Pete Moore considers Leica’s latest
telescopic sight and finds a top quality
product as you might expect
Rheostat- kinda
looks awfully
familiar!82 SHOOTING SPORTS MAGAZINE
FIREARMS | SCOPE TEST
The All Rounder
PPPPeeete Moore cooonnnnsiders Leeiiiicca’s latteeessstt
telescopic sigggghhhht and finddddsss a topp qqquuuality
product as yyyyoooou might eeexxxxpect
BDC turret stripped out showing
central spindle and fixed (zero
stop lug) at 2 o’clockpower, move it left (moon) and it’s for low
light. Brightness is controlled by pushing
down on the edge of the drum right side +
and left -. Plus it will automatically switch
off if the rifl e is canted over at 90° or
angled vertically. The battery compartment
lives under the drum and takes the
standard, coin-type cell (included).
Glass quality is brilliant as you might
expect with a quoted 91% light
transmission, not as high as the 95% of the
Zeiss Victory HT but I’m not complaining!
Leica use an external, water repellent
coating called Aquas Dura, which also
works well. As standard turrets offer 1cm
clicks @ 100m with a generous 100-clicks
per rotation with 2.75 turns available.
These are further sub-divided in 5 and 10
cm divisions and dialling in corrections is
positive. A large slot head screw allows
them to be set to 0 and windage offers
0-50 in both directions.distributed by Edgar Brothers I
have fi nally got my hands on a
Magnus 1.5-10 x 42 with BDC
(bullet drop compensation)
elevation turret. Also available are a
1-6.3 x 24mm driven/dangerous game
model, the 1.8-12 x 50 (universal) and the
long range hunter of the group the 2.4-16 x
56mm. All models have an extended zoom
range of x6.7, which offers optics with
highly fl exible magnifi cation runs so allowing
multiple usage.VERSATILE PERFORMER
For me the 1.5-10 x 42 is a good all-rounder
as you might imagine – down at x1.5 for
close and driven work and up at x10 for
longer distances and easily capable out to
400m on deer-sized targets. The 1.8-12 x
50 is also attractive for similar reasons with
the extra x2 mag and wider objective
probably better suited to the British
shooter!
The scope is of conventional build with
a one-piece, 30mm body tube, all models
are illuminated with a slightly familiar
rheostat design! The control is a round,
rubber pressure pad with OFF in the middle
move it right (sun symbol) and its on fullY
ou’d have to be living under a rock
for the past four years not to have
heard about the litigation issues
between Swarovski and Leica over their
Magnus scope. I staid well out of it and put
off looking at the Magnus until the votes
were in. Well it seems they are as the
European Patent Court ruled for Leica, so
let’s move on!
To me, and I imagine many other
shooters, Leica means binoculars and laser
rangefi nders, but they have for some time
offered a small range of telescopic sights.
To be honest and though asking until I was
blue in the face they never seemed that
bothered in sending me anything. Now