Arken optics sh4 6-24x50 - Review

Waiting on one of these, 7-9 weeks from November 1st. Should be here soon!

Hope you guys have more luck with it then I did. Mine had both an out of spec parallax and wouldn't focus. Iffy quality control.. Ended up sending it back for a refund.

☝ DITTO! HAD VERY HIGH EXPECATIONS DUE TO PRICE THEN IT'S NOT EVEN CLEAR AS THE $229 ALPHA6!!! NOT EVEN CLOSE!!!

Better off with the $260 ATHLON Argos if that's the kinda glass you want not clear all the way to max power cheaper this way then you send it in for defect warranty get the new Gen2 with zero stop. Hint Hint...

A-HA!!! CHECK TIME STAMPS!!!

Waiting on one of these, 7-9 weeks from November 1st. Should be here soon!

Click to expand...

I ordered mine in mid September, it showed 4-6 weeks at that time and it just shipped Friday. I hope you have better luck than I had, tomorrow will be 13 weeks for me. I have also noticed on one of the Arken Optics facebook pages that several people people who ordered after I did have already received their scopes. One guy ordered over two weeks after I did and had the scope early last week. My emails to Arken (that were extremely polite) asking when I would receive my scope were not returned. I am seriously considering just selling it as soon as I get it, too many customer service issues for me to feel comfortable keeping it long term.

I don't know..a side for the waiting .. I have the 4x14x44 great little scope for $350 shipped..my longest kill shoot I made it with that scope at 14 power.. I received a ep4 6x24x50 at 22 power I could read little sings at a gas station 550y away wit no problem at all .. mos air gunners will never get to shoot that far...for a airgun I don't se a reason to spend 1,500 on a scope..when there is quality a half the price...that my experience...I don't recommend scope because the glass that works great for me not necessarily be good for you... if it was that way I could use my wife eye glasses n my daughter eye glasses you get the idea...you need to try it to se if it works for you...unless you live close to a scope retailer n you could see if you liked before buying... great warranty good glass....good not SB glass...the waiting time are stated in the website in my case it said 8-to-10.weeks it came at the middle of the 13 week...we are in this covid thing is holding up shipping n parts every were .. this is not food if you can deal with the waiting weeks n 2 or 3 more do your self a favor and buy another thing... 10 week is a lot.. but you know it up front.. I was waiting for parts for a machine in my shop n it took 5 months to be shipped here from France...when before covid those parts be here in 3 days..

Don’t know about the SH-4, but I’ve had a 6-24x50 EP-4 MOA Arken for months now, and it’s a very good scope for the money. On par with the Athlon Midas TAC as far as quality glass and crisp accurate tactile turrets. My only complaint is that the reticle is very thin and hard to pick up against a dark background. Other than that you get what you pay for...

My scope finally showed up yesterday, just a few days short of 15 weeks since I placed the order. It’s currently in the classifieds on here. There isn’t anything wrong with it, just the service I received from Arken in my decision to part ways with it. There were several things beyond waiting three times longer than promised for it to get here, but I won’t go into all that. The turrets are extremely nice and I was impressed that the marks perfectly lined up. It will make someone a nice scope but it won’t be me.

I've received my Arken SH4 recently and I'm testing it now. I've removed my trusty Tract Toric and now this is the one I have on my rifle. I haven't had the chance to use it much yet but so far these are my first impressions:

