I may have found the perfect hunting scope for me.
For a while I have been looking for a Huskemaw 4-16 for my primary hunting rifle. Not being able to find one used at a good price I started looking for something else.
I had a 5-20 Huskemaw a few years ago and really liked the scope but it was heavier than advertised and a little big overall for what I wanted.
I also had a VX6 3-18x50 with the TMO reticle but found the reticle a touch thin for my liking since this was primarily a hunting scope.
A while ago I found this VX6 on sale for a great price. It had the wind plex reticle with the lighted fire dot and a ZL turret.
This week I got it mounted and leveled then headed to the range to sight in.
Got to the range, pulled the bolt and bore sighted it.
After the first shot I was a little off and dialed it to 1" high and 1/4" left at 100 yards and fired a three shot group to confirm.
Then I drew a 24" verticle plum line on my paper and fired one shot then dialed 18 MOA (only get 18.5 with the supplied turret) and fired another shot. Back to zero for one shot and then back to 18 MOA for a second time. The two group centers were 18 3/4" apart and 1/4" to the left of the line. just about perfect for 18 moa at 100 yards.
I then went out to 400 yards and painted the steel. Had a slight left to right wind at about 12 mph quartering to me. I dialed 3.75 MOA and fired two shots with perfect elevation and about 2 " to the right. I didn't hold any wind so this was just about perfect.
There was a piece of steel hanging at 710 yards so I dialed 11.25 and while looking at the steel noticed a 4" white rock on the hill just beside the target. Held one MOA to the left, fired one shot and shattered the rock.
I then dialed back to zero and fired one shot at 200 that had perfect elevation and about 1/2" right (didn't hold any wind).
Initial impressions are the glass is very good, the turret feels decent, dials accurately and the Wind Plex reticle is just the right thickness for me. The cross section is .3 MOA which would be a little heavy for target shooting but I had no problem with 1" dots at 100 yards and a 4" rock at 710 yards. Plus the added convenience of the lighted fire dot if needed is great. All in a sub 20oz scope.
The illumination works great, parallax is pretty stiff to turn, the power adjustment is not too tight, the clicks on the turret can be felt but not heard, fast focus eyepiece is initially tight to turn then loosens up. Once set it becomes tight to turn again which is nice (I don't think it will turn on its own), personally never saw any reason for FF eyepiece since you only set it one time.
The things I would change:
It would be better if there was more than one turn dialing up.
The three set screws that hold the turret in place. I would rather have teeth on the interior of the turret and a single slotted screw in the top to hold the turret on.
There is slightly thick black ring around the outside of the sight picture while looking through the scope that I don't recall the 50mm version having. The 50mm version had a very thin almost non existent outer ring while viewing. Maybe this has something to do with the illumination? Not sure but it's not a deal breaker.
I get a total of 18.5 MOA out of the ZL turret which will get me a little over 950 yards at the elevations I typically hunt.
This scope mounted on my 6.5 SAUM shooting 143 ELD-X at 3086 should be a great combo for everything from coyotes to elk.
For a while I have been looking for a Huskemaw 4-16 for my primary hunting rifle. Not being able to find one used at a good price I started looking for something else.
I had a 5-20 Huskemaw a few years ago and really liked the scope but it was heavier than advertised and a little big overall for what I wanted.
I also had a VX6 3-18x50 with the TMO reticle but found the reticle a touch thin for my liking since this was primarily a hunting scope.
A while ago I found this VX6 on sale for a great price. It had the wind plex reticle with the lighted fire dot and a ZL turret.
This week I got it mounted and leveled then headed to the range to sight in.
Got to the range, pulled the bolt and bore sighted it.
After the first shot I was a little off and dialed it to 1" high and 1/4" left at 100 yards and fired a three shot group to confirm.
Then I drew a 24" verticle plum line on my paper and fired one shot then dialed 18 MOA (only get 18.5 with the supplied turret) and fired another shot. Back to zero for one shot and then back to 18 MOA for a second time. The two group centers were 18 3/4" apart and 1/4" to the left of the line. just about perfect for 18 moa at 100 yards.
I then went out to 400 yards and painted the steel. Had a slight left to right wind at about 12 mph quartering to me. I dialed 3.75 MOA and fired two shots with perfect elevation and about 2 " to the right. I didn't hold any wind so this was just about perfect.
There was a piece of steel hanging at 710 yards so I dialed 11.25 and while looking at the steel noticed a 4" white rock on the hill just beside the target. Held one MOA to the left, fired one shot and shattered the rock.
I then dialed back to zero and fired one shot at 200 that had perfect elevation and about 1/2" right (didn't hold any wind).
Initial impressions are the glass is very good, the turret feels decent, dials accurately and the Wind Plex reticle is just the right thickness for me. The cross section is .3 MOA which would be a little heavy for target shooting but I had no problem with 1" dots at 100 yards and a 4" rock at 710 yards. Plus the added convenience of the lighted fire dot if needed is great. All in a sub 20oz scope.
The illumination works great, parallax is pretty stiff to turn, the power adjustment is not too tight, the clicks on the turret can be felt but not heard, fast focus eyepiece is initially tight to turn then loosens up. Once set it becomes tight to turn again which is nice (I don't think it will turn on its own), personally never saw any reason for FF eyepiece since you only set it one time.
The things I would change:
It would be better if there was more than one turn dialing up.
The three set screws that hold the turret in place. I would rather have teeth on the interior of the turret and a single slotted screw in the top to hold the turret on.
There is slightly thick black ring around the outside of the sight picture while looking through the scope that I don't recall the 50mm version having. The 50mm version had a very thin almost non existent outer ring while viewing. Maybe this has something to do with the illumination? Not sure but it's not a deal breaker.
I get a total of 18.5 MOA out of the ZL turret which will get me a little over 950 yards at the elevations I typically hunt.
This scope mounted on my 6.5 SAUM shooting 143 ELD-X at 3086 should be a great combo for everything from coyotes to elk.
