Rifle scopes with S&B Convex mounting rail

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Rifle Scopes for Stalking

Rifle Scopes for Mountain Hunting

Introduction

Schmidt & Bender, well reputed German manufacturer of sports optics, chose the same direction as other premium European manufacturers and invented their own rail standard for rifle scopes with integrated mounting rails. The most recent rail mounting from this producer is called "Convex rail" and it is also known by the name "S&B rail". Mounting rail is placed underneath the scope and is integrated as part of the scope, same as with other rails from other manufacturers. These mounts cannot be removed, thus mounting with integrated rails is the only option with these scopes.

The solution has been here for years, decades to be honest. It was developed roughly at the same time as ZM/VM rail from Zeiss. However, it did not gain popularity like Zeiss or Swarovski rail and it is used only by Schmidt & Bender.

Properties of Convex Rail Standard

The mounting rail system from S&B uses matching slide-in mount fasteners which connect the rifle scope to the gun.

What is interesting with Convex rails is the fact that these solution offers the possibility to tilt the scope up to 1° angle to the left or right. This is not like with the similar rail standards and Schmidt & Bender is quite unique with this option.

It is possible to recognize Schmidt & Bender rifle scopes that uses their rail standard by the name – the models with integrated rails have LMC acronym in their name and this is in common with all their railed scopes.

Pros

Mounting, removing or changing the scope on your rifle is much easier when using a rail. There are also no mounting marks left on the scope tube when removing it. If there is no stress applied to your scope tube, because there is no mounting rings used, this also means that no harm can be done to your rifle scope (which eventually gives a mounting rail a major advantage).

Personally, I usually find hard achieving the perfect horizontal alignment when mounting a rifle scope with mounting rings. There are no similar issues when using rails. You just slide the rail on, tight the screws and voila – your rifle scope level should be perfect. After hundreds or thousands of round through the barrel, rifle scope might slide backwards when mounting rings are used. This cannot happen while using Convex rail or any other mounting rail. Definitely, the stability, robustness and reliability are improved with railed scopes. During the mounting process, correct eye relief is much easier to achieve with railed systems; the scope can easily slide forwards or backwards to the point where you are satisfied with an eye relief position. When this goal is accomplished, you will only have to tighten the screws in the rail and that’s it. Simple as that.

Cons

As with all of the rail mounting systems, in some occasions the setup can appear a little high. For those who are sensitive about the scope height, check your configuration and heights before buying such rifle scope.

Precision made rails on scopes add some costs to the production which means that railed scopes are usually more expensive solution, compared to mounting rings. Last, but not the least – with Schmidt & Bender railed scopes there might be some troubles to get a perfect setup, because not many mounts manufacturers make mount solutions for these scopes. Availiability of mounting systems for Schmidt & Bender rifle scopes with Convex rails is not that well represented on the global market.

Conclusion

Schmidt & Bender Convex rail is probably the least popular modern rail standard available. It has very good technical properties, nevertheless. If you can found a decent mounting system for S&B Convex rail, look no further. You should be pleased with Convex rail solution, because it is a quality system and will perform well.

Finally, Convex rail mounting system will always achieve better results than a conventional mount with mounting rings. Therefore, you should always choose a rail system if you have that possibility available.

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Hunting riflescopes are the most common type of riflescopes. For this reason, this is the biggest category on our website. Even though there are many types of hunting-riflescopes, there are some characteristics that many of them share.

A rifle with optics - hunting riflescope

Mounting solutions - Ring and Rail mounts

Both ring and rail mounting options are available. This is the only category where rail mounting is available, but it is only available with some middle-class and premium scopes. There are four rail mounting standards altogether (the rail option offered depends on the manufacturer):

LM rail (optical devices with this rail are no longer manufactured but mounts for it are still produced)
Zeiss ZM/VM rail
Swarovski SR rail
Schmidt & Bender Convex rail

Schmidt & Bender Polar T96 2.5-10x50 with a S & B Convex rail

Tube diameter

Tube diameters of 30 mm and 25.4 mm are the most common.

