March Scopes on Reveiw

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Brendan Atkinson, Benchrest World champion, writes an article for the Australian Shooter magazine.

In the very precise world of top level benchrest shooting, the quest for the perfect group and aggregate goes on. The standard of equipment has been refined to a point where just maybe the perfect one hole group may someday be possible.

There has, however, always been one weak link in the chain. It has long been acknowledged that the riflescope is the one area where the problem of holding absolute zero has not really been conquered. All sorts of after market methods have been tried, including gluing the internals of the scope into a solid mass and fitting external mounts. The major scope manufacturers have tried hard to produce a high quality benchrest product and some have pretty much succeeded – however, there is enough evidence to show that this standard of fine precision can sometimes fail at the worst time, usually in the middle of a match. Remember of course that 99% of rifle scopes are production line finished. Also, consider that we are talking about a scope ‘moving’ less than a quarter MOA, which a hunter would most probably never notice nor care about. Benchrest shooters know instantly.

A couple of years ago, word got out that there was a new scope being created in Japan - they would be hand built to extremely precise tolerances, and were guaranteed not to shift point of impact. Naturally, they would not be cheap, but the purchaser would be buying the confidence that this scope would track truly and hold its zero. The new scopes would carry the name March, and were produced by Deon Optical Design Corporation in Japan.

The Deon Optical Design Corporation was formed in October of 2004, by a group of engineers, and each one of these engineers had over 30 years of experience in high precision optics. Widely experienced in their field, members of the team had already achieved awards and honours from the Japanese Government. Under the direction of company President Shimizu, the companies aim was to produce extremely high quality scopes for those marksmen and hunters who were prepared to pay a little more for a hand built custom scope.

40x52BR
In 2007, the first March scope to appear on the firing line was the fixed 40x52 BR model. It cost over twice as much as the leading competitors equivalent, but as selected shooters started to win with a March scope on board, the demand began to increase.

Incorporating very high quality ED (extra dispersion) lenses, a side parallax adjustment and rear lens focus, the March 40x scopes were soon seen on the benches in Australia. They cost around USD$2200, and with the unfavourable dollar at the time, were setting shooters back well over three thousand dollars. The March 50x52BR soon followed, and proved a challenge for shooters on some of our mirage plagued ranges. An even bigger magnification 60x52BR is now available, should anyone require this sort of power in a fixed form.

Three reticules were offered. Shooters could opt for the standard fine x-hair, or choose either a 1/8^th or 1/16^th dot. Click adjustments were 1/8^th MOA and the scope featured 72MOA in elevation and 50MOA windage adjustment inside a 30mm tube. They can be focussed from 50 yards to infinity. It’s not a lightweight at 597 grams, and shooters need to weigh everything to make sure that they do not exceed the limit on the lighter benchrest classes. This can be critical in the sporter and light benchrest classes. Heavy benchrest won’t be a problem.

March scopes are constructed from a single piece of aluminium bar stock. As mentioned before ED lenses are used for superior clarity. The erector tube is made from the lightest materials available to reduce the effects of inertia during recoil. The erector tube and the body receiver are CNC machined to a convex/concave socket design with minimum tolerances. The engineers at March prefer to use a flat type erector tube spring, rather than a coil. They felt that a coil is more likely to develop a memory than the flat type. Hand lapping is employed in the mating of the focussing group tube and the tube liner – these are treated hard surfaces. It is emphasised that March scopes do not use any plastic internal parts.

All March scopes are filled with Argon gas after assembly and before sealing.

Having produced top quality fixed power target scopes, the team at Deon turned their hands to producing variables. For the benchrest and long range shooters they made a 10-60x52 and a 36-55x52 – I have used one of the latter for serious competition. The variable option is good for those days when mirage is fierce and a bit less power is actually an advantage. Deon also produce variable compact tactical scopes for those going ‘in harm’s way’, including a 5-32x52 zoom.

used a borrowed March 40x for the 2009 National Benchrest Championships in Brisbane, and was impressed with the clarity of the scope in the tumbling mirage of Belmont range.

It takes a bit of fiddling with the focus and the parallax to get them just right (especially for those like me with corrected sight), but once achieved the March is most impressive. Of late, I have been using a March 36-55 x 52, and have enjoyed the flexibility that this scope offers.

For the hunters
The hunters have not been overlooked, and the engineers at Deon have come up with a couple of interesting offerings for them. How about a 1 to 10x or perhaps a 2.5 to 25x magnification scope?

Many variables have a magnification range which is a factor of three – eg. 4-12x, 3-9x, 6-18x, etc. The March variable scopes employ 6, 6.4 and 10 times magnification ratios – the latter is the highest ration employed in any production scope at the present time. The 1-10x24 is a compact hunting scope with the usual 30mm tube and a side parallax adjustment.

The hunting scopes are based on the March tactical scopes, but do not have illuminated reticules.

I fitted the 1 to 10x to my 17HMR rifle, and found that I had a scope power for just about every situation. It was a bit like Goldilocks’ porridge – not too big and not too small, but just right. It is a compact scope, only 26.4cm in length with a weight of 525gm. It features quarter minute clicks, and has a staggering 200MOA of both vertical and horizontal adjustment. The objective lens diameter is 24mm. The side focus/parallax allows focussing from 10m – infinity. A duplex reticule was fitted. I would imagine that this scope would be right at home on a large calibre centrefire, where low power would be ideal for stalking in the scrub, with the option of more power for more open county work.

The slightly larger 2.5 to 25x 42 looked a good candidate for my DGA Shilen 220 Swift. It is also quite compact with an overall length of 314mm and a weight of 613gm. The click adjustments are quarter minute, and it has a generous 100MOA of both vertical and horizontal adjustment. A duplex reticule is fitted. This scope impressed me greatly with its clarity throughout the power range, but in a hunting situation it would be rare to use more than about 12 power. In fact, I had it wound down around six power until a target was identified, and then the power could be moved up until the intended victim all but filled the scope.

Conclusions
Obviously, these are high end top quality expensive scopes, and may be out of the financial reach of many shooters. For the money the shooters gets a hand built superb product from Japan. Are they worth the extra dollars? Well, that is a matter of perspective. If one checks out the prices of other manufacturers top end products (especially the European ones) you may find that the price difference is not that great.

Certainly in the benchrest world, these scopes have swept the field amongst the top shooters. The Australian A Team that won the 2009 World Benchrest Championships in South Africa all used March scopes. Stuart and Annie Elliott (BRT), who are the Australian distributors for March scopes, have been simply amazed at the number of orders that they have had for the product.

Prices fluctuate slightly with the dollar value at the time of order, so check with BRT for the latest figure.

Precision optical instruments made one at a time by fanatical craftsman
with over 30 years experience.