Nikko Stirling Goes Long with the Diamond First Focal Plane Scope

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Nikko Stirling Goes Long with the Diamond First Focal Plane Scope

In recent years, the firearms industry has gone long.

From bullets streamlined to slip through the air nearly unimpeded to purpose-built rifles meant to sling copper-jacketed lead a country mile, long-range shooting has been all the rage. The optics end of the market has definitely been riding high on the crest of this wave.

More and more riflescope manufacturers have been turning their eyes to aiming solutions designed to draw a bead on a flea’s behind from 300-plus-yards out. One of the most recent to unveil its high-powered wares was Nikko Stirling, who released an entirely new line dedicated to precisely going the distance.

The company released its Diamond First Focal Plane Scope at the 2017 SHOT Show. And from the looks of it, the 4-16x44mm and 6-24x50mm optics in the line should have the chops to put shooters on target, no matter how many zip codes away it’s placed.

At the heart of the Diamond line is the Skeleton HMD reticle. The red/green illumination reticle delivers a clear sight picture allowing shooters to precisely place the crosshairs no matter the light condition. As the line’s moniker suggests, the reticle is etched on the front focal plane — a must to accurately utilize the .5 MIL subtensions at any magnification. Also, being FFP, the reticle increases in size in the same proportion as the target, ensuring the crosshairs do not blot it out.

The scope is built on a 30mm aircraft-grade aluminum tube and is outfitted with large objective lenses. The 44mm and 50mm lenses should provided excellent light gathering capabilities, always a concern when attempting a distant shot. The scope’s light gathering proficiency is further enhanced with all of its lens surfaces coated with Nikko Stirling’s proprietary Microlux ETE GEN III coating — designed to reduce glare, enhance contrast and sharpen images.

Diamond First Focal Plane Scope
With an illuminated reticle and plenty of magnification, the Diamond looks to be a gem for long-range shooters.

The Diamond First Focal Plane scope features oversized elevation and windage turrets that have tactile and audible clicks, and adjusts at 1/10 MIL increments. The elevation turret is also outfitted with a zero stop, which halts the rotation after one turn turn and allows it to quickly return to zero. The stop can be removed, allowing the elevation turret to rotate freely and adjust to extremely long shots.

The scope is also outfitted with a side parallax adjustment that can be tuned from 10 yards to infinity, ensuring a shot always lands dead in the bull’s eye.

The scope ships with a sunshade, two elevation drop turrets (one blank) and comes with the option of a side-wheel. The MSRP on the 4-16x44mm Diamond First Focal Plane Scope is $459 and the 6-24x50mm is $490.

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Elwood Shelton is the Digital Editor for Gun Digest. He lives in Colorado and has provided coverage on a vast spectrum of topics for GD for more than a decade. Before that, he was an award-winning sports and outdoors reporter for a number of newspapers across the Rocky Mountains. His experience has consisted of covering the spread of chronic wasting disease into the Western Slope of Colorado to the state’s ranching for wildlife programs. His passion for shooting began at a young age, fostered on pheasant hunts with his father. Since then, he has become an accomplished handloader, long-range shooter and avid hunter—particularly mule deer and any low-down, dirty varmint that comes into his crosshairs. He is a regular contributor to Gun Digest Magazine and has contributed to various books on guns and shooting, most recently Lever-Actions: A Tribute to the All-American Rifle.

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