Long-Range Target/Hunting Scope: Tract Toric 2.5-15x44 Ultra HD 30mm SFP Illuminated

Heavy but sleek and well balanced, the Tract Toric UltraHD 2.5-15x44 scope with illuminated BDC reticle combines precision adjustments and brilliant optical quality in a dual purpose hunting/target scope.

Check out my video review of the Tract Toric 2.5-15x44 Ultra HD 30mm SFP below!

Tract’s Toric 2.5-15x44mm Ultra HD 30mm SFP Illuminated scope with BDC reticle and dial turrets exists not because any hunter needs it, but because more and more hunters want it. This is not your grandpa’s 3-9X variable. 

Bigger is Better — Or at Least More Popular

There’s a shift to bigger scopes because hunters are increasingly coming from the ranks of target shooters who expect, even demand high power, high-magnification-range scopes. It’s a precision thing. And there’s nothing wrong with being precise when it’s time to hit the vitals on game. Tract’s Toric 2.5-15x44 scope with second focal plane illuminated reticle and parallax dial is larger than this old hunter prefers, but I can’t complain about its performance. Precise is a hallmark. And the illuminated reticle is a low-light bonus.

Eye relief is a generous 3.9 inches and the eyebox accommodates fore and aft movement of the shooter’s eye nearly 2 inches before edge shadow becomes apparent. Exit pupil seen here is a whopping 17mm at 2.5X.

Other hunters long in the tooth know that a good shooter with training and experience can drop a dime in the boiler room out to 400 yards at 6X first time, every time. But the same veteran shooter who’s worked with higher magnifications has to admit the additional image size makes precision shot placement even easier. This partly explains why so many hunting scopes now zoom from 2X or 3X up to 14X or even 20X. 

The 2.5X to 15X zoom range of the Tract Toric UltraHD SFP scope with illluminated BDC reticle meets the 6X zoom range desired by so many modern shooters looking for a versatile scope that can handle long-range target shooting as well as traditional hunting chores. Versatility seems the hallmark of today’s rifle scopes.

This means scopes like this Tract Toric are longer, wider, and heavier than traditional scopes. But they’re also brighter, more versatile, and more precise. Get the right one and you can clang steel all spring and summer, knock off your pronghorn, mule deer, and elk come fall. 

Oversized or Compromise?

Having worked with scopes from 1X to 30X, main tubes from 3/4-inch to 34mm, objectives from 24mm to 56mm, and weights from 7-ounces to two-and-a-half pounds, I’ve decided a good balance is a 30mm main tube zooming 2.5 or 3 time to the 14X to 18X range. The lighter the better, but realistically it’ll come in weighing 19 to 30 ounces. This suggests it’s not your optimum high country backpack hunter’s scope. But for flatlands, hills, and day hunts from camp or the truck and back, acceptable. And the weight helps steady the rifle and tame recoil. 

Large, easily manipulated turret dials, illumination dial, and parallax dial add weight but precision and versatility to the Tract Toric Second Focal Plane BDC reticle scope.

At 27 ounces this 30mm main tube Tract Toric is at the heavy end of the scale. We can blame part of that on the illuminated reticle and requisite battery/compartment plus the side parallax adjustment dial, but I’ve a hunch the one-piece aluminum alloy main tube is thicker than most, built to survive hard use. 

The embedded video should show you what you’ll want to know about this scope, but here’s my written review so you can take your time, re-read, and contemplate. 

Tract Toric 2.5-15x44 Ultra HD Bombproof Yet Balanced

My overall impression: this is one heavy, solid, bomb-proof optical instrument. If it fails to direct your bullets to your bull or bear, you could detach it and club the beast into submission. Despite this it doesn’t look clunky. The lines flow as smoothly as the controls move. Parallax, power, and diopter rings turn firmly but consistently with nary a hitch and no backlash.  Illumination and turret dials snap crisply with no wiggle. The quarter-click MOA adjustments are spot on, returning to their starting point with encouraging repeatability. Up, down, right, left. Dial where you need to go knowing that you’ll get back home with the same number of clicks. 

The Tract Toric Ultra HD SFP 2.5-15x44 scope’s elevation and windage turrets dial in crisp, 1/4 MOA clicks with no backlash and precision moves, always returning to precisely to the starting point. There are 100 MOA of vertical adjustment.

Turret dialing, however, isn’t the only way to compensate for long range bullet drop, as suggested by the turret caps. Sure, you can remove the cap and run the turret as standard operating procedure, but you don’t have to. The BDC reticle provides sub-reticle aiming points that can carry most 30-06-class rifles to 800 yards, magnums to 1,000 yards. Combine this with the 100 MOA of vertical adjustment in the elevation turret and you’re halfway to the moon. 

The ballistic turret includes five sub-reticle aiming points, the fifth directing even a relatively slow, 2,700 fps 308 Win. 168-grain Match Bullet (zeroed at 100 yards) to 600-yards. And if you’re compensating for wind deflection, there are 10 mph right angle hold dots on each sub-reticle. Or dial the windage turret in MOAs.

The illuminated reticles (yes, sub-reticles, too) adjust to 11 intensity settings with off clicks between each. The integral parallax dial focuses down to 10 yards. 

Schott HT Glass Fully Multi-coated

Optically this instrument is a sparkler thanks to Schott High Transmission glass, multiple antireflection coating on all air to glass intersections, and an ED lens to minimize color fringing. Eye relief is a welcomed and generous 3.9 inches. 

Impressive Conclusion

Despite its weight, the Toric 2.5-15x44 SFP scope matched nicely with the author’s lightweight H-S Precision Pro Series 2000 rifle in 300 WSM. The weight helped tame a bit of the recoil in this 1/2 MOA elk rifle.

All things considered, I can find this scope optically and mechanically impressive. Nevertheless, I’ve scraped up a couple of things to complain about. First is the weight. I’ve never liked heavy scopes, but then I’m a peripatetic hunter, often hiking ten miles a day if not backpacking for a week. Then again, as the years pile up I hike less, glass more, and try to keep those 50-pound packs off my back… Second, the reticle. I love the red illumination, the sub reticles and windage dots, but would prefer an MOA or mil-radian grid BDC reticle for precision target work. Still, this BDC reticle is more than quick and precise enough for hunting. For precision target doping, one can simply dial the MOA turret. And dial it a long, long way. Goodness, 100 yards of adjustment will take even the lowly 6.5 Creedmoor to 1,900 yards!

An example of how the Tract website ballistic calculator provides BDC data for any cartridge/bullet/MV. The 807 number is the range at which the bottom bar of this reticle targets.

At the risk of sounding redundant (see my other Tract reviews,) I have to give this Toric Ultra HD two thumbs up.

Specifications

Magnification: 2.5x to 15X

Objective lens diameter: 44mm

Length: 13.9”

Weight: 27 oz.

Main Tube diameter: 30mm

Lenses: Fully Multi-Coated Schott HT

Objective Lens: ED glass

Eye Relief: 3.9”

Eye Box: About 1.75 inches shift fore and aft before edge shadow

appears at 2.5X, 1 inch at 15X

Exit Pupil: 17mm to 2.9mm

Field of View: 41.7’ @ 2.5X to 7.1’ at 15X at 100 yards

MOA Adjustment range: 100 MOA vertical

Elevation Turret: 1/4 MOA click

Windage Turret: 1/4 MOA click

Reticle: Second Focal Plane BDC with 10 mph windage dots

Parallax: Side Focus, 10 yards to infinity

Ring Mount space: 6”

Waterproof:   To 10 feet, Argon gas purged