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FIRST LOOK: Vortex Gen 3 Razor 1-10x24 [VIDEO]

Submitted by markhawkeyeordnance on Fri, 2020-01-10 11:57

- Hey everybody, Baron here. We have Adam Maxwell in the shop today from Vortex. You may recognize him from being in the shop in the past. He brought along a new product from Vortex here, and I'm gonna let him do the introduction on it so, Adam what we looking at here?

 

- Well we got the new for 2020, Razor Gen three. This is an all-new scope for us. All the same things that you came to know and love about the Razor one to six. Carried over into the Gen three, but now see it goes up to 10. This is a first focal plane, 34 millimeter, one to 10, low power variable optic. So, very excited about this for 2020. Been prototyping for over a year now, been very happy with the results and it's finally here. So, wanted to make sure, like Baron said got my start here at Arnzen Arms. Happened to be in the neighborhood, so wanted to make sure that the Arnzen customers got a first look. One of the few to get a first a look at the new gen three.

 

- It's who ya know right? So I gotta tell you guys this thing is super cool. I'm really excited about this. So this one, I'm really diggin' the reticle on it. Doesn't have ridiculous weight going on. Form factor is basically identical to the Razor Gen two. Eye box on 10 is still good on it, so you're not having to line up perfectly behind that to actually take advantage of that 10 power. So, I know I was asking Adam a little bit about what all he's done with it the past year. I know he mentioned he did a swat sniper competition with it.

 

- Yep!

 

- What else have you run this through?

 

- We've been running in 3-Gun obviously, since I think, traditional nationals last year. But you may have noticed that the Vortex, in-house Vortex 3-Gun guys haven't posted a whole lot of videos this year. We've been secret squirrels shooting this for quite a while. I've had it at some DMR Swat type stuff, so had it on .308 GAT's guns, shootin' out 1100 yards. It's been good man, really it's everything you came to know and love about the Gen two, carried over. So we weren't, we didn't wanna come out with the Gen three until we could bring those things to the customers. So we wanted the same eye box, we wanted the same weight. If anything, I believe we shaved another ounce off of the E model, going to a one to 10. We wanted a daylight-bright illuminated reticle. Which was probably one of the harder parts to do. The technology that's used to illuminate the reticle is different, and that had to be developed a little bit to get it as bright as it is. But yeah, really digging it. Now the sexy part of it is that it goes up to 10 now, right? But really what excites me more probably is that it's our first focal plane scope, and we have a floating reticle inside there. So we have essentially, a reticle that grows and shrinks with magnification. So when we zoom it all the way out, you have a very subdued side picture. It's almost red dot-ish. There's just a very concentrated reticle in the middle, nothing really around the outside obstructing your field of view. And then when you start to need those artifacts in there for point of reference on holds at longer ranges, those explode. It's almost like opening the map. Those things become more apparent as you zoom in. So that's the part that I really like even though for most of the shooting we've done, I pretty much live in the one to three power range when I use it for 3-Gun, but I mean it's a fully capable scope. You're not going to be wanting for more magnification in anything that you would reasonably use a low power variable for. A lot of the same things carried over. One of the things that probably are undersold features is that the turretts are actually engineered to disappear behind the eye piece. So when you're looking through the scope you can't see the turrets. Things like that carried over, locking illumination reticle. Still goes up to 11 'cause that's just how we roll. Yeah man, we're just super excited about this for 2020. I know it comes with a sun shade, I think it comes with the switchview throw lever.

 

- Sweet.

 

- Don't quote me on that, but I think it does, and it's going to be hitting the streets for about $1900.

 

- So really competitive pricing considering what gets close to it in the market right now.

 

- Right, right.

 

- The other thing I want to comment on, since they've pushed that top end so much higher, everything under 10 is gonna perform better. So your six power, like your current Razor Gen two, it's gonna be more performance at six because you have so much more top end on this optic.

