I picked up a Hawke Sidewinder 8-32x56 with the 20x 1/2 MIL dot reticle (http://www.hawkeoptics.com/sidewinder-8-32x56-20x-mil-dot.html) from opticsplanet a couple of weeks ago when they had a 20% off on Hawke scopes, so a $500 scope for $400. I specifically wanted with for my 25m/50y BR gun, a Thomas BR 0.177cal.
The scope came in a before the air rifle did. I am also building out a Ruger 10/22 for smallbore Standard Rifle NRA silhouette shooting. I got the chance to shot at a public demo from the local club and mounted up the Hawke on the 10/22. Should have got some pictures, as the 10/22 still had the factory barrel on it and with the scope with sunshade on is almost as long as the receiver plus barrel, more scope than rifle, lol.
It's now mounted on the Thomas using Hawke medium rings. I did not mount the "range finder pointer".
Likes:
The scope came in a before the air rifle did. I am also building out a Ruger 10/22 for smallbore Standard Rifle NRA silhouette shooting. I got the chance to shot at a public demo from the local club and mounted up the Hawke on the 10/22. Should have got some pictures, as the 10/22 still had the factory barrel on it and with the scope with sunshade on is almost as long as the receiver plus barrel, more scope than rifle, lol.
It's now mounted on the Thomas using Hawke medium rings. I did not mount the "range finder pointer".
Likes:
- Nice workmanship and overall quality
- The metal screw in caps are great, if a little stiff on opening and closing. Honestly I think something like a rare earth magnet catch would work better.
- The reticle is great, love it! It's a bit of a oddity to me as why would you build a scope that uses MOA turret adjustments and then use a reticle in mRAD, but whatever, I can easily use mRAD or MOA.
- Nice and bright on all but the highest magnification, and not bad at all at highest magnification.
- Being able to "zero" the turret is nice, but... more in dislikes below.
- Every adjustment is a firm turn, you're not going to have any problems with something moving on its own.
- The battery cover for the IR is impossible tight and difficult to get a hold of to turn off to change the battery. I'm likely going to have to get a pair of pilers on it to get it off which will likely mean messing up the nice knurling on it.
- The IR washes out in normal sunlight, unless you have all or nearly all of the field of view on something dark. So for example if you are shooting black silhouettes where having the IR is VERY helpful (black reticle on a black target makes it hard to see the cross) unless you are zoomed in tight enough that the target takes up most of the field of view it doesn't work. And guess what, you are pretty much never going have a silhouette close enough, or large enough to take up most of the field of view.
- The turrets only have a radial marking, so if you dial up more than a revolution you have no indication of that. On my Sightron SSIII the turret has radial and vertical indicators, so I tell if I am 1, 2, or 3 revolutions above/below the zero.
- The reticle has 1/2 MIL dot indicators, however they are only known at 20x magnification. There is no conversion chart for different magnification to be found on their site or in the paperwork that came with the scope.
- It's a good "little" scope. At 21" long with sunshade it dominates the guns I've used it on, lol. "Hey look, that scope has a gun attached to it"
- Parallax adjustment is a bit touchy, I'm glad it has a large wheel for the stiff adjustment wheel. I wouldn't mind finding a smaller wheel, the stock is a 4" and something between 2" and 3" would suit me just fine.
- Eye relief and finding center is pretty easy and fairly forgiving of "slightly off".
- Would I buy another, yes, another model of Hawke, yes. I still need a scope for my 10/22 silhouette gun. I keep debating between putting my Sightron with silhouette reticle on it that is currently on my RAW BM500x 30cal on the 10/22 and replacing it with a Hawke 10-50x60 or just getting another 8-32x56 Hawke Sidewinder for the 10/22.
- So far, I'm a happy camper with this scope. IMO its definitely got the bang for the buck.
