On a whim, I bought a Covenant 7 on sale at Cabella's recently. With the sale price, the specs to cost are very good. That said, I have experienced "good glass" recently, so i was not anticipating this being any better than mediocre.
I have to say, that my expectations have been exceeded pretty much entirely. No, I don;t rate this as highly as my Meopta, currently the best glass I own, but it is a good deal superior to the Hawke I paid more for, and I also believe it is at least as good if not superior to the Crimson Trace I have. Mine did great with the box test, but more , it just looks and feels right.
I understand that there is a series of Cabelas scopes made by Meopta. (Instinct) Given the price I don't imagine this is true for the Covenant. In fact, it bares no resemblance at all to my Meopta, but again, it is a better scope than I expected. If you can get the sale price, you could do a lot worse while paying more. It's noticeable CA at higher magnification (I have the 5-35X) but dial down to 25x and the CA is really tame. It's still very usable way up there at 35x (this is the only 35x scope I've ever looked through that wasn't junk, so i don't have a great benchmark to put it up against) but at 25X it is as good as anything I've looked through, including my Crimson Trace.
The turrets clicks are a little mushy, not the best, but again, not at all bad either. For the price I am not complaining. It's overall view and eye relief are superb!
I have to say, that my expectations have been exceeded pretty much entirely. No, I don;t rate this as highly as my Meopta, currently the best glass I own, but it is a good deal superior to the Hawke I paid more for, and I also believe it is at least as good if not superior to the Crimson Trace I have. Mine did great with the box test, but more , it just looks and feels right.
I understand that there is a series of Cabelas scopes made by Meopta. (Instinct) Given the price I don't imagine this is true for the Covenant. In fact, it bares no resemblance at all to my Meopta, but again, it is a better scope than I expected. If you can get the sale price, you could do a lot worse while paying more. It's noticeable CA at higher magnification (I have the 5-35X) but dial down to 25x and the CA is really tame. It's still very usable way up there at 35x (this is the only 35x scope I've ever looked through that wasn't junk, so i don't have a great benchmark to put it up against) but at 25X it is as good as anything I've looked through, including my Crimson Trace.
The turrets clicks are a little mushy, not the best, but again, not at all bad either. For the price I am not complaining. It's overall view and eye relief are superb!
