Huskemaw Good or Bad

[Bigrig793]

I recently purchased a Huskemaw 5-20X50 Blue Diamond, I have not had a chance to even try it out yet and I'm not sure if I spent some hard earned cash on a good scope or not. I won't mention the name of the web site I was on but I could not find a single good thing said about this scope and now I am here on this site and can't find anything bad about them. The other site of course was not into Long Range Hunting and I respect that and I do not intend to be out shooting at animals beyond my capabilities regardless of the capabilities of my rifle or scope. I would just like an honest opinion from people who have used/owned this scope and if it is worth the money I put out for it. The rifle I put it on is a Browning XBolt in 7mm WSM.

 

[JackinSD]

Buy Huskemaw Scopes Here - Read Review of Huskemaw 5-20 LR Scope

At the end of the article there is a discussion thread.

Also, the search function will lead to many many threads along this same line.

 

[SBruce]

Limited experience here, only about 180 rounds worth on a new 6.5-284. Shot out to 800 yds on 3 separate days.

Click test indicated (shot twice for confirmation, and rifle was putting bullets touching each other at 100)...........click values on my individual scope were .375 IPHY or .358 MOA per click at 100 yds through the first full revolution above the zero. Pretty course adjustments really, but necessary in some cases to get to 1000 yds with one revolution on the dial I would guess.

Good power range, good reticle thickness, not too heavy nor too long, and good optics IME so far. The scope is definately capable of sub 1/2 moa groups from 100 on out to 700 probably even further (wind was giving me issues at 800 and I wasn't shooting with a spotter). When the side focus is set at 200, it's parallax free and fully focused at 200 also, which is a huge time saver when a quick shot at a 400 or 500 yd coyote is needed.

Only issue I had was most likely environmental, very very low evening sun directly in my eyes. Had a bedded coyote at 440 yds and all I could see in the scope was white light. I was probably only able to see the yote in the binos and rangefinder because of using the pickup roof as a sunshade........got out and laid prone on the ground to shoot......couldn't shoot, couldn't see.

Hope this helps.

 

[Joe King]

I know a couple of guys that have em and they love them, I've never personally heard or seen anything bad about them. I don't care for that reticle though, but that's just my tastes.

 

[SBruce]

I know a couple of guys that have em and they love them, I've never personally heard or seen anything bad about them. I don't care for that reticle though, but that's just my tastes.

That reminds me, which I forgot to mention above......I wish the reticle had 2 or 3 dashes below the center intersection, spaced in some sort of MOA configuration, possibly 2 MOA spacing X 3 dashes.?

Possible downside to the scope is that there is currently no "holdover" dashes, dots, ticks or otherwise for quick shots at the 350 to 500 yd range, scope pretty much has to be dialed for anything further than 1 MOA drop beyond the zero distance. Not very quick if the dust cover is screwed on.

 

[bruce_ventura]

...Only issue I had was most likely environmental, very very low evening sun directly in my eyes. Had a bedded coyote at 440 yds and all I could see in the scope was white light. I was probably only able to see the yote in the binos and rangefinder because of using the pickup roof as a sunshade........got out and laid prone on the ground to shoot......couldn't shoot, couldn't see./QUOTE]

That's not necessarily the environment. The Huskemaw 5-20x50 that I evaluated had below average glare performance. The 3-12x50 model had average glare performance. Would a scope with better glare performance have allowed you to see the target in that situation? Probably yes. A sunshade may have helped as well.

In the $1,300 to $1,800 price price range there are other scopes with better glare performance. Swarovski Z5 comes to mind.

 

[Derek M.]

I recently purchased a Huskemaw 5-20X50 Blue Diamond, I have not had a chance to even try it out yet and I'm not sure if I spent some hard earned cash on a good scope or not. I won't mention the name of the web site I was on but I could not find a single good thing said about this scope and now I am here on this site and can't find anything bad about them. The other site of course was not into Long Range Hunting and I respect that and I do not intend to be out shooting at animals beyond my capabilities regardless of the capabilities of my rifle or scope. I would just like an honest opinion from people who have used/owned this scope and if it is worth the money I put out for it. The rifle I put it on is a Browning XBolt in 7mm WSM.

I've been going back and forth on these scopes for a long time now. The problem I have is that none are available locally so that I can at least check it out. In the end, I chose not to go with a Huskemaw because of mixed reviews and many were citing that you are paying $1300 bucks for a $500-700 dollar scope. I purchased Leica and Zeiss scopes instead.

 

[Team Roper]

I own Zeiss, Nightforce, Leupold and Huskemaw scopes. I own 3 Huskemaws currently and will buy another in the near future. That being said every scope I have ever owned their is something about it I would change you can pick any of them to death. But back to your original question; I believe you made a good choice.

 

[cummins cowboy]

speaking of flare IMO leupold scopes aren't that great dealing with flare. escpecially when compared to say a bushnell elite 4200. a lot of people dog on huskemaw because of the TV show and them making long range shots look so easy. when what they are failing to see is the time spent taking the shot on most of their shows. they get a steady rest and a spotter is there reading conditions and telling them where to aim. I really don't see the big deal in it. especially when the spotter thats reading the conditions is an experienced member of the crew thats done alot of long range shooting. So all this tends to lead to alot of skeptics and haters trolling the internet and taints the good features the optics do have.

