Tract TORIC ELR Scope Review: Best Extreme Long Range Scope?

If you are anything like me, you might have said something like this in the past: “that scope costs how much?!” Then you likely added some expletives and walked away. I understand completely.

Today’s quality rifle scopes cost a lot of money.

Manufacturers like Tract Optics, realize that the price of quality glass can seriously hinder a consumer’s willingness to purchase their product. The consumer sees the outside shell of the scope and nothing more. The Manufacturer understands everything that goes into building a quality optic including the materials, engineering, and lenses just to name a few.

Enjoy our review of the Tract Toric 4.5-30X56 ELR rifle scope.

Tract Optics TORIC ELR Scope Background

Most people recognize the names of optic manufacturers like Leupold, Bushnell, Nightforce, or Zeiss. These companies have been around since the dawn of time. (in scope years anyway) In the past few years we have started to see a bunch of new scope companies popping up offering products that claim to have all the quality and features of their higher priced counterparts, yet at a lower price because they have found a way to cut out the middle man or any number of other marketing terms.

Tract Optics was started by John Allen and John LaCorte. Both men spent a good number of years in the optics industry, specifically with Nikon Sport Optics. Their goal is to bring high-end optics to market that meet the demands of their customers, without paying the high-end pricing.

Tract offers long range specific rifle scopes, like we are reviewing today. They also offer scopes in lower magnification ranges to suit a wide customer base, as well as binoculars, spotting scopes, and other hunting/shooting related accessories.

The feature-set of the Toric 4.5-30X56 ELR rifle scope really appeals to the long range competition shooter. Things like first focal plane, 2/10s mil holdovers, a target reticle, and turret zero stop are all important to people using their scope for fast target engagements.

Do those features appeal to you as well? Comment below with your top three “must have” scope features.

Tract TORIC ELR Scope Features

1 Glass

Lots of things go into making a quality optic, but the thing people notice and remember, is the thing they see the most.  In this case it’s the Schott extra low dispersion, high definition, fully multi-coated lenses in the Tract Toric.

In fairness, it’s not comparable to the lenses found on top-tier scopes in the $3,500-$4,500 price range, but for an MSRP of $1,694.00, it’s punching above its weight class.

2 Turrets

The turrets come standard with a locking feature that prevent the shooter from accidentally bumping and turning the turrets in the field.

The Toric also has a return to zero feature, making it very simple to dial back to your 100-yard zero point without having to count clicks.

3 Reticle

First focal plane MRAD extreme long-range reticle boasts .2 mil and .5 mil holdovers marks on the vertical and horizontal stadia lines as well as .1 mil “target measurement” lines.

4 Main Tube

The 34mm main tube is strong and provides a greater adjustment range for those extreme long-range shots.

5 Illumination

The Toric has 11 different brightness settings and an expected battery life of 360 hours on a medium setting.

6 Warranty

Tract offers their Trust Assurance Warranty which requires no paperwork and is good for the life of the optic whether you are the original owner or not.

Scope Color Variants and Magnifications

All scopes from Tract are finished in a “graphite” color or standard black.

Besides the 4.5-30X56, Tract also offers a 4-20X50 in both MRAD and MOA versions, a 3-15X50 BDC, a 2-10X42, and a couple of 4-16X42 AR specific scopes with BDC style features.

Tract Toric ELR Scope – Our Take

The Tract Toric has proven to be a reliable scope, offering all of the features that I find most important for the type of shooting I do regularly. The controls are all easy and intuitive – similar to many of the top brands on the market.

The glass is clear and bright out to distance with minimal chromatic aberration (CA) around the edges. The CA does show up at higher magnification ranges when viewing objects at farther distance. This is normal and expected for scopes of this type. It wasn’t noticeable enough to become a negative rating in my evaluation.

Something I like to test when evaluating a new scope is how well I can see objects in the shadows. The light transmission and contrast with the Toric was satisfactory in this regard.

I found the reticle to be useful, and the .2 mil hashmarks are ideal for precise holdover adjustments. The lines and dots that make up the “Christmas Tree” style reticle are thin and unobtrusive, yet not too thin so as to become unusable above 8 power. That being said, if you run the optic down in the range of 4.5-6 power, the holdover hashmarks are basically worthless because they are too small and thin to see.

Turret feel is a big thing to me. I can’t stand when turrets feel mushy. What I really like is a tactile and audible experience when it comes to turning the turrets. In my mind, there should be no second-guessing whether I’m advancing the clicks or not. The Tract Toric is both tactile and audible, with no mushy feel. The mil numbers and lines match up perfectly as well – I can’t stand dialing in 3.6 mils and being unsure whether I’m on 3.6 or 3.7 mils.

Scope tracking is another box that needs to be checked when evaluating the worthiness of an optic. Obviously, you need to be able to trust that your optic is not inducing cant errors into your drop data without you knowing about it. These calculations and adjustments need to be precise when it comes to making consistent shots at long range. The Toric model supplied to me tracked well and corresponds to the real-world tracking tests performed by other reviewers.

I think the Tract Toric 4.5-30X56 is a lot of scope for the money. It really does have all of the features that I want, and the glass is good quality for the distances we often see in precision rifle competitions. On my arbitrary 1-10 scale of scope awesomeness, I give the Toric a solid seven. In case you’re wondering, a ten would be a scope like the Zero Compromise 5-25. A six, for comparison sake would be the Vortex Viper PST gen2.

Tract TORIC ELR Scope Pros and Cons

Tract Optics TORIC ELR Scope Starter Pack

You might not think you need a starter pack when it comes to picking up a scope. It’s just a scope, right? Just pop it on and you’re good to go. However, there’s definitely much more to it than that. You need to ensure that you have the right mount and rings in order to pair properly with your rifle fit. Also, you’ll want to have a good cleaning kit. There’s no point in paying good money for a scope only to have it dirty and unclear when you need it.

• Rings: These will vary from rifle to rifle depending on barrel profile clearance. The shooter will need a set of 34mm rings or comparable one piece mount.  Rings are often low, medium, high, and extra high.  I needed the high rings from Seekins in order for the objective to clear my barrel.
• Scope and Lens Cleaning Kit: LensPens ProPack on Amazon–This has everything you’ll need to ensure your scope stays in tip-top shape.
• Lens Caps: Butler Creek Flip Open Scope Cover on Amazon