Vortex Crossfire II VS Diamondback

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Xail

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Both of these scopes seem to get pretty good reviews, one of which is a bit cheaper. I'm going to be shooting a realistic max range of 300-350 yards at paper and medium game so I've been looking at the 4-16x50 CrossFire and the 4-16x42 Diamondback. I like the idea of a 50mm Obj. since it stays gray and cloudy here for most of the hunting season and more light is always better right?

I'd like to hear from Crossfire and Diamondback owners about whether or not they thought the Crossfire was satisfactory or whether it really is necessary to go to the Diamondback. I'm not trying to shoot match with this gun, but accurate 1 MOA groups out to 350 yards is necessary for what I'm trying to accomplish.

Thanks.
 
I was in Academy Sports and looked through a Crossfire. It seems to me the eye relief pretty substantial. (>4) I adjusted it from low mag. to high mag. and the eye relief stayed pretty well consistent.
 
Unless Vortex Changed, The Crossfires are made in China, The Diamondbacks are Philippines, The Razors are Japan. Personally I would avoid anything China if i had other Reasonable options. I own a Pair of Vortex Diamondback 12X50 Binoculars, i have used them 2 years, going on 3, They are Ok, Nothing spectacular.

I have had odd luck with Vortex, To say the least i am not at all impressed with them. I have handled 2 Brand new behind the Counter Diamondback Rifle Scopes that i could NOT get Clearly Focused, Nothing i could do to get them Sharp? The man behind the Counter couldn’t either, There was Definitely something Wrong with them! I have looked through a few others that looked fine, and Focused fine.
Most Recently was a Viper 6.5-20, The Eye relief was Absolutely TERRIBLE!! A good friend of mine has it mounted on a LR Rem 700 in .300 Win Mag, he left the Rig with me to Group shoot it, I HATED the Scope so bad that i sent the Rifle back home with him WITHOUT even Shooting it.
And the other day my Good Friend, and Sport Shop owner handed me a Pair of Vortex Rangefinding Binos (Can’t Remember the name?) They were Expensive, like 1200-1300 Bucks! I took them outside and Played around with them, It was Sunny and Nice Out, I clicked/Ranged a Distant Barn on a Hillside about 500 Yards away, i could not get it to read? I kept playing around and Finally realized it was reading, but i could NOT see the dim red Light due to the nice Sunny Day, When i clicked/Ranged and immediately turned to Shade i could Read it just fine.

I have had a Full Diet of Vortex, I don’t even consider them an option anymore. I will stick with Leupold, and the 2 Cheap Nikons i have
 
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I have mixed feelings on Vortex also. I was dead set on buying a Viper HS 2.5-10 a couple years ago and went to Cabela’s to buy it having never seen one in person. Online it looked great but in person I was less then impressed and didn’t buy it. On the other hand I really like the Diamondbacks we have. Then when you step up to the Diamondback HP it gets even better. Those are awesome scopes and I would jump on those deals GM54-120 posted above in a heartbeat. The HP line are the best scopes in that price range and it’s a shame Vortex is discontinuing them.
 
The HPs have the XR/XD glass and coating. Regular Diamondbacks and Crossfires do not. A new DB Tactical 4x16x44 will cost you more and offers slightly less eye relief. Plus its target knobs and 30mm tube. Nice scope if you dont mind the target knobs and "busy" reticle.

It will set you back around $350 https://www.opticsplanet.com/vortex-diamondback-tactical-ffp-4-16x44-moa.html

Original MSRP on the 4x16 HP was almost $480 so $219 is a bargain for a scope like that.
 
$308 for the Vortex Diamondback FFP Tactical 4-16x44mm EBR-2C MRAD (Mil version) is flat out the best money I've ever spent on a "budget" scope. Forget the word "Tactical" in the model name; let the words "First Focal Plane" and the OpticsPlanet.com regular price of $349 start the introduction. It's also available in an MOA version for the decimally averse.

Mine gave me a 1.3 cm 5-shot group at 100 yards, or 0.47 MOA with handloaded ammo in the .223 one very calm day last fall. All groups that day were under 2.0cm, or 0.73 MOA. I can't give an average because I was just ladder-testing handloads, not really focusing on scope performance.


The reticle is a bit busier than I'd prefer (simple Mil dots or hashes would have been fine without that Christmas tree across the bottom of the FOV). Eye relief above about 8x eliminates it from use on hard recoiling rifles for me. The 30mm tube & 14" length really bulk up the little Ruger American Ranch 5.56 (16" barrel) I put it onto, making it look... well, just kinda ridiculous, especially after dropping the barreled action in to a Compact stock for shooting downhill in a thick coat with my short arms. But that etched reticle and first focal plane make injury to my vanity worth it at that price. The rifle might look goofy at the range now, but the range looks better to me than it did through a VX-I.

I played with this scope on a .22LR, .223, and a .50ML since last fall and I don't believe I'll ever buy another second focal plane scope again, at least not any with ranging or BDC stadia/markings of any sort. Glass is as clear as any of my Leupold scopes, and it doesn't suffer from noticeable internal reflections. Side parallax adjustment is smooth; while the focus range markings don't exactly match real world effects, they're pretty close. I haven't subjected it to any abuse yet so I can't talk about durability, fog/weatherproofing, etc. I shot the box at 50 yards on a rimfire and it came back to first corner zero, although the wind & ammo I had that day at that short range prevented collection of any meaningful "click value" data.

This won't replace any Nightforce or replace suitably employed fixed power scopes in my safe, but it's more useful than most of my 12 other variable scopes (mostly Leupold VX-II & III). I'm tired of looking at everything through reticles that don't tell anything useful unless you crank them to max. Knowing that the angle between two consecutive hashes equals 0.2 milliradian (or 0.1 MOA, if that's your preference), regardless of magnification zoom level at the time, is just so much simpler for me. I now consider second focal plane, variable magnification BDC/range-finding reticle scopes to be one of those things I grew up with that were fine at the time but I don't want anymore - like lap-only seatbelts, rotary dial phones, or black-and-white ray tube TVs.
 
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