Hawke Varmint SF 2.5-10x44mm side focus scope

[oldpink]

I recently bought this fantastic scope for my new deer rifle, but I wanted to put up a review of it here because it turns out to also be an excellent choice for air rifles because of its features.

The reticle is really an innovation, a half mil-dot type, which has the familiar mil-dots, but adds tiny dashes precisely between each dot to allow finer granularity for fixed marks to compensate for range and wind, a feature particularly useful for hunting, but also handy for target shooting, since it enhances accurate shooting without having to resort to adjusting the windage/elevation with the turrets.
I would be willing to bet that this type of reticle will soon be showing up in other manufacturers' scopes because of its ease of use without cluttering up the field of view, as those complex BDC and Boone & Crockett reticles can do.

The side focus was the other item on my wish list, and this one turns out to actually be even more than I had hoped, since Hawke's website indicates that it adjusts down to ten yards minimum, but one of my photos here shows clearly that it actually turns beyond that just a few degrees, and my own practical testing is that it is actually good for focusing all the way down to between five and seven yards, which makes this particularly good for the very short ranges at which many people use airguns and not just firearms.

A practical and aesthetic feature of this scope is that it is machined out of a single piece of aluminum, even the saddle (portion where the turrets go), which clearly shows a nice, unbroken contour from the main tube.
This is both strong and rather nice looking.

The windage and elevation turrets are very positive with no backlash, solid clicks, finger adjustable without being really huge, and they also have a nice little bonus feature of index marks on the fixed portion of the turret to show how far in or out each turret has been turned, just as a micrometer does when used for measurements.
This is a very clever feature, and I wonder if any other manufacturers have ever used it.

The overall finish is a nice even hard anodized matte black, and it comes with a really nice set of see-thru flip-up scope caps.
The eyepiece focus is the quick adjust European style without the lock ring found on many American scopes, such as my old Leupold.
Hawke also statest that this scope (I believe all of their scopes are, too) is rated for magnum springer airguns, too, so anyone wanting a premium scope for his springer can have no fear.
I've already shot over fifty rounds of my full power .45 Colt handloads with this scope, and both it and the rifle performed better than I expected, with my first grouping of five landing in one ragged hole at fifty yards from a really bad (soft-side lunchbox) rest fired hurriedly, with no effort at all on my part to get the best groups possible.
I ordered mine through Amazon from a vendor called Wayfair for $150 with free shipping, and I had the scope on my doorstep less than 24 hours later!
I checked just now, and the price is now $170, with free shipping still, but I still consider that a bargain for such a high quality scope with such a winning combination of features.

A good view of the entire scope on the right side as mounted on my Marlin 1894 deer rifle.


A view from the left side of the scope, this time showing the end of the side focus dial.


Closeup to show detail of the side focus dial.
You can clearly see the tiny dot that serves as the pointer for each number on the dial, and you can also see that the dial actually adjusts down to less than ten yards for focus.
You can also easily see how the scope tube and saddle (portion to which the turrets are attached) are machined out of a single piece of aluminum.


Top view showing some of the numbers on the side focus.


Extreme closeup to show detail of both the side focus dial and the elevation turret with the cap removed.
Note the horizontal marks just below the dial to indicate how many turns the dial has been rotated, just as a micrometer is used for precision measurements.


View of the reticle, which unfortunately, did not show much detail with my camera, which is too bad, since the mil-dots and bars are easily visible when using it normally.


And, of course, my first grouping shot with this scope on my Marlin 1894 .45 Colt.
The ragged hole at the top and slightly to the right of the center yellow diamond was five shots fired hurriedly from 50 yards using a very unsteady rest.
I have since corrected windage to the left to align perfectly with point of aim, but I left the elevation where it was, since that puts this particular load right on target at 100 yards.

[daveshoot]

Thanks for the very thorough review! I have been following this scope with great interest, and I think it will be my next side focus scope when the right deal comes along.

The original Varmint series had mixed reviews on optical quality. Perhaps they weren't consistent from batch to batch?

How do you find the optical quality, for overall clarity, and focus out to the edges?

There are some who insist we all pay $500 for an airgun scope, and I would expect scopes in that price range to be a little better than one of these. From your review, it sounds like yours is pretty decent?

[oldpink]

I was surprised by how clear the glass is, not too far behind my old top shelf Leupold Vari-X III 2.5-8x36mm scope.
I really wish I knew of a way to take high def video of a view through the scope to give you a much better idea of what to expect.
It's an obvious major improvement over my two Centerpoints and one Leapers scope, which were always acceptable to me, but this is much brighter and clearer.
Just can't believe how much I lucked out with this one.

[Ballistik_.20]

Great review! i have the Hawke Airmax EV 4-12X40 AO and i love it! Hawkes have 20% wider field of view than other scopes and this makes for an instantaneous bead on you target, your eye immediately finds what you are shooting at through the crystal clear optics which i have not found in other scopes. This is the only brand of scope i plan on buying more of in the future.

[Buldawg76]

I have been using Hawke varmint scopes for two plus years now on all my air guns and can say they are indeed very well built and fine scopes

I also can say that they stand behind their products without question as they are magnum spring gun rated and I had a 3x12x44mm varmint scope on my 1988 model Diana 48 and it was in stock trim but has since been tuned , but in stock trim it did break one of the lens loose in the scope as the side parallax adjustment all of a sudden went way out of adjustment as an example at 20 yards distance the side focus was reading 35 yards and was the same on all further distances being off by 15 to 20 yards.

I called Hawke and was told since it was over a year old I would have to pay shipping back to them and it would be fixed or replaced at their discretion.

I wrote down the serial number to see if they fixed it or sent me a new scope and in just a little over a weeks time I had a brand new scope to reinstall on my 48 and has not had any issues with it since and that was 4 month ago.

[Motorhead]

Have TWO of these 2.5x10 Varmint scopes.
An early one with the fatter reticle and a newer one which is A LOT finer. 
Older one is on the BSA Scorpion .177 and Newer on the Crosman 1701 HFT pistol.

Agree on them being a Very nice optic for the coin spent.
Great review !!

[Frank in Fairfield]

Have the same scope on my 1720T set for Pistol FT.
Used it a little bit last week in the winds at Ione.
Very nice, indeed.

[D14Jeff]

i've got the 6-24 varmint and like it a lot . the half mil-dot allows a lot of additional compensation points without cluttering up the view . mine is a bit critical on eye placement particularly at higher powers , but i kept it and sold the accushot 30mm 4-16x44 i had because i like the features of the varmint better .