• Scope feels very solid, clicks are on par with my Tract scope
• You don't get turret lock, but the clicks are solid, no way you will "accidentally" change a click on this turrets
• I notice something weird on the parallax, I don't know if I'm used to my Toric parallax, but this one feels like the focusing is changing slower than with my Toric, this could be good for me because I use this scope to film a lot and the more forgiving the more room I have to nail focus, with the Tract one mm more and I got an out of focus image, this feels like the focus is adjusting slower, don't know exactly what it's but it's different somehow weird.
• Love the reticle, I'm able to see the reticle even at lows magnification, the center cross thicker than the rest is really nice
• I can't live without zero stop by now, very nice to have it on this scope
• The illumination is not to be used during the day, I made the mistake to turn it on outside and I could never tell if while rotating the illumination wheel I was turning it off or on. I tried when was getting dark and I was able to see it. One can think, not a big deal because illumination should be used during dark time, not when you already have plenty of light, problem is that sometimes you are aiming at a dark target and changing the color of the reticle helps with that. Also if is so weak why then having 10 different illumination levels?
• All the turrets turn really nice, no wobbling.
• The turrets are huge, and with that you will get big numbers for those that are short sighted
• I got 32MIL for elevation adjustments vs 20 I got on my Tract (the 34mm tube vs 30mm)
• Also comes with lifetime warranty, and I know this might not mean much to some, check what is going with Vortex right now, but at least you know if a problems comes up you will get it fixed.
• It's heavy at 36.6oz my Tract weights 32oz
• It's clear. Odoyle is reporting is not clear, and this is subjective, but you know what is not subjective? The camera. I'll do a side by side filming with this scope and the Tract and we will see through the camera glass how much light we get from both scopes and compare the image clarity of this scope. I was able to record very clear image with this scope already, but I'm interested to see how it compares with the Tract I know Tract is better and clearly, I have yet to see how much chromatic aberration I'll get with this glass, there are other properties of the glass other than it's "clear"

I need to use this scope more to be able to do a proper review, but I'm really impressed with it so far. Remember I'm used to a high end scope and it's inevitable to compare when you switch products, and so far I haven't found a major issue with this scope, and whenever I'm shooting with another rifle I can tell how much I miss my Tract...

If someone show this scope to me and ask me how much I think it cost, I'll definitively price it way much more higher than the actual price.

Since you mention you noticed 'something weird' ; have a closer look at that parallax...

https://www.snipershide.com/shooting/threads/the-arken-optics-thread-merged.6968543/page-14

Multiple people received scopes that have parallax related defects. ( I had one as well) 

This youtube vid was edited right around where a parallax issue was detected, but it describes the same issue that I had with mine.

The issue mentioned (and then partially edited out) starts at 4.22 min into the vid, but I recognized right away what he was talking about with what was left after the edit, as I had the same issue.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwKBTJ5DqT8&feature=emb_title

I've checked Parallax on mine moving the head like that and I got a solid picture when I was confirmed parallax was correct, but I need to test this at longer ranges, I'm testing at home and I just have 40 yards. I just recorded a video that I'll upload soon, it's pretty rough but I just want to film an test my scope cam setup, I'm getting ready for a hunt! I need to test that parallax when I got to the HOA and see at 100 and 200 yards if I see any issue like this.

Oh one thing is that the scope said parallax 25 yards... hmm I guess is more like 30-35 yards... I see how that can be an issue for my close encounters with iguanas!

Thanks for pointing that out!

Alright!

This a quick and dirty video I put together while filming for the first time with the Arken.

The dark edges you see when I go all the way to 24 power is because I haven't been able to center the camera properly, I'm working on it at the moment, but here at least you can see how this scope looks.

This video was filmed also without a lot of light, I was filming and was getting dark already.

Ok Let me know what you guys think. I'll keep playing with the scope and I'll definitively test that parallax issue when I go to the HOA where I can aim 200 plus yards.

https://youtu.be/Mw7fecBKhAE

Well, I have one on the way myself and should be able to provide feedback as well, albeit I’m no scope snob.

@orion That picture looks pretty darn clear. I don’t shoot much past 35 yards, so for me it may be just fine. 

I've received my Arken SH4 recently and I'm testing it now. I've removed my trusty Tract Toric and now this is the one I have on my rifle. I haven't had the chance to use it much yet but so far these are my first impressions:

