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I just picked up this optic yesterday. I am a big 2-10 fan, and when this first came out, my interest was peaked. $530 later, I have another 2-10 in the stable. The box and presentation when you open the box is very impressive. It comes with everything you would assume it would.

I was a little worried that it didn’t have the parallax adjustment. I am assuming they just went with the dot and omitted parallax as way to save weight. Speaking of weight, this registered 19.5 ounces on my kitchen scale.

The sight picture at distance is clean and crisp from edge to edge. On any power, It is a little blurry from 50 yards and closer. About what you would you expect from the 100 yard fixed parallax.

The illumination is interesting. First off, it is a push button with 10 brightness levels. On 2X, the dot is actually three small dots, creating a little cluster, that makes up one dot. On 10X, the dot is just a typical dot. It is daylight bright. It is 90 degrees out, not a cloud in the sky and it absolutely daylight bright. You hold down the illumination button for four seconds to turn it off. Just push it once to turn it on and you just continue to push it to cycle through the brightness levels.

The turrets and not locking, but with this design and intended application, they do not need to be. Very tactile and audible with no mush or play. Very stiff, but just the right amount. They are hunting turrets all the way. Not really tactical or target style, just really basic. I am not sure if it has zero stop or not. You make your adjustments, lift up the turret and set that zero. Again, more of a hunting design than a tactical.

The reticle is the simple Vortex dead hold. Nothing new there.

Like a lot of quality 2-10, the eye box is generous on any power. The eye relief is generous. I am not sure what the eye relief is because I haven’t mounted it yet. Probably on par with other 2-10, maybe 3”-4”.

I am going to mount it and zero it next weekend. So far, I think for $530, it is a solid option. You just need to decide if a SFP,  fixed parallax, daylight bright 2-10 makes sense for you. I have several 2-10, 2.5-10 and 2-12 optics. I would put this in the middle of the pack as of now. Once I mount it and shoot it, I will have a much better idea of well the well the target picture is at distance. This is going on a 12.5” 6.5 Grendel that will be shooting steel from 200-600 yards.

very cool...I am a big fan of the MPVO.  I have a pair of gen 1 Vortex PST 2-10's that are SFP.  super light, great reticle and I use them on 2 or 10 for shooting.  One is on a "mini SPR" (Criterion 13.9 barrel) and the other on a 16" Criterion barreled .308 (M5 upper/lower).  I also have the PST gen 2 that is FFP.  It's heavier by a lot.  I think I like the gen 1's the best.

congrats

I don't care for bdc reticles on anything but LPVOs (sort of) and prism optics, but that's just personal preference. As far as parallax adjustment, I prefer it on anything over 9x usually. It isn't a shortfall, it just means proper head position is a little more important. I have an old 2-10 Weaver extreme that I've had no issues with due to parallax. It helps to mount them a little low so you have to maintain a consistent cheek weld.

Enjoy!

That sounds like a good hunting scope except for the BDC.  

I wish Vortex (and everyone) would dump generic BDC reticles and go with either MOA or MIL hashmarks.  Turn your SFP scope to max power, then use your DOPE to determine appropriate hold overs.  It's really so simple once you understand what you're doing.  In trying to dumb it down to a generic BDC it really takes away from the usefulness of the scope.

The illumination system sounds similar to the Leupold Firedot.  IMO, the Leupold push button system works okay, but it's very easy to forget to turn it off.  If the scope doesn't have an autoshutoff/autolive feature, I'd make sure to pack an extra battery.

Interesting, I bought one of the 2-10 Light Hunter Razors but the reticle was just too fine for me. I replaced it with a mildot 3-9 Mark AR, I haven't shot it yet but it looks good (demo that was mounted on a dummy rifle) and I think I can shoot 3x with both eyes open. The idea was a lightweight DMR setup based around a 20" Faxon Gunner, I really need to finish that up.

Thank you for the write up!

Do you know how does this Viper HP stack up against the old Viper and Viper PST?

It is significantly lighter, at least the 2-10. The PST Gen II 2-10 is FFP with parallax adjustments. The HD is SFP with no parallax. So, I would get one or the other depending on the needs. The optical quality is the same, if not better with the HD.