I received my new Discovery Optics 4-16x42mm scope in the mail today.
I'll get to the meat of it in a moment, but first a few comments as to HOW it arrived to me. I purchased this one via Amazon for $69.99. But whoever works in the Amazon DC that packaged this for shipping needs to be smacked across the back of the head... They crammed the factory scope box into an Amazon box that was not large enough to fit it all, so the factory scope box was damaged.
I contacted Amazon about this. Now, as far as customer service, I will say that they were very prompt and easy to get in touch with. They immediately issued a statement credit back to me for the less-than-stellar packaging. Now, let's get to the goodies. What's in the box?
Of course there is the scope, rubberized flip-up caps, an aluminum sunshade (more on that in a moment), a hex key for the re-zero-able turrets, an instruction manual, and a chamois for the lenses. This scope did not come with rings. However, I found no advertising and nothing in Discovery's product description or from the vendor that ever suggested that rings were included. Also, the "instruction manual" all but spells out that scope rings need to be furnished by the customer. Oddly however, the scope also did not come with a CR2032 battery for the illuminated reticle. Once again, I found no documentation online or elsewhere that contradicts that. I have extra rings and batteries, so this was not a big deal for me.
The first thing that immediately jumped out at me was the coatings and overall quality of the glass. The other thing that was immediately noticeable is the general construction of this scope. It just looks and feels like a solid, well-built piece of hardware.
This thing is an absolute joy to look through. The glass in VERY clear and it has a very crisp image. I have personally never seen this quality of glass in a scope at this price-point. Ever. The quick-adjustable eyepiece turns very smoothly and precisely. Eye relief with this scope is also placed at a nice distance and feels very forgiving, especially at lower magnification.
Here's the magnification ring set on 4X and also 16X:
The turrets are lockable and re-zero-able. Simply pull up, adjust, and push them down to lock again.
The turrets both operate very consistently in every direction. The clicks feel very positive and are spaced consistent, matching the hash marks precisely with each click. Each click is 1/4 MOA. One full revolution is 15 MOA, with a maximum range of 60 MOA on both elevation and windage. There doesn't seem to be a hard-stop for the end-of-travel for either turret, which I am okay with.
One other thing to note... On many other cheap scopes at and under this price-range, it has always bothered me to see the little clear sticker that manufacturers place over the nitrogen fill port. The idea that a simple swipe of a fingernail or similar object could peel the sticker and let the nitrogen escape from a scope always irked me. Gladly, those corners were not cut when this scope was built:
The front parallax adjustment turns smoothly, not too loose, and not too firm, but just right to my tastes. It can be adjusted from infinity all the way down to 10 yards. I checked out this adjustment at exactly 10, 20, and 30-yard distances, and the parallax setting on the scope was dead-on. The parallax on this scope will not "over-travel" below the 10-yard setting, so it looks like 10 yards is about the minimum distance to get a clear reliable image.
I inspected the optics indoors at different magnifications. It's cold outside, and the indoor lighting made for some decent comparisons of light transmission through scope at different magnifications. Here is what a target looked like with my cell phone camera 30 yards away from me with no zoom. It is the white paper taped to the purple insulation in the middle of the photo:
With the same phone camera, this is what the target looked like at 12X magnification from the exact same distance:
Light transmission did fade slightly at 16X magnification, but it really wasn't as big of a decrease as I previously expected.
One other little detail that I found interesting is the machined sunshade. On the inside of it, from the very front all the way to the very back, they have milled numerous very fine circular rings into the inside of the shade. The edged of the rings are supposed to deflect/refract unwanted light from glaring through the tube and onto the objective glass. I shined a flashlight down the tube to try to make the rings more visible for the camera:
I thought it was a nice touch.
Overall, I am very impressed. The VT-R is advertised as one of the budget-oriented line of scopes in Discovery's lineup, but it is nice to see that they seemingly have still held the machining tolerances and overall quality to a high standard here. Discovery advertises this lineup as a cheap scope, but also claims that it is superior to any other "cheap scope" out there and superior to more expensive scopes of other brands. I would say they backing that up well.
Again, I cannot emphasize enough though how good the glass is in this scope, especially at this price-point. I have personally never seen any other scope for $70 that comes close to the perceived quality of this one.
Hopefully in a week or so I will find out the real question and see how well this holds zero after getting some shock treatment from a nitro piston gun.
