I'm not going to stir the pot further,on the post, but I'm curious. I may have erred in not considering the earlier models than what is called the BR model now. My scopes also go back about 15 years, and one is a straight 15X..still works good too... A friend got an 8-40, which was a pos, and they ended up replacing it with an NXS. Now thats service. I believe Haeko (SP?) was making the early scopes, and they were not what they should have been. I've met Jeff from Nightforce several times, and always felt he was a real straight shooter.
What part of the midwest are you in?