Kahles's New K624i MOA Rifle Scope
By Nicholas Gebhardt
If this is the first time you have heard of Kahles, you may be amazed at what you read here. For all others that at least have some knowledge of the Kahles brand, you will likely learn a lot within this article. Kahles is the world's oldest rifle scope manufacturer, having been in business since 1898 and they have been making huge strides in the American market in recent years. The year of 2012 was an extremely busy year as Kahles introduced their competition oriented optics, which are given the "K" designation, and also completed construction of a brand new state of the art optics manufacturing facility, located in Guntramsdorf Austria. This facility is where they manufacture all of their products in-house under this single roof, and is the most up to date and comprehensive optical manufacturing and testing facility in the industry. When the world's oldest rifle scope manufacturer builds a brand new state of the art facility from the ground up and simultaneously sets its sights (no pun intended) on competing heavily in the competition scope market in the United States with a completely new line of optics, exceptional results materialize. New for 2015 is the K624i with Minute of Angle (MOA) reticle and MOA click turrets to complement the already highly popular mils based version, which is receiving new reticles designed by a top level precision rifle competitor and instructor, Shannon Kay.
The new Kahles K624i MOA rifle scope mounted on custom .308 Winchester with Kinetic Research Group W3 Chassis.
MOAK Reticle at 24X looking at a barn about 1500 yards distant. Image view not representative of optical quality. For all other reticle options, please visit the product page on www.kahlesusa.com for details.
The K624i is Kahles' flagship optic, and is also the best-selling Kahles product in the United States. The appearance is sleek and seductive while still exuding a rugged presence. This scope has quickly established a colossal following throughout the long range hunting/shooting industry as well as the tactical/military markets due to its numerous highly desirable attributes. Given a high magnification scope that boasts light transmission of 95.2% and resolution numbers that smash the competition, people that rely on their optics rapidly hear about it and ask for more information. What they find out is that this scope also has the most refined, repeatable, reliable, and consistent internal mechanisms in the world and is a scope that can be counted on when the shot matters the most. This article will detail the engineering superiority built into the K624i and explain why these are important to the end user.
The Kahles K624i is built on a single, solid, one piece scope body. In fact, the scope bodies of every Kahles scope, including their hunting style scopes, are machined from a single solid piece of bar stock aluminum billet. While nearly every other scope manufacturer starts with a forged or extruded scope body, Kahles goes the extra mile to ensure a higher quality product through their method of scope body machining from a solid piece of bar stock. The competitors' forged or extruded method has the possibility of inducing metallurgical flaws which are eliminated with the machining processes utilized by Kahles.
During the scope body machining, the ever forming Kahles scope is stress relieved three separate times throughout the entire process, from start to finish. This results in an exceedingly high thermal stability for every Kahles scope body. This is an important aspect of engineering, and one that shouldn't be overlooked. Take for instance a rifle barrel which is also a tube of metal. As the barrel is heated from repeated firing, if the barrel hasn't been properly stress relieved or has "memory" in the steel, an impact shift will result. Scope bodies can react in a similar fashion from direct sunlight temperatures causing the scope body to react to the uneven heat, and will produce an apparent shift in the reticle, thereby causing an impact shift on target. Kahles has recognized this aspect and therefore ensures that every scope body be as thermally stable as possible. This is accomplished by multiple and proper stress relieving. The Kahles process of using an inherently superior method of scope body formation (machining from solid bar stock aluminum billet) and multiple stress relieving is the beginning of product excellence!
A 56mm objective lens is utilized up front and the scope body gracefully tapers down to a 34mm main tube. Ample mounting surface is available in front of the adjustment housing for optimal positioning of the front scope ring. The adjustment housing is where Kahles has set another industry first, with a top mounted parallax adjustment instead of a turret on the side of the scope. Kahles is the first company to place the parallax adjustment in this position, immediately below the elevation turret, and Kahles holds the patent on this method. Ergonomically speaking, this is the ideal position for the parallax, and the location that makes the most sense as it is in view from either side of the rifle while in shooting position. Kahles is known as the "rifle scope pioneer" for their industry leading inventions such as this.
