Hawke Scopes - Relative Quality

[Xraycer]

I never even knew all these anatomical of a rifle scope. More great info, Ron!

Don't you X-ray everything?

 

Everything human, yes.

Although, I once xrayed a see turtle.

[eeler1]

DO any of you use or prefer illuminated reticles? 

[Xraycer]

DO any of you use or prefer illuminated reticles?

For hunting, yes! Otherwise, I don't care for the extra weight!

[PaulFWI]

I hate both illuminated and fine-line reticle. Or fancy MOA stuff for that matter. Give me a duplex and I'll kill whatever needs killing.

[GDCLARK]

i bought a Hawke Vantage 2x7 AO scope about 5 years ago and it looked great.  I sighted it in at 30 yards at 7x on a rimfire with no problems.  Then I shot another group at 4x.  The POI shifted about 5/8in to the right.  I turned it back to 7x and the POI moved back to center.  I had heard a lot of good things about Hawke, so I just assumed I got a lemon.  I sent it back and got a replacement.  Before I mounted this one the rifle I put the mounts in a vice, picked out a target and sighted on an object at 7x, then began to change the power setting down to 2 and you could literally watch the crosshairs move to the right and down abut 5/8 in.  Could have been both the original scope and the replacement were miss assembled by the same workman, who knows.  I ordered a Leupold EFR 3X9 and it was perfect at all power settings.
I do own two different model Hawke Airmax scopes and neither had any problems, but I now stay away from the Vantage line.  I also now do this test on all my new scopes, but have not had this problem with other brands.
As to drooper mounts on air rifles, I have used Sports Match, and some other off brands, and they do work, but limit you in how you can mount them, and what scope you can use.  I have been switching to Burris Signature mounts with the plastic inserts and have really been impressed with them.  With the plastic inserts you can compensate for quite a bit of droop, or you can use them to create added up angle for long range shooting.  I optically zero my scopes, mount them in the Burris 0 rings to see if and how much droop is present.  Then you can use +5, +10, or -5, -10 rings to get the scope as close to center as possible, then you should have plenty of elevation knob to fine adjust to perfect center without ever coming close to the upper end of elevation adjustment.  You can also use the rings to correct for windage issues, though none of mine have ever needed it.  The first time I used the rings the setup seemed a little tedious, but after getting it right once the others were setup pretty quickly.

[PaulFWI]

What mechanism can cause a scope to shift POI based on mag setting?

[GDCLARK]

Pretty sure it has to do with the alignment of all the lenses and crosshair.  If everything isn't absolutely perfectly lined up, then when the power setting ring is turned it throws the image/reticle alignment out of whack. Some companies do extensive QC checks, and some just trust it will all work out.  As I stated before I have two Hawke Airmax scopes with no problems, and one of Hawke's crossbow scopes, that my only complaint is that it is big and heavy but works fine.  I'm sure there are many scopes out there that have this problem, but owners don't know to test the POI on both lowest and highest powers to check for shift.  There are some who won't buy multi-power scopes because of the added complexity and potential for issues like this.