In a quest for a good scope for my FX Cyclone I found a used Optisan EVX 10X44. Having been a Hawke fan, I didn't know what to expect, so I decided to buy this used, never taken out of the box, scope for $180 and give it a try.
To say I'm impressed is a huge understatement. If you've not had a chance to look at and handle one of these scopes, you're really missing something. I'm a scope snob, so for me to be impressed is a big deal.
First, the lenses, they are, in one word, fantastic. I'm truly impressed with how clear this thing is. I've had Leupold high end scopes that weren't this clear, or at least close, and they cost $700. The picture also snaps in and out of focus with the side parallax adjustment, which goes from 10y to infinity.
*Quick side note here. Some have complained that the parallax was only marked at 10y, then 100y and infinity, with nothing in between. Mine has 10y 25y, 50y etc. so no complaint there, and they were pretty much right on.
The lens coatings were excellent giving great image quality and color management. No white-out or abberations of any kind. Low light image quality is darn good. At almost dark, it was easy to hit golf tees and cut them off at 30 yards.
The eye relief is a tad over 3" and the eye box is forgiving. I have a Hawke Airmax which is very critical with head position, which some like and some don't. On the one hand, critical eye box makes for less parallax error via head position when the parallax setting is not exacly correct. On the other hand, to me, I'll set the parallax correctly and don't have to be annoyed by not having a perfect head position. Personal preference here and HFT guys probably like a critical eye box. Actually, I think the eye position criticality is just right on this one.
The turrets are also great, solid clicks with no mushy feel at all. One tenth mil clicks. It's always nice to have a mil dot reticle and mil dot turrets. Lift to change setting, push down to lock and easily reset to zero with no tools, again fantastic.
This would be my only minor gripe about this scope, and mind you it is minor. The elevation turret is marked to a total of 4.8 mil for a full revolution, so if you need to go 6 mil or whatever you need to remember that the full revolution was not in full mils. I wish it was 4.0 or 5.0, even numbers, but hey, small matter. Also, there are no hash marks to tell you how many revolutions you've gone, but again, it's truly a minor gripe, on an otherwise stellar scope.
The reticle is also a work of art. Some newer mil dot reticles look like a mess, way too many hash marks, christmas trees, dots, grids, etc. What a jungle to look through. Then on the other end are plain mil dot reticles. The EVX has 1/2 mil hash marks and four dots making up the christmas tree, perfect. Plenty of reference points without being too "busy". Great job. Also, it is fine enough for precision shooting. My Hawke Airmax is super fine, and can disappear in some circumstances. I like it, but sometimes it takes me a minute to find it in leaves or dark backgrounds. The EVX is much easier to see, but doesn't seem thicker, I dunno but it's just right, and lighted too. The illumination knob is on-off-on-off, which is cool, and every step is brighter or dimmer, and it is even and just perfect, only lighting up the 10 mil center.
I mounted the scope on my FX Cyclone and took one shot at 30 yards. The impact needed 3 mils up exactly and 1/2 mil left. I made the appropriate adjustment and proceeded to put the next 7 shots out of the mag right on top of the first hole. Pretty amazing for a sub $200 scope. I shot some groups and fooled around, making sure one hole groups were the norm, which this gun is easily capable of. Played with looking at different objects and different distances, to check the view and parallax settings and all was fantastic. Then I thought I'd try the box test. I fired 5 or so shots in one hole, moved 5 mil right and shot 3 or 4 shots in one hole, then down, then left, then up and put the last 5 shots right in the original starting group. I couldn't even see where they hit, because they went in the same hole! Also, on each corner of the box test, the group hit EXACTLY on the 5mil hash mark. Wow! I really didn't expect that kind of precision. Simply AMAZING! I couldn't believe it so I did a few groups moving back and forth between two groups by first shooting one shot, moving the clicks 4 mil, take a shot, use the has mark to go back to the first group, then click back, etc moving between groups shot to shot and holy cow!, they were two one shot groups, just perfect, and I did it three times, just playing around. This is incredible for any scope. I've had Leupold and Sightrons that couldn't do that.
While shooting I notices that the ocular adjustment was solid and stayed where you put it with no worry about it moving. The parallax is just right too, solid with no danger of moving, but not so soft to be any worry. You can change parallax settings and not disturb you sighting with no problem. Of course the illuminated reticle control is on the end of the parallax knob, but it has no physical connection to it, so you don't have to worry about changing IR setting causing a change in parallax. The IR knob has a nice soft detent, which is just right too. i hate to sound bubbly about it, but Optisan did it all just right.
Well, to wrap up. I hate that this sounds like I work for Optisan, or that I have some axe to grind, or that I'm an Optisan fanboy, but I just bought this after reading a review or two, with really no prior knowledge at all of the scopes. It was, no pun intended, a shot in the dark. To say I'm impressed is an understatement. I can't really think of a single thing to gripe about this scope, nothing except the two minor turret niggles, and I wanna tell you, those are no big deal at all. I would love to get my hands on one of the EVX variables and see if it can handle the power change and be as precise, but with this build quality, I bet they will.
I'm not often this excited about a product. I almost think I'm jinxing myself by giving this scope such high praise. I feel like it'll let me down by shooting loose or something on it going south, so I'm cautiously optimistic about this fine scope. If it holds up, (and I know a PCP is no danger to a scope), then it will turn out to be the best buy I've made in a long, long time. I hope this helps someone and I hope you'll give them a look when buying a new scope, they truly deserve your attention. If anyone has anything bad to say about these scopes, I'd love to hear it. I've heard the previous version of this scope (Viper, IIRC) didn't have the lens quality the EVX do, I dunno, I haven't seen them, but I can say the EVX has fabulous lenses.
