Leapers SWAT 8-32x56 Mil Dot 30mm Side Focus (Non IR)

[SpikeG]

After terminally breaking my 2 day old secondhand scope (Richter Optik, Note to self don't over tighten mounts ) I needed a good scope to sit on my MK4 and fairly quickly. So I placed an order with JSR and as usual it was here the next morning (I think Edward must grease the palms of Royal Mail )

Anyhow I thought a short review of the scope was in order, bear with me as I'm not a writer (as will no doubt be obvious in the next few paragraphs )

The basis for buying this particular scope was on the strength of Terrys review in AGW.

Included 'bits' & Build quality:

Solid one piece 30mm tube construction, nicely finished with a matt black coating. The included sunshade is as expected a good fit and cuts down the glare nicely. Lens caps are a tight fit both over the tube and closure.

The elevation turret has a nice positive feel the windage turret slightly less so (although it is in no way poor, just slightly less positive) The finger locking system works very well and accidental zero changes should be eliminated. The turrets are also zero resettable with the aid of an allen key, but take care to read the supplied manual as there is a set sequence in which to do it so as not to damage the scope. My only minor gripe is the zoom ring which is very tight.

Optics:

Optically the scope is crisp and clear, no aberrations and no real noticeable washout even at 32x, until the sun was directly in front of me at least Pulling the mag back down to 20x and everything became clear again.

Parallax focusing is, as TD mentioned, nice and snappy and with the larger 100mm wheel very repeatable. The graduated scale on the wheel isn't 100% accurate (they never are) but it isn't that far out, I'll be setting up the ranges next week and I have every confidence that it will dial in every time.

I forgot to add, the scope happily parallaxes down to a shade under 10yds on full mag.

Value for money:

At £165 plus £18 for the sidewheel I consider the scope to be very good value, whilst not on a par with the big nikko it's certainly as good as many, more expensive scopes. On that note I'm fairly sure the Leapers is identical to the AGS scope (the AGS even exhibits the slightly 'muddy' windage turret and similarly very tight zoom ring) and considering the Leapers is nearly £100 cheaper, I can't praise it enough.( Edit: it appears AGS prices have dropped dramatically in recent weeks and are now on a par with Leapers prices, I wonder why )

A few piccies.

Scope Mounted:
One
Two
Three

Sight picture:

Note: This was at 32x directly towards the sun and taken with a camera phone, so the quality isn't great and it isn't really a good representation of how good the optics actually are. (I could have done with 3 pairs of hands as well )

Linky

HTH