Tax Rebate Means New Treat!! (Scope)

[WoodsmanJim 160]

Evening all,

 

As some of you will have seen from another of my threads I was having scope woes and have lost faith in my NS Mountmaster. I was facing a fair wait till a new scope could be funded, until a lovely thing happened in my pay packet - a tax rebate!! I love days like that!

 

So seeing as I was foraying into N. Wales for some of this weekend I thought I'd call in at Valley Arms on the way and peruse their wares. Well after some great advice and customer service I've plumped for a Hawke Sidewinder 30 10x42 (10x 1/2 Mil-dot).

 

And what a lovely piece of kit it is! Feels a lot better made than my Mountmaster, and with the 30mm tube just has a very sturdy feel to it. Side wheel focus is something I've wanted for a while now for minimal hand movements whilst hunting and it having 'target' turrets sealed the deal for me. No more faffing (and losing) screw off caps!

I went for the 10x fixed mag for 2 reasons; I've not once in 4 years ever taken my 3-9x Mountmaster off max zoom of 9x, and I cant see that if I bought a variable zoom version of the Hawke that I'd ever take it off the true mildot setting of 10x. Also, never changing mag means that I only need to know one set of aim points, which keeps things simple in the field!

 

The second reason for going for the fixed mag version is that it was £100 cheaper!! Total no-brainer for me that. So now I have it I'll be fitting it and setting it up over the weekend and I'll get some pics up too.

 

Hope you all have a great bank holiday weekend

 

Jim

[Elliott 436]

Nice one Jim, enjoy!

[porkybella 284]

I had a nice rebate aswell spent mine tho

A week in devon

Hw97kt brand new

Bsa custom multishot

And a brand new r10 im just waiting for

[WoodsmanJim 160]

Wow, Porky!! I wish my rebate had been as good as that!

 

Jim

[Mawders 595]

Feck all in my rebate! Standard!

 

What better way to spend a rebate though on shooting goodies!

 

Interesting you went for the fixed mag because I was thinking the same thing. In all the years Ive been shooting I've never used any other settings than 10x even though my scope goes up to x12.

 

Crazy isn't it!

 

Let us know how you get on, got any pics of it mounted to the gun, and also would you mind letting me know how much you paid?

 

Phil

[porkybella 284]

Was a nice rebate look forward to it every year always around the 2 1/2 - 3K mark

[WoodsmanJim 160]

Bloody hell Porky! I though mine was good, but it's nowt like that. They kind of feel like an enforced savings scheme thought don't they, a yearly bonus (that you've already earned, but thats not the point! Most of my rebate got snaffled by the wife for baby things, but I kept a couple of hundred quid or so for goodies.

 

Mawders - I paid £180, which is their ticket price in the shop. I think they have one left too if you fancy it! Surprisingly I couldn't actually find it cheaper online once I got home which made it feel all the sweeter. They did me a deal on the new mounts 'cos I was buying the scope. I also picked up a titan XS spring for an ASI Gamo Cadet that I'm fixing up and that was my money spent! My kind of shopping trip though

 

Jim

Edited May 3, 2013 by WoodsmanJim

[davyt63 1,845]

hi Jim

that's the beauty of working buddy tax rebates i love em

well i will this year,last year my rebate went on a new boiler being installed,freaking plumbers modern day highway men

 

going to put this next one in early and maybe a

 

AA pro sport,dressed with a Hawke Sidewinder 30 SF 3-12x50 SR Pro

&

Daystate huntsman classic dressed with Hawke Sidewinder 30 SF 4-16x50 SR Pro

 

and may be a bit left for some raffle prizes for the next THL meet

[WoodsmanJim 160]

Sounds like you got plan there Davy!

 

Just a quick question; Why the different zoom parameters for the 2 rifles? is it a springer/ pcp thing or would one be .177 and the other .22 or something like that?

Either way souds like you're a Hawke SW fan! This reassures me greatly that I've bought well

 

Jim

[davyt63 1,845]

Sounds like you got plan there Davy!

 

Just a quick question; Why the different zoom parameters for the 2 rifles? is it a springer/ pcp thing or would one be .177 and the other .22 or something like that?

Either way souds like you're a Hawke SW fan! This reassures me greatly that I've bought well

 

Jim

 

hi jim

i have looked through one,which belongs to Si,i like what i see.

the low mag for ratting .22 and the half mildot helps with .22 trajectory only guess work is the 1/4 mildot PCP May be the huntsman ?

