OK, for those of you who worship the great God Leupold, please - look away now.
This is most important, as I would not want you to get caught as I did!
In the course of a chat, a good friend mentioned he had got hold of a replica that looked much like a Leupy
long range scope. Now he is one shooter who is not really constrained by budget when buying kit - his other rifle is a H & H 'Royal grade' double!
He really rated these scopes, waxing lyrical & suggesting they were actually
excellent irrespective of price. I gave a polite grunt, being aware of the reputation held
by the Chinese clones - mostly for self destructing within the first five minutes of being mounted on a rifle.
Forgot all about this until a month later when a parcel arrived out of the blue. Worked out who had sent it to me (foreign post mark)
and remembered our chat.
Unwrapped the package and found a plain black box - no logos or indication as the the contents. These proved to be
a good looking scope, cheap bikini style dust caps and a sachet of silica gel. Nothing else, no instructions or
any supporting literature - no life-time guarantee or selection of quality batteries.
Quick hands-on revealed smooth magnification adjustment from a stated 3.5-10x. Side parallax adjustment that actually
seemed to tally with the markings & finally, target type turrets for windage and elevation. NO branding, dodgy serial number or
anything to indicate that the manufacturer was trying to sell this as a 'fake' Leupold.
Second point of note - who ever assembled the scope had swapped windage and elevation turret caps in the process! These
are only secured with one grub screw, and were swiftly re-installed the correctly.
Swift inspection of the parts bin revealed some weaver bases that I screwed onto a Tikka 595. This is a nice accurate
little rifle and the calibre (.222) has virtually no recoil. Ideal for trialling a self-destructing piece of Chinese rubbish!
The light goes swiftly at this time of year & the scope got its final mounting and leveling as the afternoon turned to dusk.
This seemed to be the ideal time to check the reticle illumination, which indicates either red or green as an option.
Flicked on the illuminator and shouldered the rifle....... JEEZUS H. TAP_DANCING CHRIST!!!! My retina were seared within seconds,
my nostril hairs burst into flame and a passing Hercules troop transport turned towards our back garden - obviously assuming they
were lining up on a major airport runway. Ok, I may exaggerate just a little - but it is fair to say that the reticle illumination
is just a tad on the bright side. Certainly too bright to use in low light without totally washing out the target.
Next day we trotted off to the range. A good look through the scope showed clear glass that was easily focused and did not show
any major distortion or colour tint/aberration. The reticle (US army mil-dot style) was easily focused via the ocular bell & provided
an excellent sight picture, while the 40mm objective allows plenty light transmission. Certainly, I did not feel
that the field of view was unduly constricted or dark - even on maximum magnification.
Bore sighting had me 3" low at 6 o'clock for my first shot. The turrets read in 1/4 MOA and 12 clicks elevation had me hitting
the centre of the target within a couple shots - very gratifying!
Part of the mystique behind the big brand scopes is the quality of the components and the repeatability of the clicks. It is this
that allows a shooter to consistently dial ranges and windage, in the certainty of a first round hit. With this in mind I decided
to shoot a group - but with a difference. It is normal to check tracking by shooting a 'box' to see if adjusting the turrets will
allow you to return to zero.
Deciding to do something similar, I chose to dial up 15 minutes, then right 15, then down 15 then finally left 15 before firing a shot.
then repeating the process for a for another couple shots - idea being that this should give a fairly good work out to the turrets
and would show up any change in composite group size or position.
After going through this procedure, I was pleasantly surprised to find a composite group measuring .349" centre to centre.
Now granted this is a very basic trial, but it does appear that this $40 dollar clone offers excellent potential when compared to the
$1150 US price for the genuine article.
I called my buddy to thank him for the gift & let know I intend ordering another couple for my .22s. Certainly, they ought to hold up to that?
A pause & then a surprising reply....'Mate, one of mine is running on a .338 - seems fine!