Scopes with a 34mm tube are rare – Schmidt & Bender Polar T96 series is one of the few that use it.
Zeiss Victory V8 and Blaser Infinity are equipped with a 36mm tube,
whilst Swarovski dS is equipped with a tube that measures 40 mm in diameter.

It is important to note that tube diameter does not affect the light transmission rate.

Turrets

Riflescope for hunters is equipped with low-profile, capped elevation and windage turrets. After a scope is zeroed (at 100 m), most users won't make any further adjustments to the windage and elevation. For this reason, the turrets are capped to prevent unwanted rotation.

As such optics is commonly used in forests where one can quickly bump the riflescope somewhere, capped turrets are the best way to avoid the unintentional shifts of the point of impact.
Furthermore, these are among the most delicate parts and can break if hit too hard.
Caps are used to prevent that.
With some modern, premium optics, there is an option of purchasing an uncapped, BDC elevation turret which allows the user to quickly compensate for the bullet drop at longer distances by setting the turret to the number for the corresponding distance (1 – 100 m, 2 – 200 m, 3 – 300 m, etc.)

The reticle

Most riflescopes are equipped with a hunting-oriented reticle. Usually, the reticle is a crosshair with thicker lines at the sides and narrower lines towards the center.

There are no holdovers or hash marks because it is meant to be simple to use.
The reticle is mainly in the second focal plane, meaning that it appears to be of the same size regardless of the magnification, providing minimal coverage of the target.
Blaser Infinity with first focal plane reticle configuration is an exception to the rule.

FFP-hunting optics were used in the past but are gradually dying out. Commonly, the riflescope is equipped with an illuminated central dot, the intensity of which depends on its purpose.

Magnification

The magnification is either

fixed or
variable.

A few decades ago, fixed magnification optical devices were the prevalent type, now it is the other way around. In England, Scotland, South Africa, and some other countries, many users still prefer the fixed type over the variable type. Entry and middle-class riflescopes have a 4–6x zoom factor, whereas the premium ones boast a 6–8x zoom factor.

Parallax

Parallax is typically fixed at 100 m.
If magnification is above 12x, a riflescope is usually equipped with an adjustable parallax setting (side focus).

Swarovski Z8i 2.3-18x56 has an adjustable parallax turret (on the left)

Subcategories

There are many subcategories:

Best Hunting-riflescopes

Riflescopes of the highest quality are produced by the renowned European sport optics manufacturers such as:

Such devices are equipped with:

an illuminated reticle,
commonly a fine, central illuminated dot.

The zoom factor is 6x or greater. There is an option of purchasing an uncapped BDC turret on most. Reticles are in the second focal plane, except with the Blaser Infinity series which features an FFP-configuration.

Premium optics boast:

an exceptional field of view,
impressive resolution,
a high light transmission rate, and
a high degree of colour fidelity.

They are difficult to compare because there are only small differences among them, but each series has its own strong point (Leica Magnus series, for example, is known for its incredibly wide field of view).

The middle-class devices are not to be overlooked since its popularity has risen considerably in the last few years.
Most of these devices are made in Japan and highly popular because of their excellent price to performance ratio.
Some European-made devices can also be found in this class.

A short presentation is available here.

Short Presentation | HuntingRiflescopes | Optics Trade from Optics-Trade

Rifle scopes with S&B Convex mounting rail

Sub Categories

Introduction

Properties of Convex Rail Standard

Pros

Cons

Conclusion

Crimson Trace Hardline 4-16x42 BDC

Mounting solutions - Ring and Rail mounts

Tube diameter

Turrets

The reticle

Magnification

Parallax

Subcategories

Best Hunting-riflescopes

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Rifle scopes with S&B Convex mounting rail

Sub Categories

Introduction

Properties of Convex Rail Standard

Pros

Cons

Conclusion

Crimson Trace Hardline 4-16x42 BDC

Mounting solutions - Ring and Rail mounts

Tube diameter

Turrets

The reticle

Magnification

Parallax

Subcategories

Best Hunting-riflescopes

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