Real life testament on cheaper scopes true abilities in the field

[Ranger22]

I started off using Nikko Sterling 4x40 silver crown. Did the job, moved onto a Swarovski 6x42. Moved jobs got S n Bs now. On my personal rifle I used a MTC, found it ok but lacked in poor light. It never moved. For sub £300 it’s a good scope

 

[palmer_mike]

There are a lot of things we tell ourselves to help justify spending lots of money on ‘must have items’.
I’ve owned Zeiss and Leica scopes on my stalking rifles and they were great, but spendy

I now mainly use Vortex crossfire which are as cheap as chips and if I’m honest with myself they are almost as good at twilight as my expensive scopes. Maybe they fail 5mins earlier at dusk, but I’m ok with that.

 

[JockStalk]

If your eyes are ‘past their prime’ there’s a lot to be said for digital scopes for the twighlight hours. In daylight, optical all the way. Towards last knocking, the best euro glass is just outgunned by digital.
Full dark my own preference is top end thermal. Understand those who prefer NV. Arguments can be well made in both directions.
Target, good quality ie as top end as you can afford optical - no argument.

 

[Stevie/P]

For good reliable cheapish scope I’ve used lisenfeld jaguar excellent scopes very robust can be found for around £100 ish or less.

 

[co’den]

I’ve got a Hawke Vantage on a .270. It does the job just fine.

 

[Cyres]

Delta Titanium. Mine cost £400 when they first hit the UK. Now double the price.
To be honest with my old eyes almost as good as my Diavari which cost £1200.
D

 

[Essexsussex]

Bought a 243 that had a weaver kaspa on it. Was as good as gold held zero fairly clear.
Didn’t drop the rifle down a mountain or anything but if you told me that I had to have that scope forever that would
Have been fine. Replaced with a S&B 8x56 just to get a minute more at dusk. Now I want one with an IR. Kaspa would do fine still I’m sure!

 

[cjm1066]

Started with a Tasco, then a Weaver variable (US made steel body) then Pecar now Swaroski.

Each was an improvement, upgrading when opportunity allowed.

If I was starting again, I suspect I would follow a similar path faster as the Internet makes secondhand sales/purchases easier.

Pre having a dog I stopped shooting when it would be difficult to see a blood trail, that's way before last shooting light with a better scope.

The Tasco was 4x40, it would be a 3-9 x40 if starting again, second hand they are under £50.

 

[Taff]

Have looked through a lot of scopes, used to go through a silver crown 4x40 every year on a 303, have a Swarovski 6x42 on my 22, used many bushnells, have loads of customers using Nikko sterling’s,( come on howas) apart from at last light all will do the job.

 

[Tim.243]

If your eyes are ‘past their prime’ there’s a lot to be said for digital scopes for the twighlight hours. In daylight, optical all the way. Towards last knocking, the best euro glass is just outgunned by digital.
Full dark my own preference is top end thermal. Understand those who prefer NV. Arguments can be well made in both directions.
Target, good quality ie as top end as you can afford optical - no argument.

Shot more stuff at last light with the Drone 10 on the .243 this year than any other year. Bit clunky but best thing I did was buy 6 re-chargeable CR123's A friend gave me a Hik charger which has saved a lot of cash as not throwing dead battery's away.
The way I see it you want to keep dry you buy good boots and a good coat, you eat good food so why clamp a smarties tube on your rifle

 

[JH83]

i can in theory have any glass on the planet on my main stalking rifle if I wanted, but happily use a second hand Delta Titanium 2.5-15x56. Cost me £450 from memory. Gets used most days, regularly shoots out to 600m and accounts for hundreds of deer every year. I never really feel the need to go out and change it despite having had personally in my cabinet before S&B Polat, Zeiss V8, Swaro Z6i, Blaser B1/B2 and various others in the past. Yes they are better but the difference is so small I just can’t be bothered to make any changes. An extra spend of £1500-2500 might buy me a min or two of extra shooting time, but even though I shoot more than the average amount of deer per year I don’t really recall many times where I have lost shooting opportunities because of glass quality.

If i were to expand my answer though and we were looking at the best value low light scope for deer stalking then a 30mm tubes digital NV like a Hik 4K will spank any glass on the planet for the first and last hours of stalking. Once the sun is up it’s a different story, but for those two hours…

This kind of sums up my thoughts. I’ve had all
sorts, swaro, Schmidt, zeiss, all excellent. But the moment that affordable, traditional scope tubed digital arrived it negated the need for premium glass-as stated it is in a different league in low light which was always the USP of premium european glass over cheaper versions. A £350 Alpex is far superior to a £3000 PM2 in the low light.

I now have an arken 6-24 and a 4k that I can switch around on QD mounts on my main 2 stalking rifles. The arken is mainly for target shooting/plinking and the 4k for stalking. First impressions of the arken are favourable but not had it long enough for a nuanced view.