Parallax adjustment is fingertip adjustable with just enough pressure.
By Nicholas Gebhardt
If this is the first time you have heard of Kahles, you may be amazed at what you read here. For all others that at least have some knowledge of the Kahles brand, you will likely learn a lot within this article. Kahles is the world's oldest rifle scope manufacturer, having been in business since 1898 and they have been making huge strides in the American market in recent years. The year of 2012 was an extremely busy year as Kahles introduced their competition oriented optics, which are given the "K" designation, and also completed construction of a brand new state of the art optics manufacturing facility, located in Guntramsdorf Austria. This facility is where they manufacture all of their products in-house under this single roof, and is the most up to date and comprehensive optical manufacturing and testing facility in the industry. When the world's oldest rifle scope manufacturer builds a brand new state of the art facility from the ground up and simultaneously sets its sights (no pun intended) on competing heavily in the competition scope market in the United States with a completely new line of optics, exceptional results materialize. New for 2015 is the K624i with Minute of Angle (MOA) reticle and MOA click turrets to complement the already highly popular mils based version, which is receiving new reticles designed by a top level precision rifle competitor and instructor, Shannon Kay.
The new Kahles K624i MOA rifle scope mounted on custom .308 Winchester with Kinetic Research Group W3 Chassis.
MOAK Reticle at 24X looking at a barn about 1500 yards distant. Image view not representative of optical quality. For all other reticle options, please visit the product page on www.kahlesusa.com for details.
The K624i is Kahles' flagship optic, and is also the best-selling Kahles product in the United States. The appearance is sleek and seductive while still exuding a rugged presence. This scope has quickly established a colossal following throughout the long range hunting/shooting industry as well as the tactical/military markets due to its numerous highly desirable attributes. Given a high magnification scope that boasts light transmission of 95.2% and resolution numbers that smash the competition, people that rely on their optics rapidly hear about it and ask for more information. What they find out is that this scope also has the most refined, repeatable, reliable, and consistent internal mechanisms in the world and is a scope that can be counted on when the shot matters the most. This article will detail the engineering superiority built into the K624i and explain why these are important to the end user.
The Kahles K624i is built on a single, solid, one piece scope body. In fact, the scope bodies of every Kahles scope, including their hunting style scopes, are machined from a single solid piece of bar stock aluminum billet. While nearly every other scope manufacturer starts with a forged or extruded scope body, Kahles goes the extra mile to ensure a higher quality product through their method of scope body machining from a solid piece of bar stock. The competitors' forged or extruded method has the possibility of inducing metallurgical flaws which are eliminated with the machining processes utilized by Kahles.
During the scope body machining, the ever forming Kahles scope is stress relieved three separate times throughout the entire process, from start to finish. This results in an exceedingly high thermal stability for every Kahles scope body. This is an important aspect of engineering, and one that shouldn't be overlooked. Take for instance a rifle barrel which is also a tube of metal. As the barrel is heated from repeated firing, if the barrel hasn't been properly stress relieved or has "memory" in the steel, an impact shift will result. Scope bodies can react in a similar fashion from direct sunlight temperatures causing the scope body to react to the uneven heat, and will produce an apparent shift in the reticle, thereby causing an impact shift on target. Kahles has recognized this aspect and therefore ensures that every scope body be as thermally stable as possible. This is accomplished by multiple and proper stress relieving. The Kahles process of using an inherently superior method of scope body formation (machining from solid bar stock aluminum billet) and multiple stress relieving is the beginning of product excellence!
The writer, Nicholas Gebhardt, is employed by the US distributor of Kahles Optics.
Parallax adjustment is fingertip adjustable with just enough pressure.
- Next page: Kahles's New K624i MOA Rifle Scope
