Review of Schmidt and Bender PM II LP/2 3-12x50mm Scope

Schmidt and Bender PM II LP/2 3-12x50mm riflescope has become one of the most discussed topics in recent times because of United States Marine Corps’ (USMC) decision to adopt and use this scope with sniper rifles like M40A3 and M82. Reports say that this riflescope of Schmidt Bender is the only device, out of 25 other manufacturers who participated in the selection process, to have passed all the rigorous tests of USMC. Now, riflescopes from Schmidt & Bender are the official sniping scopes of USMC. Whether it is Schmidt and Bender PM II LP/2 3-12x50mm or any other scope from the manufacturer, they have built a reputation of providing high quality optical clarity and resolution for themselves.

Though its price has been on the higher side of $2,000, law enforcement departments, military, tactical shooters, and the snipers have preferred the PMII line of scopes. This is when we thought of performing a thorough evaluation of Schmidt Bender PM II LP/2 3-12x50mm riflescope so that users can take informed decision while buying the same.

Construction and Mounting
The first thing we noticed while taking the Schmidt Bender PM II LP/2 3-12x50mm in hand is the nice feel of the construction. This scope is durable, and it shows. This scope has an excellent quality, right tolerance, and uniform finishing. Most importantly, you will not find any slop.
One of the best things we have seen in this scope is the 34mm tube, enabling enough light to pass through. This provides the basis of enhanced light transmission and the production of better quality images. It needs to be mentioned here that 34mm tube is not found commonly- 30mm tubes are most common ones. Therefore, the scope comes with enough space for superior light transmission.

Another thing that’s worth mentioning about the construction is easy gripping facility of power adjustment ring. This feature is less common in scopes, and a shooter will hardly have to make any effort for adjustment. The diopter adjustment or fast focus eyepiece is a typical European type and using a flip up scope cap will not be much of a problem. Main body of the scope is chiseled from a single aluminum block, with typical anodized finish found in most high quality riflescopes. The presence of decent eye relief, enabling short-to-mid-range hunters/shooters to use this Schmidt Bender scope on high recoiling rifles, adds to the main experience. The hunter also gets wide range, which allows quick full sight picture alignment.

The second thing we noticed in the construction is the effortless mounting capability. This riflescope comes with spaced and mounted picatinny base. Though there are only few manufacturers of 34mm rings, you will not find problem in finding one because of the scope’s inbuilt one. There’s nothing sloppy about the riflescope as all the moving parts are smooth and precise.

Optics and Reticle
The most important part of a scope is its optical quality. You will not be disappointed about optics in Schmidt and Bender PM II LP/2 3-12x50mm riflescope. It is in fact exceptional and can be considered among the best optics in modern riflescopes we have seen recently. This riflescope comes with a traditional mil-dot reticle, placed in the first focal plane. However, the one adopted by USMC has been incorporated with “Gen-2” mil-dot reticle that has half mil hash marks.

Now, coming back to the riflescope available for general mass, the mil-dot reticle worked well in all power settings, right from 4x to 16x. The reticle size appears to remain proportional with the target size with regard to the magnification range you choose. This means it will appear to the shooter that the reticle is shrinking or growing with change in power setting. With the help of this riflescope, you can scan an operation area and simultaneously get mil reading without the requirement of changing power of the scope.

Knobs and Adjustments
Turrets of Schmidt and Bender PM II LP/2 3-12x50mm are larger in design and the main intention of the manufacturer to design it like this is the purpose of using it externally. The turrets don’t have dust covers. For helping shooters concentrate on shooting, Schmidt Bender has designed the side focus knob for parallax adjustment with knurled ends. One of the most amazing aspects about the knobs in this scope is full 30 MOA adjustment per single revolution along with 1/4 MOA clicks.

The offering of upper and lower scale indicators is also commendable. On top of the elevation knob, you will get series of “windows”. Once you make one full revolution, crossing the 30 MOA mark, those windows will get filled with yellow. This indicates the shooter that he has crossed the upper MOA scale, which is marked by yellow on top of the knob. It is helpful for long range shooters to remember how many times they have rotated past zero. It needs to be mentioned here that a shooter will get 56 MOA of elevation in this S&B PM II scope.

Another attribute that we found unique is the spacing on the side focus knob. Unlike most scopes having parallax adjustment knobs, spacing between range settings for focus remains same throughout. In this Schmidt Bender scope, spacing remains same whether it is between 200 yards and 400 yards or 800 yards and 1,000 yards. In other scopes with focus adjustment knobs, the spacing between range settings get smaller with increasing range (spacing between 100 yard and 150 yards is larger than that between 300 yards and infinity). One of the main advantages of this feature in S&B scopes is that you will get precise focus and parallax adjustment, and as a result, enhanced long range focus, reduced parallax and crisp images.

Now, let’s have a look at the windage knob, where knob counts are present in both directions. A shooter will get full 15 MOA on both directions, which in most long range shooting scenarios are enough. However, if you are an extreme long range shooter, say aiming target at 1500 yards or above, full 15 MOA will not be enough. At Schmidt Bender PM II LP/2 3-12x50mm scope, you will get 1/4 MOA per click windage adjustments. An arrow indicates clearly which way is right. Even when Schmidt and Bender PM II LP/2 3-12x50mm riflescope has been mounted on a Remington, we witnessed extremely accurate and repeatable adjustments. Therefore, a shooter will easily get a complete sight picture while shooting.

If you need specific details of the scope specs and price, have a look at the SB PM II LP/2 3-12x50mm scope at Scopelist.com.