Airgun World – July 2019

72 AIRGUN WORLD http://www.airgunshooting.co.uk

HUNTING SCOPES

to get the needed clearance, and these
exacerbate the problem even more.
With this trend in mind, I’m pleased to
report on what I hope is a subtle change in the
marketplace with the highly respected brand
of Hawke Sport Optics offering a new range, in
the form of their Airmax Compact. As the
name suggests, these scopes are smaller and
lighter than most and ideal for sporting rifles
used in hunting situations. They offer a 3-9 x
40 and a 4-12 x 44, alongside a more
target-orientated 6-24 x 50, but it’s the first
two that interest me. They offer all the quality
and optical performance that Hawke products
are rightly famous for in a far more practical
package.

IMAGE QUALITY
At a recent shooting show I noticed that MTC
Optics has taken this downsizing even further
with their upcoming 10 x 30 SWAT prismatic
scope, which is truly tiny. They couldn’t give
me the weight of the production scopes, but
even with their dedicated mount they must be
very light indeed. Although it’s fixed power, the
unbelievably huge field of view should make it

a truly practical hunter’s model, and I can’t

wait to test one when they arrive in the

summer.

RECOMMENDATION

If I could offer one recommendation that I

hope you’ll remember, it would be to buy the

highest quality scope you can afford. You

really do get what you pay for when it comes

to image quality. When you stand in your local

gun shop in broad daylight and look through a

few different brands and models, they very

often all appear the same. You don’t see the

difference until you’re out in the field,

searching a branch for a squirrel in dappled

light, or spotting a feral pigeon high on a dark

beam in the roof of a shed. This is where

superior image quality makes a huge

difference and I’ve tested just about every

scope ever made, so I know what I’m talking

about. I always say, ‘you can’t shoot what you

can’t see’ and I’ve been hugely frustrated

when testing poor-quality scopes that simply

wouldn’t let me see my quarry’s kill zone

clearly, so I had to let the shot pass.

Let’s see if, as I hope, the trend for ever

bigger and heavier scopes has come to its end

and that more scopes that make sense in the

real world will be offered by the premium

brands that we know and trust. I’ll keep my

eyes open for such optics and review them for

Airgun World as soon as I can. 

Being mounted so far

back means you get

perfect access when

loading magazines.

A bellows eye-piece helps

when using zero eye relief

scopes like this.

Big objective lenses are

impressive, but not

always the best choice.