Scope Imperfections?

[nucular]

I brought out my 24" AR15 this past weekend to do some 100 yard plinking. It has an older Mueller 4-16x50 and at 16 power, I noticed a bunch of black specks that I don't recall being there in the past although it has probably been 10+ years since I shot this one. I'm debating whether or not to try and get this one fixed - the image isn't great and the eye box is a little narrow for my aging eyeballs. Would I see a big improvement going from this to a Vortex Strike Eagle 5-25X56?

 

[LeverGunFan]

Small specks like that are sometimes paint flecks that are separating from the internal black paint.

 

[Ark]

Seen it happen before. Little bits of paint flecks or other finish stuff that get loose from the inside of the housing and end up on the lens. Usually with older or very cheap optics. I know I've seen some old binocs with the same sort of thing happening.

Most of the new stuff is nitrogen purged and sealed, so there shouldn't be any real chemical process happening inside the housing anymore. It will eventually, I'm sure, that's just entropy. But I've never looked through a current production Vortex, PA, or anything above that price point and seen flakes on the lens.

25x is nuts for any 5.56 gun, personally I'd be on the hunt for a 2.5-10x, 3-12x, or similar DMR type optic. Whatever you buy will be clean inside.

 

[nucular]

Seen it happen before. Little bits of paint flecks or other finish stuff that get loose from the inside of the housing and end up on the lens. Usually with older or very cheap optics. I know I've seen some old binocs with the same sort of thing happening.

Most of the new stuff is nitrogen purged and sealed, so there shouldn't be any real chemical process happening inside the housing anymore. It will eventually, I'm sure, that's just entropy. But I've never looked through a current production Vortex, PA, or anything above that price point and seen flakes on the lens.

25x is nuts for any 5.56 gun, personally I'd be on the hunt for a 2.5-10x, 3-12x, or similar DMR type optic. Whatever you buy will be clean inside.

Thanks for the response. I guess I need to go get my hands on a couple. I like the 16x on this one but the eye box gets so small in the upper range that it gets difficult to see. Maybe 10x with a better eye box would be an improvement.