If Matalan Sold Scopes.....

[andyfr1968 772]

The bloody thing very nearly went in the stream, Simon!! I just don't want it anymore and after seeing your three fail and another couple of friend's Hawkes go wrong I've lost all faith in the brand. I'll try for a replacement and hope for the best.

 

Like Chris has said, maybe like so many other things these days the quality's not what it used to be. Shame.

[gurtwurz 792]

I used a SR12 6-18x44 on the pro sport from buying it 2 years ago, til I leaned the rifle against the car absentmindedly and it slipped and landed on the scope. Didn't hold zero after, funnily enough... I've swapped it for a panorama which seems fine, but it's early days yet.

Incidentally, I put a map 6 4-12x50 on an evolution gas ram I had and it killed it within a week. Shame, because hawke seem to really put some thought in their reticle design, but not enough in their durability.

[Gaoler 83]

I have two Simmons WTC 3.5-10x50, cracking scopes, lovely fine recticles, great optics too, problem is no multi aim point, but I am used to that a can guess very accurately hold over/under.

 

Great finish on the scope and built like tonka toys..!!

[Coypu Hunter 486]

I use a Hawke Airmax EV 4-12X50 AO scope on my .22 rimfire. I actually bought it for my HW97K, but swapped it to the rimmy when I realised just how good it was. I like the MAP6 reticle because you can download Hawke's BRC2 software, put in your power and pellet data, and print out your ranges in a circular format that you can stick to the inside of your flip-up eyepiece cover.

I liked the Hawke so much that I bought two more Airmax EV AO scopes, in 3-9X40, again with the MAP6 reticle, for my two air rifles, and mounted them on one-piece Hawke Match Mounts, which come with anti-recoil lugs as standard.

 

After a few hundred pellets, both the scopes died, refusing to hold a zero. They were mounted on a 13 fpe HW97K and an 18.5 fpe Cometa Fenix 400 Star, and according to the Hawke website are "high recoil rated" -- my arse!

 

Hawke customer support informs me that they use a leaf spring opposite the turret in their one-inch tube designs like the AirMax. When zeroing a newly mounted scope, you normally wind the elevation turret anti-clockwise (to raise the PoI) which reduces the pressure on this spring. When the pressure reduces too much, it's not enough to withstand recoil, and zero creep results. So it's essentially a design flaw that will kick in unless you're using a PCP or rimmy.

Hawke replaced one of the 3-9X40 scopes with a 3-9X50, no quibbles, which was nice of them. Problem is, that scope also wouldn't hold a zero! They then exchanged my Hawke one-piece match mounts for a Sportsmatch Dampa mount (which absorbs some of the recoil energy). No difference. They then advised shimming the rear of the scope to allow the elevation turret to be wound down tighter. Still won't hold a zero. I'm now waiting to see if they'll exchange both scopes for a Hawke Eclipse 30 2.5-10X50. The Eclipse, Endurance and Sidewinder scopes have 30mm tubes (rather than the one-inch tube on the AirMax), and apparently have a much more robust erector spring design.

The AirMax 4-12X50 on my .22 rimfire is still working well, so I'd recommend them for this application, and probably for PCP use. However, do NOT buy an AirMax (or any one-inch tube design from Hawke) if your air rifle develops over 12 fpe -- they're simply not up to the job.

 

As an aside, I previously had a couple of Walther 3-9X40 IR AO scopes, nice sight picture, 30-30 reticle, good light-gathering capability. They were fine on my Airmagnum 850 (12 fpe CO2 air rifle) and my .22LR, but my 13 fpe HW97K destroyed them both -- and they're supposedly rated for centrefire rifles, ha ha. Avoid 'em like the plague if you use a springer. They wouldn't hold zero after about 50 shots. Got my money back from the local gunsmith, luckily, since they cost about €125 apiece (about £110).

Anyone know of any reasonably-priced scopes that won't fall apart when you run 13 fpe pr 18.5 fpe past them?

[bigmac 97kt 13,796]

Iv had quite a few and as you have said there crap the only one that i will say is eny good is the one i got for little hunters ultra and its spot on its the hawke panorama ev 3.9,50and at £149,99 not cheep but i would never put it on eny springer every one that i have had on a springer mainly hw97 have f***ked up ill just stick with my ncstars 10.40.50 and iv had them on all of my rifle,s pcp and springer,s atvbmac :thumbs:

[Daz 7 563]

You pay for what You get

 

I love Falcon Menace scopes, Heavy and top glass and also built to take recoil off Springers.

Alot of Centre fire shooters use these as their good all round scopes starting at £230, still cheaper

than a hawke sidewinder to boot and at least the falcon range can take the punishment.

 

atvb Daz 7.

[moxy 617]

Just to add my piece. I can't get on with them and I have had a few. Budget to expensive.

I won't list the problems. Each to their own and I know a lot of lads who happily use them.

 

But. All scopes can go tits up. I have just had the cross hairs snap on my simmons WTC and it's only ever been on a pre charged airgun.