 

- Yeah. Think of it as a one to six that goes up to 10, instead of a 10 Bauer scope that goes down to one. It's a low power variable scope that has the higher magnification capability, not necessarily the other way around. A lot of folks wanna look at it as like a DMR scope and they start ask about parallax adjustment, things like that. Not what this was really intended for, but it's giving you that capability in your intermediate range carbine type optics.

 

- Which for its closest competitor, that this is much more oriented toward a carbine as I see it, or that SPR/DMR, whatever you wanna call it.

 

- Yep, yep your Mark 12 type--

 

- Exactly!

 

- Yeah.

 

- It does that I think, better. Just looking at it here, you know I've been talking about doing PR's gas gun coming up in 2020. That, I'm sold on, I'm gonna end up with one of those. I just gotta decide on a reticle, so--

 

- Yep! Very excited about it. Two reticles! So one is a military themed MIL based reticle. So we have a dot matrix underneath with MIL-dots, Christmas tree type thing that you become accustomed to. And then there's going to BDC based 3-Gun style reticle with a 200 yard zero, and it has dots at three, four, five, six. And then windage dots five, 10, and 15 mile per hour. It's a little bit cleaner presentation of a reticle, but those are the two reticles coming to market. Working on some others for some customers, especially the LE market. We're working on something. A little bit different for those guys, that's gonna be forthcoming though in the coming months and years, but for now, two reticles. The EBR-9 and the EBR-11. And then I guess the other thing too, for those of you who still like the one to six. This optic is not getting discontinued. So this is going forward, the one to six E model is still in production. The same three reticles are currently slated for 2020. So anything that you knew and love in this scope, still going forward not going away anytime soon. This is just augmenting the line with a little bit more capability, and you're jumping about $500 in price.

 

- And one other thing I wanted to ask on here. Your magnification dial here is,

 

- Yes!

 

- Very easy to move! Is that something you did, or is it gonna be across the line-up?

 

- I can't take credit for that one, but yes that is standard. I've seen several samples of these and all of them have had a much easier to manipulate magnification ring. That was definitely feedback that we got

 

- Mhmm.

 

- Out of the old scopes, put it into this scope so currently yes. They're using a completely different lubricant in there, and so it is much easier to turn. On most of my samples that I've been using, I haven't installed throw levers on 'em.

 

- Okay.

 

- Some of the other guys have. I believe it's the SV-5 that fits it, but there are throw lever options for it. I guess that's another question a lot of folks are gonna give. "Why didn't you integrate the throw lever "into the ring?" That's intended as a failure point, so to speak. So something has to give at some point if you exert enough force on it. If the throw lever externally breaks, you can put another one on or we can send you one. You don't have to send your scope back the the factory. The next failure point beyond the lever would be inside the scope, and that's something that's not user serviceable. So that would be the reason that it didn't come with a throw lever integrated as part of the system, but like I say, I believe OEM packaging is going to have the throw lever included with it, and it's a fully warrantied part earned in the VIP warranty program.

 

- All right, so if it were integrated and you ended up ripping it off on something. You do damage to your dial here or that, just the stud is still stuck in that threaded part. I mean most people aren't gonna have, sitting in the their garage, what they need to fix that. So that's what Adam's talking about.

 

- Yep.

 

- Having that throw lever, if you catch that, it rips off.

 

- Yep.

 

- Your scope keeps working,

 

- Just like the shear bolt on your snowblower.

 

- Exactly! Yep, so.

 

- For you, you southern people you probably won't get that but...

 

- So anything else we should know about this guy? Cool fun facts?

 

- Like I said, drop in, you're probably seeing this January 10th or so. It's gonna be on display at SHOT show, for those of you who are attending that. Certainly at NRA, and I believe it's gonna start shipping I've been told early spring, and I'm confident in that date more so than I usually am.

 

- Cool! Well there you go guys. The new Razor Gen three, one to ten, first focal plane. So get ready to check this out, I'm really excited about this optic.

 

- Yeah, come on down to Arnzen Arms and check it out!