 

[Dave_45]

Depends what you class as cheap, I use the best glass I can get on my stalking rifles, so have a Z8i on one and a Z6i on another and when I got into long range target shooting I applied the same theory and went and put one of my Swarovski scopes on the rifle - it ran out of elevation and the reticle was far too fine for what I needed, so then I went on and bought a Nightforce - really very good, and excellent for adjustment, reticle clarity, parallax, however, the illuminated reticle is cack (NX8)…I was watching a lot of Texas plinking, X-ring and Backfire you tube videos at the time and a name I kept hearing but had never seen this side of the pond kept coming up - Arken Optics….seemed like every second person had one in the states.

So I sought one out and on seeing the £500 price tag I thought, “it’s going to be cack, but I can stick it on a 22LR for plinking if it is”……

It really was a revelation, everything from the packaging when the scope arrived, to the excellent idea of listing the torques on the components you need to tighten, the reticle was what I wanted (a kind of floating dot with box lines around it) so I figured it would likely be poor on adjustment/tracking and holding zero - so I tested it against the Nightforce and ran it round a measured square and it tracked every bit as well as the Nightforce….i started using it on my 22 but then put it on my long range centre fire and found the clarity and functionality was excellent, the illuminated reticle was great.

Basically I bought another couple and actually contacted Arken for some info and suggestions, I ended up communicating with a guy there fairly regularly providing feedback and info, they were nice enough to send some goodies to try and took some suggestions.

I ended up being one of the first to have the new EP5 Gen2 scopes in the U.K., and it’s still on my long range rifle today.

These scopes are fantastic for the money (£500-700) but they would be fantastic as 4 x that - in fact there are numerous videos where experienced shooters are asked to guess the price point and they guess way higher on the Arkens.

I really do think the price will increase on them as time goes on and demand increases.

The bad points about them are -

They are heavy when compared to a Nightforce/swaro.

They are enormous in width and height compared to Nightforce,

The clarity at last light is no where near a swaro/zeiss etc.

Most of these downsides are not a consideration for a dedicated target scope though.

I still have the NF - they are still great scopes but they are not 4x better than the Arken considering they are 4x the price!

Hope this helps!

View attachment 398853View attachment 398854View attachment 398855View attachment 398856

View attachment 398857

I had an NX8 and thought it was everything I wanted in a scope but it was awful in low light….Compared to a Z6i

 

[Malxwal]

In terms of ruggedness, how are these digital scopes holding up to usage ? I'm thinking a large gulf in how they're treated, from the leisure stalker who's convinced themselves they need to shoot in low light, to the professionals who are using them most nights a week ?

 

[JH83]

In terms of ruggedness, how are these digital scopes holding up to usage ? I'm thinking a large gulf in how they're treated, from the leisure stalker who's convinced themselves they need to shoot in low light, to the professionals who are using them most nights a week ?

Jan-March I’ll be out 3x a week if possible, cumbrian fells and highlands, bouncing around on quads etc, my Alpex hasn’t missed a beat…yet! Batteries fine too.

 

[Tom270]

I have an old nikko sterling gold crown on my 270, I don't imagine it was much money it came with the rifle and zero was fine and has stayed that way for over 10 years. I have heard the older ones are better than the newer article.

 

[Tim.243]

In terms of ruggedness, how are these digital scopes holding up to usage ? I'm thinking a large gulf in how they're treated, from the leisure stalker who's convinced themselves they need to shoot in low light, to the professionals who are using them most nights a week ?

Been using my S/Hand Drone 10 7/8 years so it is close to 10+

 

[Husky]

1996 my father bought a Nikko Stirling silver crown for his .308 it cost £86.
Many thousands of rounds later and it is still going strong.

 

[Bavarianbrit]

Digital motherboards etc will not wear as well as an integrated physical scope like a S&B etc they are still going strong after 40 years or more, then the embuggerance of feeding the digital unit with power from either a either wall socket or car usb/power bank and this new square stuff will not fit very well to an older rifles grooved mounting system.

 

[1894]

FWIW inverse snobbery is just as objectionable.

Old Meopta were probably the pinnacle of cheap, reliable and excellent optics. I loved my 7x50

If you can take a long view, initial expense can be made to pay IF you use the benefits.

Zeiss 3-12x56HT 2015 £1,500

Off the top of my head 11x lowlight reds I absolutely could not have shot without that light gathering (no digital then) = 11x70kg (average) x£2 =£1540. Plus all the additional I shot in more normal light.

Residual value £900.

It’s not snobbery it’s a tool that made economic sense. Of course I was lucky enough to have the £1,500 in the first place but it went on a Remington SPS

 

[Fair Hill]

From my own experience Hawke, Sightron and Vector Optics are very impressive bang for buck, I've never took a shot with either and thought oh I wish I'd spent more on my scope.

We are living in the golden age when it comes to value for money v scope quality, a bad workman blames his tools.