Hawke Mil Pro - Review

[Gary C]

Another Hawke - has to be a pile of poo right?

I have on my desk a new spec Hawke 10-50*56 Mil Pro. It is really rather good. Compared to my Nikko it is lighter and better. The mechanics are a delight, lovely smooth sidewheel and superb turrets. It's very gloomy here but it snaps into focus nicely.

I made a few inquiries to find out why. It's a Hakko clone, one of the original and very best. As used by Andy Calpin and Stuart Hancocks I believe. Deben have bought the Hakko design and have had them manufactured by a quality Japanese manufacturer.

The sidewinders were excellent value if you got a good one. I have 2. The SR range get rave reviews but leave me a bit cold.

This one is probably the best scope in my collection at the moment.

I think they are a venture by Deben into top quality optics. I don't know how the compare to Leups as I don't own one, but it's better than my Nikkos / DMP / Hakko.

I look forward to trying it on my FT and hunting rifles. It would be rather nice on an HMR

[The Doctor]

Hi Gay-boy

Any idea on price - looking for a new scope at the moment.

Lee

[Trevor Delve]

I rated the original Hakko made DMP model so id like to see how this performs.

Minus the IR this time around?

[The Doctor]

Me too, I loved the first DMP I had, but the second one I had was a pile of poo - moved all over the place in the hot and cold.

Be interested to see a few more specs Mr C, if your not too busy picking fights with no marks.

LeeH

[Trevor Delve]

Me too, I loved the first DMP I had, but the second one I had was a pile of poo - moved all over the place in the hot and cold
Ive personally not seen a bad Hakko but from all accounts there quality went very hit and miss in the time before they went bump, unfortunatley for Deben this came along at the time when they rebadged to Hawke.

I certainly know that my 10x42 Hawke Mil Pro isnt as good as my 10x42 Deben DMP.

[Darren Petts]

I had an early non-ir 10-50 Deben. It was very good. Not excellent as in a Leup but not Leup money either. Unfortunately it broke and was unfixable. The IR adorned Debens were variable in quality and varied from average to poor IMO. I hope they've reverted back to the non-IR quality optics as there's a slot in the market between the Nikko and the Leups.
I'm surprised they've stuck with the Hawke brand for the expensive scopes as, has already been suggested, quality isn't the first word that comes to mind when thinking of Hawke.

[Martin]

Andys scope is a 10-50 Tasco CS, and a milk bottle has better optics (his words, and i agree, his scope is pretty dire !)

Any news on price ? 400 -500 im guessing ?

Mart.

[RobF]

Very interesting...very.

Bar and Deben arranged to swap out my 10-50x56 IR deben...today i got the scope replacement:)...noticed the hawk badge on it, thought they were just some of the old lot re badged that they had laying around. Bar mentioned that this scope was supposed to be better optically than the deben, i thought it was the last of the batch before they stopped production...but for all intents and purposes the scope looked identical to the deben...apart from a few differences.

1) the scope says hawke

2) the side-wheel is measured in yards (it mentions it in the manual), and it looked like it would only go down a shade below 10 yards. However a quick measure on the range this evening had it focusing at 40x at 9m with plenty of range left on the wheel, so i suspect it will go down just as far as my deben did (7-8yds), perhaps the wheel doesn't read right.

3) interestingly the cleaning cloth says "hakko"

4) the warranty seems to be limited to 3 months and is non transferable.

if it is a copy then its a very very good one...so far everything i can see is exactly the same as the deben with the exception of the side-wheel markings and the warranty (the debens had a lifetime one iirc)....the performance so far seems just as good, ie very...i think if pushed it seems better, less chromatic aberration so far (but didnt have ideal test conditions)...I'm also wondering if the eye relief range is a little better (the deben had a narrow range of eye relief)...but this could be my imagination as i haven't had the two side my side.

A happy bunny...if these are back in production again i think it will be good news as there aren't many scopes that tick as many boxes that these scopes do in the price range.

[xbow]

Where can I have a look at one - I've checked out the Deben site but they don't show it.

[Maxwell]

Can i borrow this scope, pretty please.
It is christmas after all.....

Maxwell

[Gary C]

4) the warranty seems to be limited to 3 months and is non transferable.

.

This is a mistake. Tony threw a hissy fit when I told him. Somebody at the writers will be sitting on a cushion this Christmas..
Normal 1 year warranty

[Dougie_fn12]

ive just got one of these for christmas and to say the least its a cracking little scope...ive not had a chance to test out the MAP to its full yet but seeing as its mounted on my tx200hc im very impressed....alot of people call it plain but its quite an enjoyable and easy scope to use and looks pretty neat to me....i hope more people take this scope aboard and give it the chance it deserves.... alot easier than the sr range and well worth a consideration.... i have the 3-9x50 MAP PRO.....cracking little scope ;)