I personally think the huskemaw and even the graybull scope albeit it overpriced for a modded leupold have some outstanding features for hunting that are found on no other optics. for one they have zero stop capability its not nightforce quailty but it will work. They have almost all the distance you can use in one turn of the knob and the reticle has 1 MOA hold offs which can be used for determining the size of a rock thats say 700 yards out easily in your head. MOA increments also can roughly and easily be translated into inches much more easily in your head than the more popular mil increments. The 1 MOA marked wind hold offs in particluar are an advantage the distance is finer than a mil reticle and just easier to use. nightfoce just came out with a MOAR reticle which will do the same thing but for some it might be more complex looking and the scope is ALOT more expensive. they also have the velocity reticles that at first glance don't look that cool but I think provide a good option. I like that they mark the wind in 5, 10 and 15 mph increments. It also allows for dialing instead of holding with 1 moa wind hold offs on the horizontal bar of the reticle. I am surprised that leupold and vortex have not offered a similar setup to what graybull or huskemaw have.

 

[coyoteugly]

Just wanted to share my first real long range kill with the Tikka T3, 300 Win. Mag and the 3 X 12 Huskemaw Blue Diamond scope the folks at Huskemaw helped me set up.
I know it's not a big antlered buck…..but just wanted to see if the whole "system" worked after collecting the data and getting the turret calibrated and mounted. (908 yards, slight breeze….one shot thru the shoulder with Berger 190 Gr. Hunt VLD's) Guess the Long Range "system" worked just fine….and……….had the Rancher who owns the land as a witness!!!!! This is the third Huskemaw scope I've owned (2-5 X 20's and this 3 X 12) and setup myself. The shot was made from the hood of a pickup with my coat for a rest. Luck??????? I don't know, but the gun shot a 5.75", 3 shot group at 700 yards with a homemade rest when I checked the new turret. Frickin' thing kicks like a Missouri mule so glad I only have to torture myself for a few shots during hunting season each year.

Selling my final Leupold in mint condition and will be buying a couple 5 X 20's in the real near future when funds allow for my 7mm Rem Mag and my son's 7mm Ultra Mag.



Hope this info helps others needing to decide on a Huskemaw or not.

 

[gillettehunter]

Like has been said there is good and bad with almost every scope. I Had a sheep hunt lined up with John Porter this fall. I had a new rifle with a Swaro Z5 on it. John asked me over to Cody to do some shooting. I did OK w/ my Z-5. I did better w/ the Huskemaw on his rifle. So my wife got me the Huskemaw for my Birthday. I got my sheep and a antelope so far w/ the new rig. I'm liking it so far. If Bigrig793 wants to trade for my Swaro Z-5 3.5X18 then I'd do it. Best of luck. Bruce

 

[Wile E Coyote]

I recently purchased a Huskemaw 5-20X50 Blue Diamond, I have not had a chance to even try it out yet and I'm not sure if I spent some hard earned cash on a good scope or not. I won't mention the name of the web site I was on but I could not find a single good thing said about this scope and now I am here on this site and can't find anything bad about them. The other site of course was not into Long Range Hunting and I respect that and I do not intend to be out shooting at animals beyond my capabilities regardless of the capabilities of my rifle or scope. I would just like an honest opinion from people who have used/owned this scope and if it is worth the money I put out for it. The rifle I put it on is a Browning XBolt in 7mm WSM.

I have an older Huskemaw, currently on my 7RM. The scope does everything it it supposed to do and does it well. My scope has the older reticle and I've had a couple custom turrets made for it. When shooting in the condtions that turret was made for, it has been dead nuts on out to just over 800 yds.

When using the "shipping' turret, this rifle/scope combo has shot at steel out to 1490 yds not too long ago. The scope adjusted exactly to where I dialed to. The dope was determined with a PPC and exbal. The trigger operator needed to do a better job but that is another story.

I originally had the Huskemaw on a Rem 700 .223 and using that rifle I did do a number of tests to prove the scope tracked to where it was dialed. This was done by taking a clean sheet of cardboard from a refigerator box and drawing a vertical and horizontal line, an X Y axis if you will. The zero point was the "hold point" for all rounds fired. I fired one round at zero and dialed in 3 clicks and fired another. Did this all the way to the top of the cardboard target at exactly 100 yds. I did the same with the windage and a few in the down direction. When I was done I had holes at approximately 1 inch intervals on the axis. We also did some combinations of elevation and windage to shoot the corners of squares and rectangles. All the rounds hit where they were supposed to. The few that didn't were operator error (that would be me)

If I have a complaint about the Huskemaw and this is the reason I probably won't buy another one is the difficulty in getting a turret calibrated in MOA. The folks at Best of the West have declined me on several different occasions when I called to make the request. And the turret maker who advertises here on LRH has also declined to make one citing not wanting to make a one off turret; I have a blank turret to send and still declined. The blank is a custom turret that was off due to incorrect data so I had it glass beaded and re-anodized. Someday when I have nothing to do, I'll make a jig and engrave the MOA by hand. However, that might be a while.

Notice my complaint is not with the scope but elsewhere. The scope works very well. The glass is clear. If you twist my arm to say something negative about the scope it would be the ranging ability of the reticle. The Huskemaw instruction booklet has a few lines about it but I've never seen Best of the West demonstrate it on the show. I had mixed results when I've tried it in the field. The laser rangefinder is just too easy I guess.

My .02 I trust it helped.