Recommend a scope?

RS98

Hi folks,

I've had a hawke vantage mounted on my .223 for a while now. Went out with the .22 last night for the first time in a while, which has a Bushnell banner on it and realised it was miles clearer than the vantage.

So, I'm thinking of getting a new scope for the 223. Buget would be around 300-400, only must is clear glass for low light. Any recommendations?

TIA
RS

Cass

For your budget three scopes come to mind. Two within your budget and one that is normally outside it, but available on sale within your budget.

1. Falcon M18. 3-18x44 for €350.
2. Hawke Sidewinder. 6-24x56 for €420.
3. Sightron S-Tac. 4-20x50 for €420

Of the three above i'd jump at the Sightron at that price. The glass is superb and the quality is top class. I've compared the Sightron to Hawke, Nightforce, Bushnell, Vortex, etc. and it measures up to and surpasses most.

The drawback is it's non illuminated, if that makes a difference to you.

I prefer the Hawke over the Falcon simply from personal experience and choice. Better range of magnification, larger objective lens, and a prefer the illuminated centre fo the SR reticle. Some say the Falcon is better than the Hawke of glass, but i've yet to see a new model Hawke against the Falcon.

You have a choice of a few others such as the ones you have on your 22 and 223. IOW the Bushnell Banner range, Vortex Crossfire, Tasco, Nikko Sterling, etc. but if you have both of them anything else in the same range will give pretty much the same performance.

Gorgeousgeorge

RS98 wrote: »

Hi folks,

I've had a hawke vantage mounted on my .223 for a while now. Went out with the .22 last night for the first time in a while, which has a Bushnell banner on it and realised it was miles clearer than the vantage.

So, I'm thinking of getting a new scope for the 223. Buget would be around 300-400, only must is clear glass for low light. Any recommendations?

TIA
RS

Check out some of the tac vector optics. Within your budget and very good imo

RS98

Cass wrote: »

For your budget three scopes come to mind. Two within your budget and one that is normally outside it, but available on sale within your budget.

1. Falcon M18. 3-18x44 for €350.
2. Hawke Sidewinder. 6-24x56 for €420.
3. Sightron S-Tac. 4-20x50 for €420

Of the three above i'd jump at the Sightron at that price. The glass is superb and the quality is top class. I've compared the Sightron to Hawke, Nightforce, Bushnell, Vortex, etc. and it measures up to and surpasses most.

The drawback is it's non illuminated, if that makes a difference to you.

I prefer the Hawke over the Falcon simply from personal experience and choice. Better range of magnification, larger objective lens, and a prefer the illuminated centre fo the SR reticle. Some say the Falcon is better than the Hawke of glass, but i've yet to see a new model Hawke against the Falcon.

You have a choice of a few others such as the ones you have on your 22 and 223. IOW the Bushnell Banner range, Vortex Crossfire, Tasco, Nikko Sterling, etc. but if you have both of them anything else in the same range will give pretty much the same performance.

Thanks, the sightron looks very good alright. Illumination doesn't bother me too much. I never really use it anyway. In my experience If you can see your target you can see your reticle.

Have you tried the vantage and the sidewinder? Is there any difference in glass or is it just that the sidewinder has more bells and whistles than the vantage?

RS

RS98

Gorgeousgeorge wrote: »

Check out some of the tac vector optics. Within your budget and very good imo

Do they have good glass in comparison to other scopes for the same money?

Gorgeousgeorge

RS98 wrote: »

Do they have good glass in comparison to other scopes for the same money?

I think so yes. Better than my old nikko stirling and on par with my more expensive nikon prostaff

Cass

RS98 wrote: »

Have you tried the vantage and the sidewinder? Is there any difference in glass or is it just that the sidewinder has more bells and whistles than the vantage?

I had the vantage on a 22lr and have the sidewinder on both my 308s.

The sidewinder has better light transmission due to the larger objective lens and 30mm tube. It also has more bells and whistles.

Just FYI if you think the Sidewinder will measure up to the Sightron, it won't. At longer distances, 600+ yards, the Sidewinder is slightly let down by the glass when compared with the Sightron, although i'm using older model Sidewinders, but frankly if you're not using the scope at these distances which i'd doubt given low light shooting, then the Sidewinder would just as good for the extra features over the Sightron.

However at the sale price, clarity of glass, light transmission, etc i'd find it hard to pass up the Sightron.

RS98

Sounds good, last question, have you dealt with this optics trade crowd and are they any good. Also, is there anything I should know like customs charges etc when buying from abroad ?

Thanks ,
RS

Cass

Never dealt with them myself, but they started out as an online blog and foorum type place then moved into selling.

The owner of the site is a member of this forum since 2011. De Tomaso.

I'll shoot them a message and see if they're available to talk to you, and if not they're an EU shop so no import fees/duties, etc.

gunny123

See if you can find a good German or european made scope secondhand. I found them to be far brighter than the far eastern made stuff, and tough too.

