back on, just to protect the scope, especially if I'm holding the rifle and it's raining or something like that, just to protect it. We're currently offering this scope in the milliradian (MRAD) reticle format. We are not choosing to do MOA. We recommend that you use a mill-based scope. It has a lot of advantages over MOA. But if you are interested in running a MOA version of the scope, head over to Nightforce's website, where you can see all the different reticle options. And then all you have to do is search for that specific SKU online. And you can find it at lots of other websites. We have chosen a couple mill-based reticle options that we really like, that we recommend.
But again, if there's some other ones out there that if you're interested in, you can pick up any other website and then have the exact scope that you want. I will say, in closing, the most important thing with an optic like this, it is a large investment to be putting onto a rifle. Take the time to set it up properly. Actually, torque everything to spec. This is not like a red dot or a set of iron sights that you're throwing onto an AR-15. This is a precision instrument that is meant to give you precise measurements so that you can take precise shots. So you should be taking the time to set this up properly on whatever rifle or setup you are using, whether it's a bolt gun, a gas gun, a 5.56 SPR with a nice barrel. Make sure you're setting it up properly. Make sure you take the time to confirm your windage and your elevation turrets so that zero actually means zero at your 100 meters or 100 yards, whatever you're zeroing to. With that said, if you guys have any other questions about Nightforce's products, the products that we are offering, go ahead and email us at [email protected].