SHOT Show 2009: Addendum and errata

Friends,

A couple of items....

First, in my first Day 1 post about Vortex Optics, I likened the new Armor-Tek coating to Bushnell's RainGuard or Zeiss' Lotutec. From Vortex's website:

ArmorTek is a new, chemically-bonded optical lens multi-coat that increases light transmission, color fidelity, and image resolution—while providing unprecedented protection for the lens surface with a proprietary fluorine compound which is ultra-hard and highly scratch-resistant. ArmorTek's unique strain-proof top coat features a slippery surface that actually repels the oil and corrosive salts of fingerprints. Dust, dirt, and smudges are all easily wiped away without fear of scratching the optical glass beneath.

While this expressly states oleophobic and dirt/scratch resistant properties, hydrophobic properties are not implied, so the comparison with Bushnell's and Zeiss' proprietary coatings is not entirely correct, and the mistake is mine alone. Perhaps a fairer comparison is to Leupold's Diamondcoat, but in reality it looks like Armor-Tek has its own unique properties.


Also, I heard from Jeff Redding, Riflescope Product Manager for Bushnell, Millett, Simmons and Tasco, and the developer of the new DOA reticle. There is a lot of science, both ballistic and biological, that went into the development of the reticle. Here's a link for more info:

http://marketing.bushnell.com/press/pdf/DOA%20Reticle.pdf

Also, Jeff wanted to share this with our readers:

"The average whitetail has ears that span 17" eartip-to-eartip. While the common mule deer has a 24" spread between eartips. So at each ballistic holdover dot there is a horizontal intersecting line that extends out to subtend 24", with vertical hash marks on it that measure 17" at each respective yardage. Now a hunter has a tool that they can utilize to estimate the width of the rack of which they are viewing, no matter whether they are hunting whitetails or muleys. I always thought that the hardest thing to do was to gauge the size of antlers when looking through magnification and you had no reference for size"

It will be interesting to see how the hunting public responds to this new reticle.

Thanks,

Scott