Have a look here, scroll down for the used stuff

http://new.ersg.com/optics

Or do a search on the German ebay, ebay.de , do a search for zielfernrohr gebraucht.

raymo19

I dealt with optics trade a while back. Delivery was spot on as was scope. Good thread lads.

RS98

Cass wrote: »

Never dealt with them myself, but they started out as an online blog and foorum type place then moved into selling.

The owner of the site is a member of this forum since 2011. De Tomaso.

I'll shoot them a message and see if they're available to talk to you, and if not they're an EU shop so no import fees/duties, etc.

Thanks cass appreciate it.

RS98

raymo19 wrote: »

I dealt with optics trade a while back. Delivery was spot on as was scope. Good thread lads.

Thanks Raymo think I'll go with the sightron on there

RS98

gunny123 wrote: »

See if you can find a good German or european made scope secondhand. I found them to be far brighter than the far eastern made stuff, and tough too.

Have a look here, scroll down for the used stuff

http://new.ersg.com/optics

Or do a search on the German ebay, ebay.de , do a search for zielfernrohr gebraucht.

If I had a higher budget I'd go for a Zeiss or S&b definitely. There's a lovely second hand Leupold on that Edinburgh rifle page for around 500 quid . Normal price new is over a grand I think. Im thinking it might be worth saving up?

gunny123

I would think so, i had a schmidt and bender 8x56 for years, fantastic glass, and while i did change my rifle a few times i always kept the s&b.

The last leupold i seen amazed me with how bright the lenses were, but that was one of the very expensive ones.

Again do a search on the german ebay for leupold.

photosmart

I bought a sightron S1 off optics trade - no problems - was delivered on time and answered my presale questions.


S1 I have is quite good (better than the banner) and its the lowest of the sightron range so I would expect the S-tac to be significantly better.


Sightron also get consistently great reviews and good quality / price ratios.


If I was in the market for a scope I'd buy that S-tac tonight.


P

RS98

Thanks to everyone who posted. I'll be going with the sightron off of optics trade.

RS

photosmart

RS98 wrote: »

Thanks to everyone who posted. I'll be going with the sightron off of optics trade.

RS

Let us know how u get on and perhaps a quick scope review

HW100S

RS98 wrote: »

Hi folks,

I've had a hawke vantage mounted on my .223 for a while now. Went out with the .22 last night for the first time in a while, which has a Bushnell banner on it and realised it was miles clearer than the vantage.

So, I'm thinking of getting a new scope for the 223. Buget would be around 300-400, only must is clear glass for low light. Any recommendations?

TIA
RS

S&B Hungarian. Have one on my 223 and love it. A little bit more than your budget (Around €650) but worth it if you can stretch to it. maybe a second hand one if you can get it.
Also had a Bushnell 3200 fixed mag. tactical. Very clear optics. Only down side was the 40mm objective but extremely clear. Bushnell 4500 was for sale on here a while back with 50mm objective. Might be worth a look.

RS98

So I thought I'd post a quick update on this.

Got the sightron a few weeks ago. Excellent scope very well built.

Glass is very clear and to my eyes it seems like a much brighter view than with the hawke. Especially at night and at full zoom.

I've tried to post a few pictures not sure if it'll work or not.

One is of a spot about 200m away at 20x zoom. The other is the same spot with no zoom just to give an idea of distance.

Last one is a picture of the scope on the rifle.

Thanks again for everyone's help.

RS

RS98

So I thought I'd post a quick update on this.

Got the sightron a few weeks ago. Excellent scope very well built.

Glass is very clear and to my eyes it seems like a much brighter view than with the hawke. Especially at night and at full zoom.

I've tried to post a few pictures not sure if it'll work or not.

One is of a spot about 200m away at 20x zoom. The other is the same spot with no zoom just to give an idea of distance.

Last one is a picture of the setup with the scope.

Thanks again for everyone's help.

RS

deerhunter1

RS98 wrote: »

Hi folks,

I've had a hawke vantage mounted on my .223 for a while now. Went out with the .22 last night for the first time in a while, which has a Bushnell banner on it and realised it was miles clearer than the vantage.

So, I'm thinking of getting a new scope for the 223. Buget would be around 300-400, only must is clear glass for low light. Any recommendations?

TIA
RS

Have a look at the BAUER, purchased one yesterday fro mike duggen,3x12x50 IR,quality german glass,clarity incredible

Cass

How is the scope working out for you so far?

RS98

Cass wrote: »

How is the scope working out for you so far?

Glass is much clearer than the vantage, and a bit clearer than the banner. I like the target style turrets as well and the lower zoom (x4) gives a wider field of view so easier to pick up eyes. I went for the duplex reticle but I would've preferred the MOA one. Not sure if it's worth another 80 quid though ...

Overall, very happy with it, definitely worth the money.
Thanks again for all the help.

Cass

Glad its working out for you.

Taking a leap of faith by buying from a recommendation can be hit and miss. Sometimes you find the item is not to your liking, but not necessarily bad.

Happy shooting with it.

photosmart

Which model did you go for?

RS98

photosmart wrote: »

Which model did you go for?

The S-Tac 4-20x50