Horus Vision Scopes

 

Purchase these scopes

I'm sure most of you have never heard of Horus Vision scopes. I first saw one myself on the prize table at the 2001 International Tactical Rifle Championship. It had a picture of the reticle on the end of the box, and I thought to myself, "What the hell is that?" To satisfy my curiosity, I decided that I would take it on my turn at table, but someone got to it first.

I'm a sucker for a new scope, and I've spent thousands of dollars trying out all kinds of optics just to see if they improve my performance at tactical matches and to establish a knowledge base derived from firsthand experience. When I recommend an optic or sight system, I do so based on my personal experience, and I don't recommend anything that I wouldn't use myself. Come to think about it, that applies to everything on the JP website. If we wouldn't use it, we wouldn't expect you to.

As for Horus Vision scopes, the HV reticle system is simply, without a doubt, the fastest first-shot-hit on unknown distance targets I've ever used. On the long-range tactical shooting circuit, just about every pro-level shooter I know uses this system. The HV reticle system can be had in the HV scopes, US Optics and soon, Nightforce and Leupold will also offer frontal plane HV reticle scopes. However, the HV scopes are available now and have excellent quality glass, structural integrity and solid mechanics. I feel that they are an excellent value, and I have them on no less than six of my personal rifles.

When I say "unknown distance" targets, I’m referring to real world shooting or tactical long-range competition, which are designed to simulate real-world engagement, whether on game or an enemy. In other games—such as NRA High Power, Benchrest, F-Class etc., shooters have the luxury of shooting at "known distances" or KD targets. In that case, you can have sights or an optic zeroed for the exact range you are shooting since it will not change.

In the real world—or facsimile thereof—we don’t know the range at which we may spot a potential target. In the past, the military has used the mil-dot system for ranging and taught a system by which the shooter would dial in their "come-ups" and "holdoffs" using the elevation and windage turrets on the scope. This system is time-consuming, invites the shooter to simply forget to "come back" to zero and eventually wears the adjustments in the scope. It also assumes perfect tracking time after time. The HV system eliminates all of that; once you lay in your main zero, you never need to readjust that again.

You'll notice first that the HV reticles form a Christmas tree-like grid below the main horizontal stadia line. At first, it seems very intimidating and over-complicated. Believe me, I felt the same way when I first laid eyes on one. After spending a bit of time learning and shooting the system though, it became very intuitive. For many shots, after checking my range, I now have the holdoffs memorized for some of my rifles at 100-yard increments. It is incredibly fast and effective!

The HV system is actually a mil-radian system, just like the mil-dot system. If you're used to thinking in inches or minutes of angle like I was, that is probably the most difficult part of the system to master. You just need to learn how to change gears and be able to think in mils as well as inches or MOA. Once you accomplish that, the rest is easy.

The HV system is a first-plane, or more correctly a frontal plane reticle system, as opposed to a second-plane reticle system. Most of you are accustomed to using scopes with the reticles in the second plane. Frontal plane reticles are only found on optics specialized for long-range shooting. In the average scope with a second-plane reticle, you'll see that no matter where you have the magnification set, the reticle always looks the same. When you adjust the magnification up and down in a scope with a frontal plane reticle, the reticle appears to change size. At first, this seems a little disconcerting, but trust me, you get used to it.

The point of the seeming change in the reticle is that it is always the same relative to the field. In other words, if your holdoff is one mil up and .5 mils left, that relationship to the target will always be the same no matter where you have the magnification set. That's the beauty of the frontal plane reticle: you can have a mapped reticle and know that the relationship of all that information will be constant regardless of where you happen to have the magnification. You can set the scope to a magnification that makes the most sense for the particular shot.

So, let's say you’re shooting a .260 Remington with a 123 Lapua SCENAR traveling at about 2950 MV with a BC of .562. Let's say you have a crosswind of 5 mph from 9:00 (full value), and the target is at 1125 yards at an altitude of 6700 feet. You enter all this info into a ballistic program and it tells you that you need to hold 7.8 mils up and 1.0 mil left. You place that point in the grid over the target, compose the shot, squeeze the trigger and send it. About 1.5 seconds later, the bullet hits the intended target. About three seconds after that, you hear the impact.

Does this all sound impossible? Well, a few years back after I had some time on the HV system, I was at the annual JP Rocky Mountain 3-Gun Championship at the NRA Whittington Center. With Tate Moots—top sniper for the DOE—watching, I entered just that information on my 5.11 watch (which has the HV ballistic program right in it), and hit a 12" plate with my .260 MOR-07 with my cold bore shot using the holdoffs displayed right on my watch! Needless to say, I felt pretty good. I've since used the system in a number of matches with outstanding results not possible with any other system in my opinion.

That said, JP carries three HV scopes to cover most applications. The Falcon 5-20 with illuminated reticle is designed for high-recoil, extreme long-range applications and possible low-light situations. The Raptor 4-16 has a very practical magnification range and will provide excellent performance for any application out to about 1200 yards. It is not illuminated, but unless you really need that feature, why pay for it? Both the Falcon and the Raptor feature the H25 reticle, which will carry you out to the maximum range potential of anything you own. Both also come with side parallax correction standard for highly critical shooting.

The Hawk 3-12 with the H425 reticle is a fantastic buy. It only goes up to 8 mils holdoff for elevation, but that still covers the range potential of nearly all standard cartridges such as the 7.62x51 (.308 Winchester) and the 5.56x45 (.223 Remington). It is not parallax adjustable, but for a field scope or a practical rifle scope, that's not an issue. It is parallax set for about 125 yards, which allows for parallax-free group testing at the most common ranges. It also doesn't have tall target knobs, keeping it streamlined for field use. The magnification range is also great for a field scope with the 3x allowing for a very large field of view and the 12x giving excellent magnification for target identity and precise shooting at range out to 700-900 yards.

While the Horus Vision system is not for every shooter or every application, for those willing to do a little homework in order to have outstanding long-range hit probabilities, you will fall in love with the HV system. Get the 5.11 watch too—it's fantastic! We'll also discount the watch $50 with the purchase of any HV scope, and if you're really going to get into this, you may as well get the Angle Scope Level Indicator Kit to round out the package.

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