I have been thinking of upgrading my scope for sometime now so bought a new toy for my beauty. It’s a Hawke Varmint sidefocus 3-12X44 scope. Read some good reviews & recommended for springer aswell so gave it a try.
Body:-It has 1 inch mono tube with black mate finish with aircraft grade aluminum. It weighs around 530 gms with mounts & 34cm long.
Lens:-The objective lense is 44mm with fully multi coated lenses. It has good brightness & clarity but performs best in bright light. I have tried it even in low light condition but the focus & head position/eyerelief had to be spot on to get maximum performance from that scope.
Turrets:-Low turrets, crisp/clear/audible clicks & is resettable. The turrets are protected by caps which have to be removed for dialing. The click value is ¼ M.O.A & has 15 moa per revolution. The best part is it has got true clicks, I did an experiment for justifying it. At zero mark I took 3 shots, then dialed 15 moa down then took 3 shots, then 15moa to right again took 3 shots followed by 15 moa up & 3shots & lastly 15moa left with 3 shots to see whether the last group matches the zero group…& it did. So if I shoot using moa & track back to zero, the zero wouldn’t be lost. The mildots are said to be tue @ 10 mag, so I did test for verifying this as well. @ 100 yds the dist between each mildot is equal to 1 inch, so at 15 yds it should be 0.15inch or 3.808mm. So I marked 2 point 3.808mm apart & the mildots span is 3.808mm @ 10 mag for 15 yds. Lastly I checked my calculation of X14 dialing for 1 mil deviation, so took the first shot at zero, dialed 14 clicks & it hit the other point at 3.8mm @ 10 mag for 15 yds & the result was amazing.
Reticle:-It has half-mildot hawke reticle true at 10 mag. There are 4 mildots at each side with additional 4 tie in between each mildot, providing multiple aiming points for holdover/under. The reticle is fine for my liking & it doesnot hide the target as most of us encountered it.
Side Parallax Adjustment:-This is a section alien to me, but that’s one of the primary reason for buying this scope. Parallax ranges from 7 yards and up at full mag. The side focus knob is bit hard to turn & small to incorporate max dist marks. It shows 10,15.20,30,50,75,100,200 & up, but the yardage marking were true at various distances as counterchecked with yardage tape & rangefinder. For airgunning it’s very difficult to get in between distances so I added a 100mm utg sidewheel to it. Thought the sidewheel isn’t a direct fit, I had to grind the inner dia of the utg sidewheel to set it to the hawke parallax knob. Then ranged it for various distances & marked it.
EyePiece & Zoom Rings:- The eyepiece has got a fast ocular adjustment for fine tuning the image. The adjustment ring is pretty smooth & works well in low light.
The zoom is 3-12 & gives me plenty of option/magnification for close quarter & long range shooting. Once correctly focused I got clear image even at 7 yds. The zoom ring has a thumb knob allowing to freely vary magnification. I am using it at various distances & at various zoom level with the help of strelok plus & I am learning each day.
Regards Moulindu
, yes technology spoiled me, now everytime i consult my gadgets before taking a shot, & if i dont i make blunders. I have bad days & good days, constantly trying to minimize the effect of former but then comes the blunders 
.
