For exactly that reason!!
I'm carrying all the same, walking miles after already walking miles all day. But it's not so much the carrying that bothers me, I can lift all day. I notice it when it comes to shouldering or getting up on sticks. It's made my 204 unnecessarily heavier. Any weight saving is a blessing.
Ben as you know i've been a big fan of the Zulus, owning and using 3 for over a year so it’s fair to say i know them inside out.
Before christmas i bought a second hand Alpex 4K to see what the differences were and to satisfy the “itch”. I now have 2 4K’s one on my foxing rife and one on my stalking rifle. The Zulus have been relegated to the rimfires.
This is my findings.
First thing and it makes a big difference, the tubed design does give a better head
position/cheekweld it sits a lot lower to the rifle, also regardless of what people say a tubed design is far more robust than a scope hanging off the rifle connected by a few inches of mount onto a picatinny rail.
The Zulus is a great scope but its not without it’s negatives, the zoom dial really isn’t that user friendly, and the button layout the same, especially wearing gloves that i gave up on.
An aftermarket IR isnt a bad thing, all three Zulus ive owned the built in IR hasn’t lined up correctly all have been too low and out in the windage, something you just live with. A torch bolted on gives you much more versatility and you can position the beam as it should be with most of the beam above the center line of your cross hairs to give maximum throw and avoid white out that the Zulus suffers from pretty badly.
The low light performance is far far superior on the Alpex, not only can you shoot foxes without ir on a clear night as you know, you can also see enough of them when there’s just enough ambient light to be able to set up for the shot and have them in the scope before lighting them up, makes for a less hurried shot.
The display is far nicer on the Alpex and the reticle choice is far superior, personally ive always liked a G4 type with the tiny red cross within stadia, this is something the Zulus lacks and i did enquire about it being included but they can’t please everyone and the reticle choice is poor, having looked at the new 4K Zulus it looks like the same, on that basis i wouldn’t buy one for that reason alone.
Not a deal breaker but the one shot record works every time.
A 4K teamed up with the Wraith ESL has far more range giving a better image over 200yds especially in poor conditions.
Compared to the Alpex the Zulus sensor is inferior, doesn’t deal
with white out well and i found myself having to “dip” the rifle sometimes to kick start the sensor into action.
For a foxing scope the Alpex is the kiddy in my experience in using both for some time.
So think I'll swap Alpex for Zulus.
