Styrka Booth Tour at SHOT Show 2020: S3, S5, S7 Scopes, Kenton Turrets and the New S5 Binos

What’s up Squat Squad, and welcome to Slav Guns. This one is from day four of my SHOT Show 2020 coverage, at the Styrka booth with Josh Lazenby (no relation to the one-time Mr. Bond, he gets asked all the time). Styrka is a company I had been following for a while before I finally got to work with them, and I walked away seriously impressed.

If you’re not a gun person, you may not know the name Styrka, but you probably know the parent company: Celestron, the telescope folks. Josh walked me through why an astronomy brand built a separate hunting optics line, how the S3 / S5 / S7 lineup breaks down, a new ballistic turret setup for straight-wall cartridges, the new S5 binoculars, and a warranty perk I haven’t seen from anyone else.

Quick note: this is a SHOT Show booth tour, not a range test and evaluation. Prices and availability below are what Josh quoted at SHOT 2020, so check current pricing before you buy.

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Why a telescope company made a separate hunting brand

Josh said Celestron, which has been around for about 70 years, had wanted to get into the hunting space for a long time. With their kind of customers, though, they didn’t want to put the Celestron name on what he called “blood sports.” So they launched a new brand, which was harder because it looks like a startup to the outside world. They started the project roughly seven or eight years before this video and launched the first products about six years before it.

I get it. We’ve watched photography and optics companies get pulled two ways by that exact problem. On one side you sell glass so people can photograph animals, and on the other you sell glass that helps people hunt them. That tension is part of why Nikon and Pentax walked away from riflescopes. Keeping Styrka as its own brand means the hunting side doesn’t upset the applecart on the astronomy side.

Being separate doesn’t mean being on their own. Josh said Styrka can draw on Celestron’s mechanical and optical engineers for product development, and the two brands share warehousing in California. Styrka gets big-company resources without as much big-company bureaucracy, which is a pretty good deal for a young brand.

The naming system: S3, S5, S7, S9

Styrka wanted names that are easy for buyers and dealers to remember, so it’s just numbers, kind of like BMW. Go up a number and you get better clarity, components and glass, and you pay more.

Josh also answered a question people ask a lot: why no exposed turrets and no huge magnification? That was on purpose. Styrka launched as a traditional hunting line to build a base first, and planned to grow into longer-range and more tactical products over time. So everything below has capped turrets and moderate, hunting-friendly magnification.

Styrka S7

• Tube: 30mm.
• Coating: SL-XMax, a broadband coating. Josh said it transmits the whole visible spectrum at the same rate, so you don’t get the peaks and valleys of a standard coating.
• Illumination: Illuminated and non-illuminated versions in every size.
• Reticles: Plex, or Styrka’s hunting BDC.
• Models: 1-6, 3-12, and 2.5-15×50.
• Price at SHOT 2020: Just under $500 up to about $650-675, in stock at the time.

The BDC isn’t built to get you to 1,500 yards, but Josh said it will take you to 500-600 yards, and for most hunters that’s a long shot. It isn’t made for one cartridge either. They spaced it to work with almost any load. Your holds won’t land on even 100-yard steps, but when does a deer ever stop at an even distance? Put your load data and velocity into Styrka’s app and it tells you exactly what distance each dot is for your rifle.

On glass, Josh was straight with me. The S7 isn’t ED glass. It’s a high-grade standard optical glass, the kind some companies would label “HD.” His point was that there are many grades of standard glass, and marketing terms often make people think they’re getting more than they are. The catalog just says standard optical glass, but it’s a better grade of it.

I had just received an S7 when we filmed this. I was very impressed with it, and the full review is up now: Styrka S7 2.5-15×50 review.

Diminishing returns on glass

This was my favorite part of the conversation, because I get asked “what scope should I buy?” all the time. Buy a precision rifle and someone tells you to spend $3,000 on a Nightforce. Take up hunting and someone says to just buy a Swarovski or a Zeiss. Those are all great scopes, but optics have diminishing returns.

Josh’s take: a much more expensive scope is better, and that’s the truth. But for the average guy, is the difference worth the money, or would that money do more as a hunt or a better rifle? His rule of thumb is to spend about what you spent on the rifle. And if you have to cut corners somewhere, don’t let it be the glass, even though that’s what most people cut. Going from $200 to $500 is a big jump in optical performance. Above $1,000 you pay a lot more to squeeze out a little more.