I just hope the customer service is better and they honour the "lifetime warranty"

[slave 33]

I also have a WTC with broken crosshairs it was second hand so i have no receipt

[andy97 209]

i had a varmint on a hw80 that after 2 shots to zero the cross hairs broke however had varmint panoramas and nite eyes since on 97k and sirroco and never had any problems

[villaman 9,983]

Got Two Hawke sports on the two HW97 I have and still ok after about 2000 pellets ,have a Hawke nighteye on one of my pcp and that's about 4 years old and still very good , I know its only on a pcp , Panorama about 3 years old still good and have a Hawke sidewinder and that scope is just lovely . Tried some of the MTC range but the recitals are a bit fussy imo

[Elliott 436]

I have a Jap Hawke Frontier 3-9x40 on my HW77K. It's solid as a rock. Unfortunately they don't make them anymore though

[ghillies 209]

No woodsman Jim you are not sir.

 

I must confess, I'm Andy's mate that had three Hawke's go west with using them on spring rifles.

 

I had a Hawke Eclipse which was destroyed by my FAC HW80 in a morning on its first zeroing session.

 

. A Hawke 6-18x42 AIRMAX SR12 went kaput within 18 months of using it on my HW77 which is also tuned and has very little felt recoil. It would not zero no matter how I tried to repair and correct.

 

The 3rd and last was a Hawke Endurance (there's a contradiction in terms!) 3-9x42 IR 30 costing over £230 which, on my TX200HC .177 came apart, with the complete windage turret unit unscrewing itself entirely from the saddle. After going back and forth to Deben for repair, I effected the most permanent and successful repair of all by fixing the windage control unit threads tightly into the saddle with Arraldite! It hasn't unwound since and the scope is now, I have to say, working superbly!

 

Currently I have a Hawke Panorama 4-12x50 IR EV AO which, I must say is a terrific scope on my HW97K....so far. How long it lasts time will tell. It's a tuned rifle with low recoil report so, I'm hopeful it will last longer the last three.

 

Compare and contrast with my other scopes.

 

2x15 year old Simmons WTC scopes, a 10-year old Simmons Pro Air 6-18x40, a 14-year old Bushnell 4-14x50 Scopechief and a 2nd-hand recently aquired Bushnell Banner 3-9X50 and all of them as good as the day they were brand new after thousands of rounds of shooting from FAC and sub 12 spring rifles.

 

Hawke make some very attractively priced scopes with some useful features but, on spring powered rifles, they seem to come unstuck within an average life of 2 years or less.

 

PCP users will no doubt come to their defence, but then remember, PCP rifles are not imparting any percussive recoil stresses that might cause the type of damage we spring rifle shooters are experiencing.

 

I will not be buying Hawke scopes in the future. There are much better scopes for spring rifles, for similar prices, that do not go tits up under a bit of managed recoil.

 

 

hahaha!! the fac broke a scope? tut, shocking that lmao..... the reason for the laughing isnt to mok its actualy laughter at some very pleasent memeries of years gone by,

i'll digress abit.

 

out of about 15 80' shooters i knew about or shot with within the inner elitist curcle (including the 25 yard starkers who could stalk better than any one in a film let alone an airgun mag lol) there was this rumer that 80's seem to eat scopes left right and center especialy at fac levals, something to do with them being awsom 'beasts' i think lolol.

best way to improve the amount of scopes you go through was to put the weirachs own arrester block on, the one wit the two screws that went down into the block, (thats what the two holes on top were for..or they were on the in practicle use), the problem was, and i've witnessed this a few times, with the arrester block not moving the scope still tries to creep on up and sucker punch you in the eyeball, you had to let them off every so often or they eventualy pinged off the gun all together...

the narmal mount type arrester blocks were just a suttle delay tactique to stopping the creep...bar extended bars on the allen keys and beddings of lock tite arraldite and ther weird n wanderfuls lol.

 

 

the choise was buy a desent few hundred quid scope and still run the gauntlet as to when it'd break, or get the better cheepies, e.g. 4 for hundred quid or 3 for the ton...

 

my old ended up (the legal version) swam out with grease, yes i know the be-elzibub greeae it up full and that saved my just over 140 quid in the first three month! lol.

the other guys that had done all the innerd revamping all sort of started saying nehhhh stuff 55fps and forget the cost of trying to repair all the screw holes and eventually dropped the power and '3/4'rd' the power guts and greased um the feck out to reduce the recoil.

 

if you do a bit yu self try this simple tester...dismantle and polish up the inside, go to town on with lighter fluid allong the piston and mating edges there, there use clean raggs to clean all residues, dont grease the spring eather, then let a few pellets rip.. recover from the eye ringing then dismantle in disgust and coat the piston in a finger smeer of paisted grease and fill the bugger up around the spring, compress and remove exxsess till it stops coming out.

hey presto you the extremes to go by lol...one will get you a new scope every 3-4 months the other will lose power and change a bit with the weather but ooooo i'm still using that scope yu know..

 

in some ways i'm glad i swopped to a pcp, in others fffffff cant beet the simplicity of using a springer.(no bottles no mags no settings etc etc, but a shed load of work needed to get a springer just smooooth n nce).

 

think its one of the where'd you draw the line..do want the bang or twang sorted lol.

 

oooo anotther edit in, had a go of a V-macked or V-matched innerds the tuther day...feck!!! buy one buy one!!! lol i was impresed.

Edited December 28, 2013 by ghillies

[Buster321c 1,010]

Moaners

[moxy 617]

Moaners

I'm not moaning mukka I just think there shite.

I have a brand fire sports HD here. Mounted it once then put it straight back in the box. Rubbish!!

[ghillies 209]

Moaners

ahh the true value od a conversation.. the moan facter :laugh: