Hawke Sidewinder Vs Vortex Viper vs Falcon Menace??

[highridge1]

I have owned alot of scopes and the New Vortex Viper HS I bought has better than average glass. Next to a leupold Mark 4 and VX-3's the glass on the Vortex was clearly better to me. Also was definitely more clear than Nikon Monarch. Now would I say it is as good as the Zeiss conquest? Not ready to say that but it's close. For the features Vortex offers and good glass quality they would be very tough to beat for the price.

 

[SidecarFlip]

Looking forward to getting the PST sighted in. It's mounted, aligned and the eye relief is set. Just too **** cold out (here) to fiddle with a scope at the range.

Much better to toast ones feet in front of the fire.... Maybe next week sometime.

It appears as clear (at least to me) as any of my Leupy's, I have a few.

I'll have to keep this firearm segregated in the gun cabinet.

The Leupy gang might gang up on this newcomer when I close the door......

 

[Nimrod1203]

The only reason I'm looking other places than the Vipers is i was wanting 20x for 1k. Might not use it i dunno, but seems 4 or 5-20 seems about perfect for LR. Thats why the falcon looks so good. FFP 5-20.
Nimrod

 

[Loner]

Sidecar, Schott makes scope glass in their Rochester plant I believe. USO, Trijicon and
maybe Premeir use it. I don't know if USO uses only US made Schott though.

 

[SidecarFlip]

Sidecar, Schott makes scope glass in their Rochester plant I believe. USO, Trijicon and
maybe Premeir use it. I don't know if USO uses only US made Schott though.

Interesting. It is nice to know that optical glass for sport optics is manufactured here. I would imagine the competition is fierce however.

 

[SidecarFlip]

.......jumped around a bit and read a review of the Falcon on some sniper forum. Notwithstandng what I consider a horrible name for any forum.... 'Sniper', the review cited that they (Falcon) were having issues with tube/bell seperation among other issues and that the optic only has a 5 year warranty, after that' it's your's baby, with no recourse......

5 years isn't long considering a multi-rifle owner like me might not shoot a particular rifle for an extended amount of time....

A good deal might not be any deal at all.....

All the other players (listed and discussed here) have unlimited, unconditional lifetime transferrable warranties, with no questions asked replacement.

That in itself speaks volumes to me and increases the price as well. It also solidifies (at least in my view), the manufacturers commitment to the quality of their products.

Kind of like batteries. You buy a cheaper pack and stick it in the drawer and when you need a replacement down the road, they are dead so you toss 'em and buy another pack..... Preferrably premium batteries so they are good when needed.

I took a close look at the Hawke prior to the Vortex, all the while keeping my favorite, Leupy, on the burner as well....

Hawke Optics is a UK company but the scopes aren't made in the UK or the USA. The USA sub is in Ft.Wayne, I suspect an office, couple buxom blondes and phones, fax and furniture and little else other than maybe a closet full of cardboard boxes stuffed with scopes (with chinese writing on the outside).... sigh...

I'm not fond of the Hawke reticule (was supposedly designed by an air rifle marksman) though Hawke does have a ballistics caculator that's downloadable from their site...which I downloaded. Problem is, you can't put in custom recipes. It's all factory ammo.

Don't think I made a poor choice in the PST Viper but time will tell. Peering through the eyepiece, it appears very clear to me, but then, I'm not out in the woods hunched down against a piney tree for 4 hours, fingers slowly getting numb and a trophy buck comes ambling into range.... Thats what seperates the rans from the also rans and that won't be until next fall.

Until then, I'll play with paper and maybe an ocassional woodchuck.

 

[Nimrod1203]

My viper HS is great, and I'm a huge fan. I just wish the HS reticle was available in the base viper model...I think it's the PA. I would love a 5-20 HS model. That would be the perfect scope. I guess we'll see what scope i end on...but If the Falcon doesn't have a better warrantee than that, it won't be it.
Nimrod

 

[bruce_ventura]

Sidecar, Schott makes scope glass in their Rochester plant I believe. USO, Trijicon and
maybe Premeir use it. I don't know if USO uses only US made Schott though.

In the riflescope industry, Schott is a glass material supplier, not lens fabricator. The supplier of the raw glass is really a secondary issue, because most of the cost is in the process of grinding and polishing glass material into lenses. All the major glass material suppliers, like Schott, Hoya, O'Hara, etc., make equivalent quality glasses and distribute them internationally to the companies that fabricate the lenses.

For riflescopes and other high end sport optics, it's typically the optical design and lens fabrication process that determine the optical quality of the end product. In the lens fabrication process, it's primarily surface figure that determines performance and cost. Better optical performance requires a better surface figure which takes more fabrication time and therefore costs more.

It's very likely that all the companies that make scopes in the US buy lenses from the same lens suppliers, who in turn use both on and offshore factories to fabricate the lenses. Regardless of where the lens is fabricated, surface figure is what matters.