That matches what I’ve seen. I had a cheap $200 optic, an $800 optic and the $2,500 Leupold Mark 5HD from our Precision Rifle Series at the range on the same day. In bright midday sun, they all looked about the same. Early in the morning and as the sun went down, the $200 optic fell behind fast. Past a certain price point, it gets very hard to tell scopes apart. Having already played with the S7, I think it sits right in that sweet spot. If it had a $1,500 price tag, I could justify it.

Styrka S5

• Tube: 1″.
• Illumination: None.
• Coating: Styrka’s standard coating. It peaks in the blues and greens and then drops off, so you don’t get the flat broadband transmission of the S7. Josh said the glass and internals are very similar to the S7, and so are the tube materials.
• Side focus: On most models. The 4.5-14 has it because of the higher magnification, and there’s a 3-9 with side focus. The 1.75-5×32, for shotgun slugs and .22, doesn’t have it.
• Price at SHOT 2020: Just under $300 to around $430.

I’ve since reviewed one of these too: Styrka S5 4.5-14×44 review.

Styrka S3

The S3 is Styrka’s entry line, for someone buying a first scope who doesn’t want to spend much but still wants good performance. Josh quoted the mid-$200s to around $319. At that price you give up some components and glass quality, but it’s still a one-piece tube.

• 2-7 and 3-9: Plex or BDC, no side focus, parallax fixed at 100 yards.
• 4-12×50: Has side parallax. It’s the top magnification range in the S3 line.

Durability testing

Josh said every line gets tested the same way. They spot-check scopes at 1,000 impacts at 1,000 G’s, and every single scope gets 100 impacts at 1,000 G’s before it leaves the factory. So putting one on a bigger magnum shouldn’t be a problem.

New: S3 with Kenton ballistic turrets for 350 Legend and 450 Bushmaster

This was the new item on the table. In the Upper Midwest there are a lot of shotgun and straight-wall areas where you can’t hunt with a regular centerfire, so 350 Legend and 450 Bushmaster keep getting more popular. A lot of those hunters don’t want to count BDC lines and risk using the wrong hold. They want to range the deer, turn a dial and shoot.

So Styrka took the S3 3-9×40 and worked with Kenton Industries on ballistic turrets for 350 Legend and 450 Bushmaster. Here’s how it works:

1. The scope comes with a standard turret. Zero it at 100 yards.
2. Take off the factory turret (it’s held on by a screw), put on the ballistic turret, and line up the 1 with the mark. That’s your 100-yard setting.
3. Range a deer at 200, turn the dial to 2 and shoot. It’s still a plain Plex reticle. You’re moving the internals instead of holding over.

Josh quoted around $239, in stock at the show. Want this for another cartridge? Kenton can make custom turrets for the S3, S5 and S7 lines, and you can order your own through Kenton’s site. That could be handy if you’re getting into precision shooting with a Styrka on your rifle.

New S5 10×42 binoculars

Styrka binoculars use the same S3 / S5 / S7 / S9 tiers. For 2020 they updated the S5 10×42, and the main change is the SL-XMax broadband coating from the S7 scopes. The new coating didn’t raise the price. Josh said it stays at $399, the same as the old version. Glassing for game or spotting targets at distance, that’s a nice upgrade for free.

The warranty, plus a free yearly service

Plenty of companies offer a no-fault warranty, and Styrka does too. If something goes wrong, they fix it, and if they can’t, they send you a new optic. What sets them apart is the free yearly service. After a season of mud, dirt and dust, you can send your scope or binos in once a year. They clean them up, check that they work right, replace wear parts like eyecups, and make sure the scope tracks properly. It costs nothing beyond shipping it to them.

I did have some devious ideas for testing that no-fault warranty, but I like Josh and Styrka too much to go through with them.

Bottom line

Styrka is a newer name in riflescopes with a solid backer in Celestron. The lineup is simple, the prices are fair, the turrets are capped and built for hunting, and the yearly free service is something I haven’t seen anywhere else. The S7 was the standout for me, the Kenton turret S3 makes a lot of sense for straight-wall hunters, and the new S5 binos got better without costing more. If you’re into astronomy, you know Celestron. If you’re a gun owner, I think you’ll be hearing a lot more about Styrka.

Styrka scopes, binos and the rest of my range gear are on slav.li/amazon. Want to support the channel? Join here.

More from SHOT Show 2020: Episode 0: Slav Guns Goes to Vegas and Media Day at the Range.

Keep squatting.

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Where do you stop paying for glass: $500, $1,000, or “Nightforce or nothing”? Drop it in the comments.

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