 

the 4-16x50 spec i am also use to,i have 2 MTC Optics,but in my opinion the Hawke has the better aim points for windage.

and in a HFT scenario these will aid me greatly! with a spring rifle of my choice

 

i currently use a 3-12x44 on my TX and i get on so well with my other 4-16x50 i shall give it a go,a tad expensive you may think?

but if all fails i still have another good hunting scope

 

there is a method in my madness

 

but at the moment the MTC scopes 4 / Hawke scopes 2, so not a fan just yet

[risingfriend 1,042]

cracking scopes mate and the new Sr pro ret is superb. i have been a fan of mtc scb ret and still am but the sr pro ret is fantastic.

[WoodsmanJim 160]

Well today I got to fit and set up the scope.

My first impressions are a bit mixed, it does feel good and have a lovely clear reticle, and I love the half-mil ties and the fully floating posts. The fixed mag is perfect for everything I'm ever going to need it for. So far so good!

 

However a couple of issues have arisen. Firstly the illumination for the reticle seems to flicker a bit, especially on the lower settings. Almost like theres a loose connection on the switch. This seems to be getting less the more I turn it on and off, maybe there's some dirt in there that's clearing with use? Still, not a fantastic first impression of actually using it.

Secondly, HOW FAFFY IS THAT SIDE WHEEL TO FIX ON!!!! bloody hell, it's like they've deliberately tried to make is as complicated and fiddly as possible with getting it exactly right almost down to chance! I'm a technical kind of guy, I did engineering at college, I'm an ex-joiner who fixes my own cars and build things all the time but this thing had me almost at the end of my tether! I got there in the end but I can't help thinking there must be an easier design out there. Also one of the grub screws inside the sidewheel had a malformed allen key hole, meaning it was difficult to get it to tighten. Being VERY careful not to destroy what little purchase the allen key had I was able to tighten it, but on a scope of this reputation and price that was not OK in my book.

 

Anyway, now it's done and on the rifle it looks flipping brilliant and I managed to get outside for a bit of zeroing. It was too windy for total accuracy, but I got to within an inch or so in only a few minutes. Final set up will be done indoors later in the week. Here it is:

 

 

 

 

Compared to my old one:

 

 

 

Using it was lovely, really clear view, and plenty of FOV at 30 yards. The side wheel is a joy and sooooo much easier than a front AO. I'll never go back now I think! Focus comes in and out quickly and cleanly. Range finding is much easier with this compared to my outgoing MountMaster.

 

The turrets are nice to use, they only 'click' back down if they are in exactly the right place, which is nice to know you cant set it inbeween MOA's. The do have a little bit of wobble to them when pulled out to the turning position. I'm a stickler for tight engineering and this was a little disappointing, but for the price they are good. Once clicked down again they are tight.

The eye relief is good, it has quite a narrow window for eye alignment. You have to be almost perfectly lined up to get a full sight picture, but this is actually a good thing, less margin for error through inconsistent head placement and less chance of parallax error. All in all a lovely bit of kit, a few teething niggles which were disappointing but wont affect things long term.

 

The only other problem I had with this new set up was the mounts, also a Hawke product. The mounts come with reversible clamp sections that are supposed to be able to be flipped round for airgun rails (9-11mm) or rimfires (3/8"). To this end they have a slightly different chamfer on each edge, one being a clear angle and one having a slight 'shelf' on it. See pic below:

 

Shelf at the bottom:

 

 

Shelf at the top:

 

The problem I have is that one of my mounts has the 'shelf' side at the bottom so it fits my rail perfectly and is all square when fitted. Like this:

 

 

The other mount came with the shelf edge at the top, but when it took it off to flip it round the screw holes no longer line up and it can't be re-attached the other way up. So my mounts don't match!! Here it is as supplied:

 

 

Now flip it over to put the shelf edge at the bottom and they look like this:

 

Not good!! Clearly the screw hole in the clamp section a far closer to one side than the other, meaning it's not reversible! not happy! as when fitted and tightened up it goes a bit crooked. Like this:

 

You can clearly see that the angle of the clamp doesn't go all the way into the groove of the rail. This must give less clamping pressure and be prone to movement surely?

Anyone got any help on this or should I just send them back for replacement mounts? Doesn't seem very good to me. Couple with the inaccuracies in the scope grub screws it seems Hawke have a QC issue in their fittings department.

 

Any thoughts or advice gratefully received.

 

Jim