PT
I'll get to the meat of it in a moment, but first a few comments as to HOW it arrived to me. I purchased this one via Amazon for $69.99. But whoever works in the Amazon DC that packaged this for shipping needs to be smacked across the back of the head... They crammed the factory scope box into an Amazon box that was not large enough to fit it all, so the factory scope box was damaged.
I contacted Amazon about this. Now, as far as customer service, I will say that they were very prompt and easy to get in touch with. They immediately issued a statement credit back to me for the less-than-stellar packaging. Now, let's get to the goodies. What's in the box?
Of course there is the scope, rubberized flip-up caps, an aluminum sunshade (more on that in a moment), a hex key for the re-zero-able turrets, an instruction manual, and a chamois for the lenses. This scope did not come with rings. However, I found no advertising and nothing in Discovery's product description or from the vendor that ever suggested that rings were included. Also, the "instruction manual" all but spells out that scope rings need to be furnished by the customer. Oddly however, the scope also did not come with a CR2032 battery for the illuminated reticle. Once again, I found no documentation online or elsewhere that contradicts that. I have extra rings and batteries, so this was not a big deal for me.
The first thing that immediately jumped out at me was the coatings and overall quality of the glass. The other thing that was immediately noticeable is the general construction of this scope. It just looks and feels like a solid, well-built piece of hardware.
This thing is an absolute joy to look through. The glass in VERY clear and it has a very crisp image. I have personally never seen this quality of glass in a scope at this price-point. Ever. The quick-adjustable eyepiece turns very smoothly and precisely. Eye relief with this scope is also placed at a nice distance and feels very forgiving, especially at lower magnification.
Here's the magnification ring set on 4X and also 16X:
The turrets are lockable and re-zero-able. Simply pull up, adjust, and push them down to lock again.
The turrets both operate very consistently in every direction. The clicks feel very positive and are spaced consistent, matching the hash marks precisely with each click. Each click is 1/4 MOA. One full revolution is 15 MOA, with a maximum range of 60 MOA on both elevation and windage. There doesn't seem to be a hard-stop for the end-of-travel for either turret, which I am okay with.
One other thing to note... On many other cheap scopes at and under this price-range, it has always bothered me to see the little clear sticker that manufacturers place over the nitrogen fill port. The idea that a simple swipe of a fingernail or similar object could peel the sticker and let the nitrogen escape from a scope always irked me. Gladly, those corners were not cut when this scope was built:
The front parallax adjustment turns smoothly, not too loose, and not too firm, but just right to my tastes. It can be adjusted from infinity all the way down to 10 yards. I checked out this adjustment at exactly 10, 20, and 30-yard distances, and the parallax setting on the scope was dead-on. The parallax on this scope will not "over-travel" below the 10-yard setting, so it looks like 10 yards is about the minimum distance to get a clear reliable image.
I inspected the optics indoors at different magnifications. It's cold outside, and the indoor lighting made for some decent comparisons of light transmission through scope at different magnifications. Here is what a target looked like with my cell phone camera 30 yards away from me with no zoom. It is the white paper taped to the purple insulation in the middle of the photo:
With the same phone camera, this is what the target looked like at 12X magnification from the exact same distance:
Light transmission did fade slightly at 16X magnification, but it really wasn't as big of a decrease as I previously expected.
One other little detail that I found interesting is the machined sunshade. On the inside of it, from the very front all the way to the very back, they have milled numerous very fine circular rings into the inside of the shade. The edged of the rings are supposed to deflect/refract unwanted light from glaring through the tube and onto the objective glass. I shined a flashlight down the tube to try to make the rings more visible for the camera:
I thought it was a nice touch.
Overall, I am very impressed. The VT-R is advertised as one of the budget-oriented line of scopes in Discovery's lineup, but it is nice to see that they seemingly have still held the machining tolerances and overall quality to a high standard here. Discovery advertises this lineup as a cheap scope, but also claims that it is superior to any other "cheap scope" out there and superior to more expensive scopes of other brands. I would say they backing that up well.
Again, I cannot emphasize enough though how good the glass is in this scope, especially at this price-point. I have personally never seen any other scope for $70 that comes close to the perceived quality of this one.
Hopefully in a week or so I will find out the real question and see how well this holds zero after getting some shock treatment from a nitro piston gun.
PT