• Scope feels very solid, clicks are on par with my Tract scope
• You don't get turret lock, but the clicks are solid, no way you will "accidentally" change a click on this turrets
• I notice something weird on the parallax, I don't know if I'm used to my Toric parallax, but this one feels like the focusing is changing slower than with my Toric, this could be good for me because I use this scope to film a lot and the more forgiving the more room I have to nail focus, with the Tract one mm more and I got an out of focus image, this feels like the focus is adjusting slower, don't know exactly what it's but it's different somehow weird.
• Love the reticle, I'm able to see the reticle even at lows magnification, the center cross thicker than the rest is really nice
• I can't live without zero stop by now, very nice to have it on this scope
• The illumination is not to be used during the day, I made the mistake to turn it on outside and I could never tell if while rotating the illumination wheel I was turning it off or on. I tried when was getting dark and I was able to see it. One can think, not a big deal because illumination should be used during dark time, not when you already have plenty of light, problem is that sometimes you are aiming at a dark target and changing the color of the reticle helps with that. Also if is so weak why then having 10 different illumination levels?
• All the turrets turn really nice, no wobbling.
• The turrets are huge, and with that you will get big numbers for those that are short sighted
• I got 32MIL for elevation adjustments vs 20 I got on my Tract (the 34mm tube vs 30mm)
• Also comes with lifetime warranty, and I know this might not mean much to some, check what is going with Vortex right now, but at least you know if a problems comes up you will get it fixed.
• It's heavy at 36.6oz my Tract weights 32oz
• It's clear. Odoyle is reporting is not clear, and this is subjective, but you know what is not subjective? The camera. I'll do a side by side filming with this scope and the Tract and we will see through the camera glass how much light we get from both scopes and compare the image clarity of this scope. I was able to record very clear image with this scope already, but I'm interested to see how it compares with the Tract I know Tract is better and clearly, I have yet to see how much chromatic aberration I'll get with this glass, there are other properties of the glass other than it's "clear"

I need to use this scope more to be able to do a proper review, but I'm really impressed with it so far. Remember I'm used to a high end scope and it's inevitable to compare when you switch products, and so far I haven't found a major issue with this scope, and whenever I'm shooting with another rifle I can tell how much I miss my Tract...

If someone show this scope to me and ask me how much I think it cost, I'll definitively price it way much more higher than the actual price.

Click to expand...

The Tract Toric blows the Arken out of the water and the Arken I returned was definitely not clear at all and it's not just an option shame shame shame on Arken for selling such a reject scope!!!. It couldn't focus sharp and my eyes are 20/15.

It's not an opinion it is FACT!!!

YOU HAD BETTER GET YOUR EYES CHECKED. IM SERIOUS!

Don't push a scope others may and up hating you for after they buy it.

The Athlon Midas TAC is clearer than the Arken as well there's no comparison.

I am not just an isolated two thumbs down vote for this scope guy here. Others reported their dissatisfaction as well. The 4-14x44 is a much better Arken in regards to glass quality but still over priced for what you get IMHO.

I can see optical imperfections that many can't even see that don't even notice.

The Tract Toric blows the Arken out of the water and the Arken I returned was definitely not clear at all and it's not just an option shame shame shame on Arken for selling such a reject scope!!!. It couldn't focus sharp and my eyes are 20/15.

It's not an opinion it is FACT!!!

YOU HAD BETTER GET YOUR EYES CHECKED. IM SERIOUS!

Don't push a scope others may and up hating you for after they buy it.

Click to expand...

I'm not pushing anything to anyone, I'm just sharing what I've found, and what I see, I even shared a video I did so everyone can see what I'm talking about. Did you see the video?

Is it possible some scopes are coming with problems? Absolutely, also I did say there's something weird on the parallax, something I want to follow up more and do more testing to see if I have a defective one.

When I say "clarity" is subjective what I was referring to was that there's no way to measure that. Saying that X is "more clear" than Y is tricky because there's no a quantitative amount, I know my Tract is way better scope and better glass, I know it's "more clear" but how much? What I see is that the clarity on this scope is good and I value that a lot because as I said before, I want good clarity because I film a lot with the scope, I see the scope as another lens I can buy for my camera. You just said yourself, you can see optical imperfections that many can't, here is the subjective thing, some people, me included, might not see some things that you can see immediately, that's what I mean for subjective, I never used the word "opinion"

I really admire you buddy, but you might have got the wrong idea about me, I'm not pushing anything to anyone, I'm not that type of person, I read all the comments on this post and what I see is a Parallax issue (that even my scope might have) and another person not happy with the company and returning the scope, I saw a lot of negativity around the scope and it's just not my experience, that's why I stared sharing, "to find balance on the Force YO" and if you end up buying something my advice to everyone reading this is "do your homework" and don't trust everything you read and watch, specially on YouTube, a bunch of BS around but I really hope I'm not one of those you will end up hating....

...and now you got me curious about that scope (Alpha 6) you are recommending and you mentioned it has better glass than this Arken... I'll check that out.

Happy Holidays Yo!