To say I'm impressed is a huge understatement. If you've not had a chance to look at and handle one of these scopes, you're really missing something. I'm a scope snob, so for me to be impressed is a big deal.
First, the lenses, they are, in one word, fantastic. I'm truly impressed with how clear this thing is. I've had Leupold high end scopes that weren't this clear, or at least close, and they cost $700. The picture also snaps in and out of focus with the side parallax adjustment, which goes from 10y to infinity.
*Quick side note here. Some have complained that the parallax was only marked at 10y, then 100y and infinity, with nothing in between. Mine has 10y 25y, 50y etc. so no complaint there, and they were pretty much right on.
The lens coatings were excellent giving great image quality and color management. No white-out or abberations of any kind. Low light image quality is darn good. At almost dark, it was easy to hit golf tees and cut them off at 30 yards.
The eye relief is a tad over 3" and the eye box is forgiving. I have a Hawke Airmax which is very critical with head position, which some like and some don't. On the one hand, critical eye box makes for less parallax error via head position when the parallax setting is not exacly correct. On the other hand, to me, I'll set the parallax correctly and don't have to be annoyed by not having a perfect head position. Personal preference here and HFT guys probably like a critical eye box. Actually, I think the eye position criticality is just right on this one.
The turrets are also great, solid clicks with no mushy feel at all. One tenth mil clicks. It's always nice to have a mil dot reticle and mil dot turrets. Lift to change setting, push down to lock and easily reset to zero with no tools, again fantastic.
This would be my only minor gripe about this scope, and mind you it is minor. The elevation turret is marked to a total of 4.8 mil for a full revolution, so if you need to go 6 mil or whatever you need to remember that the full revolution was not in full mils. I wish it was 4.0 or 5.0, even numbers, but hey, small matter. Also, there are no hash marks to tell you how many revolutions you've gone, but again, it's truly a minor gripe, on an otherwise stellar scope.
The reticle is also a work of art. Some newer mil dot reticles look like a mess, way too many hash marks, christmas trees, dots, grids, etc. What a jungle to look through. Then on the other end are plain mil dot reticles. The EVX has 1/2 mil hash marks and four dots making up the christmas tree, perfect. Plenty of reference points without being too "busy". Great job. Also, it is fine enough for precision shooting. My Hawke Airmax is super fine, and can disappear in some circumstances. I like it, but sometimes it takes me a minute to find it in leaves or dark backgrounds. The EVX is much easier to see, but doesn't seem thicker, I dunno but it's just right, and lighted too. The illumination knob is on-off-on-off, which is cool, and every step is brighter or dimmer, and it is even and just perfect, only lighting up the 10 mil center.
I mounted the scope on my FX Cyclone and took one shot at 30 yards. The impact needed 3 mils up exactly and 1/2 mil left. I made the appropriate adjustment and proceeded to put the next 7 shots out of the mag right on top of the first hole. Pretty amazing for a sub $200 scope. I shot some groups and fooled around, making sure one hole groups were the norm, which this gun is easily capable of. Played with looking at different objects and different distances, to check the view and parallax settings and all was fantastic. Then I thought I'd try the box test. I fired 5 or so shots in one hole, moved 5 mil right and shot 3 or 4 shots in one hole, then down, then left, then up and put the last 5 shots right in the original starting group. I couldn't even see where they hit, because they went in the same hole! Also, on each corner of the box test, the group hit EXACTLY on the 5mil hash mark. Wow! I really didn't expect that kind of precision. Simply AMAZING! I couldn't believe it so I did a few groups moving back and forth between two groups by first shooting one shot, moving the clicks 4 mil, take a shot, use the has mark to go back to the first group, then click back, etc moving between groups shot to shot and holy cow!, they were two one shot groups, just perfect, and I did it three times, just playing around. This is incredible for any scope. I've had Leupold and Sightrons that couldn't do that.
While shooting I notices that the ocular adjustment was solid and stayed where you put it with no worry about it moving. The parallax is just right too, solid with no danger of moving, but not so soft to be any worry. You can change parallax settings and not disturb you sighting with no problem. Of course the illuminated reticle control is on the end of the parallax knob, but it has no physical connection to it, so you don't have to worry about changing IR setting causing a change in parallax. The IR knob has a nice soft detent, which is just right too. i hate to sound bubbly about it, but Optisan did it all just right.
Well, to wrap up. I hate that this sounds like I work for Optisan, or that I have some axe to grind, or that I'm an Optisan fanboy, but I just bought this after reading a review or two, with really no prior knowledge at all of the scopes. It was, no pun intended, a shot in the dark. To say I'm impressed is an understatement. I can't really think of a single thing to gripe about this scope, nothing except the two minor turret niggles, and I wanna tell you, those are no big deal at all. I would love to get my hands on one of the EVX variables and see if it can handle the power change and be as precise, but with this build quality, I bet they will.
I'm not often this excited about a product. I almost think I'm jinxing myself by giving this scope such high praise. I feel like it'll let me down by shooting loose or something on it going south, so I'm cautiously optimistic about this fine scope. If it holds up, (and I know a PCP is no danger to a scope), then it will turn out to be the best buy I've made in a long, long time. I hope this helps someone and I hope you'll give them a look when buying a new scope, they truly deserve your attention. If anyone has anything bad to say about these scopes, I'd love to hear it. I've heard the previous version of this scope (Viper, IIRC) didn't have the lens quality the EVX do, I dunno, I haven't seen them, but I can say the EVX has fabulous lenses.
