I've never really found a scope I like for break action pistols. To me the ideal scope would have a moderately long eye relief (like many scout scopes), decent optics, exposed turrets, and a simple MOA or mil reticle. There's some nice to haves like illumination, but that's my short list of must haves. I've used Burris, Leupold, Vortex, and Crimson Trace scopes, all of which fell short in at least one of the areas I listed above. I decided to see what was available from Chinese OEMs, thinking I may be able to find something with a low MOQ that could be customized to match my wish list. I wound up finding something that checked all my boxes without any customization and ordered a sample. I didn't have particularly high hopes but figured with the amount of time and money I've spent trying other scopes it was worth a try.
Below is a picture of it mounted on my Freedom Arms 2008 in 6.5 Creedmoor. To me this is a great 300 or 400yd gun, and needs a scope to match.
It's a 1-8x long eye relief scope. It has a 30mm tube, exposed mil turrets, and illumination. This one has a BDC reticle, but it's available with a mil dot reticle. I ordered the wrong one when I got my sample. The turrets are mushy. The power adjustment feels decent but isn't as smooth as a nice rifle scope. I'd put the optical quality on par with a Diamondback Tactical. Not amazing, but miles ahead of Vortex's Scout scope. The FOV is excellent for a handgun scope. One of my favorite things about Burris's 2-7 is the wide FOV compared to a Leupy 2.5-8, and this has a noticable wider FOV than the Burris.
It showed up about a week before I left for HHC. I made up a scope rail for my 08 with an mlok pic rail, and mounted it to my 6mm TCU barrel with some 30mm rings of dubious quality. I had enough time to zero and do a severely abridged tracking test. Everything checked out so I decided to run it at the match.
Throughout the two days the scope tracked well and I didn't have any issues I can say with certainty were caused by the scope. I did find I was shooting consistently high on the last stage of day 1, but on day 2 it was back to being dead on. I struggled to see some targets on stage 1 of day 2. We were shooting almost directly into the morning sun, and the glare made it very difficult for me to see some of the targets. I think any scope would have struggled in that situation.
On Saturday I swapped to a 221 Fireball barrel and took it prairie dog hunting along with the Trifecta rest I got off the prize table. I had to rezero on the fly, but once I had it dialed in I once again found it tracked well. Most of the dogs I shot were in the 250-300yd range, with a handful that popped up closer. My longest kill was 322yd. I wasn't cranking the scope up and down through a large chunk of its travel many times, so I can't say whether or not it will drift over time.
After HHC I made up a 30mm Lovell style mount and used it to mount the scope to my 6.5 Creedmoor barrel. That's the setup I took to ABMS at Thunder Valley Precision in Ohio. The gun and optic's limitations really started to show through here. The longer ranges and smaller targets compared to HHC caused the scope's optical shortcomings to be more obvious. In the morning when we shot hunter class many of the targets were backlit, and I struggled to see some of the targets in the 500+yd range.
After we finished up Saturday night we had about an hour to shoot for fun. I shot my last handful of rounds on a full size IPSC at 707yd, which was the farthest target in the course of fire. I was able to make some hits, but not consistently. The fixed parallax on the scope was a clear issue. Moving my head left to right moved the reticle from off one edge to off the other before I saw a shadow in the scope. I'm undecided on whether or not these will be problems for the gun's intended use. They definitely are in the 500yd+ range, but might not be inside of 400yd where I am interested in using this gun.
There's some things that are definitely not good, like the squishy turrets. I think I can live with the shortcomings if it proves to be durable and consistent. I still have quite a bit of testing I plan to do, including a more thorough tracking test and a recoil test with some hot 338 Federal. I'll post updates in this thread as I do more tests.
Below is a picture of it mounted on my Freedom Arms 2008 in 6.5 Creedmoor. To me this is a great 300 or 400yd gun, and needs a scope to match.
It's a 1-8x long eye relief scope. It has a 30mm tube, exposed mil turrets, and illumination. This one has a BDC reticle, but it's available with a mil dot reticle. I ordered the wrong one when I got my sample. The turrets are mushy. The power adjustment feels decent but isn't as smooth as a nice rifle scope. I'd put the optical quality on par with a Diamondback Tactical. Not amazing, but miles ahead of Vortex's Scout scope. The FOV is excellent for a handgun scope. One of my favorite things about Burris's 2-7 is the wide FOV compared to a Leupy 2.5-8, and this has a noticable wider FOV than the Burris.
It showed up about a week before I left for HHC. I made up a scope rail for my 08 with an mlok pic rail, and mounted it to my 6mm TCU barrel with some 30mm rings of dubious quality. I had enough time to zero and do a severely abridged tracking test. Everything checked out so I decided to run it at the match.
Throughout the two days the scope tracked well and I didn't have any issues I can say with certainty were caused by the scope. I did find I was shooting consistently high on the last stage of day 1, but on day 2 it was back to being dead on. I struggled to see some targets on stage 1 of day 2. We were shooting almost directly into the morning sun, and the glare made it very difficult for me to see some of the targets. I think any scope would have struggled in that situation.
On Saturday I swapped to a 221 Fireball barrel and took it prairie dog hunting along with the Trifecta rest I got off the prize table. I had to rezero on the fly, but once I had it dialed in I once again found it tracked well. Most of the dogs I shot were in the 250-300yd range, with a handful that popped up closer. My longest kill was 322yd. I wasn't cranking the scope up and down through a large chunk of its travel many times, so I can't say whether or not it will drift over time.
After HHC I made up a 30mm Lovell style mount and used it to mount the scope to my 6.5 Creedmoor barrel. That's the setup I took to ABMS at Thunder Valley Precision in Ohio. The gun and optic's limitations really started to show through here. The longer ranges and smaller targets compared to HHC caused the scope's optical shortcomings to be more obvious. In the morning when we shot hunter class many of the targets were backlit, and I struggled to see some of the targets in the 500+yd range.
After we finished up Saturday night we had about an hour to shoot for fun. I shot my last handful of rounds on a full size IPSC at 707yd, which was the farthest target in the course of fire. I was able to make some hits, but not consistently. The fixed parallax on the scope was a clear issue. Moving my head left to right moved the reticle from off one edge to off the other before I saw a shadow in the scope. I'm undecided on whether or not these will be problems for the gun's intended use. They definitely are in the 500yd+ range, but might not be inside of 400yd where I am interested in using this gun.
There's some things that are definitely not good, like the squishy turrets. I think I can live with the shortcomings if it proves to be durable and consistent. I still have quite a bit of testing I plan to do, including a more thorough tracking test and a recoil test with some hot 338 Federal. I'll post updates in this thread as I do more tests.
