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I thought I’d try and make a proper contribution to the forum in the guise of a two part review of my recently purchased Nikko-Stirling 3-9x40 AO/IR Panamax.

I am no expert, I only know what I like and what suits me, I understand that there are better scopes out there but with my limited amount of pocket money combined with a 60 year olds’ eyesight there comes a point where diminishing returns kick in.

I also tend to go verbally round the houses a bit so please don’t be too picky

Part 1.

I got this scope mail order from a popular internet specialist and paid just shy of £95 including a small discount and 1st class postage. Everything arrived fine and dandy within RM’s usual timescales.

The first, (and really only), minor niggle is that Nikko Stirling do not seem to “package” their products, (at least at this section of the market), quite as well as say Hawke do, this is a manufacturer thing and not the retailers shortcoming. In the centre of the box there is a small plastic cradle which is very flimsy and had semi collapsed, maybe due to pressure from above either during transit or storage so my first worries were of damage before I had even looked over the scope further. Anyway, I placed the scope in some open high mounts and spun it slowly through 360 degrees several times and I could not detect and deviation from true.

Everything such as AO adjustment, MOA clicks, etc comes across as smooth with just enough torque but as others have pointed out in earlier threads, the ocular focus can be a bit slack and it was. Normally, I would not be too bothered as it can be easily re-set but I gave it some thought and fitted a couple of 2mm x 40mm’ish diameter O rings to take up the approximate 4mm space between the adjuster and main body, this worked out perfectly as when I backed up the adjuster against the O rings reticle focus was perfect.

Of the various reasons I chose this scope over Hawke is that, like for like it, it comes in a shade lighter and with a slightly narrower objective than the equivalent Panorama or Vantage Max which to my mind on a lightweight 99s is a bonus. The adjustment areas such as zoom, ao, and turret caps, consists of what you might call “blocks” and are practically flush with the main body but are nevertheless quite chunky in feel, instead of the large “milled” effect found on others, and this again adds to the low profile and understatement side of things.

Next, mounting.

I already had a pair of Sportsmatch mediums fitted but as said earlier, the objective on the Nikko is slightly less than the Hawk Vantage 3-9x40 that I had previously so I opted for a set of Nikko mediums which have about 1.5 mil or less height than the Sportsmatch, all this re-jigging allowed the centreline of new set up to sit about 3 mil lower in total, which is good.

There are no torque values given in the instructions so to be on the safe side I just deducted 15% of the typical Hawke numbers as a start point and used those.

Being one who likes to get settled right into the gun and scope I have the near mount set in the third from trigger recoil hole on my 99s and the second mount equidistant from the ocular bell. A thing about Nikko mounts; the recoil pin is pointed so I smoothed it flush with a diamond coated file so no damage to the 99 could occur.

To be honest, I was half expecting the 10x half mildot to be a trade off and be slightly cluttered in appearance but I was surprised to find when focused that it was clear and with enough detail to suit my eyes. One of the things that I have noticed with IR scopes is the tendency for the reticle to bloom and appear to lose a bit of focus when switched on, the Nikko does do this to a very small degree but not quite as much as my Hawkes. After a slight readjustment all was well and even going back to non IR I cannot say that any noticeable focus was lost.

Simply looking through the scope I would say that clarity and light gathering is better than the Vantage 40mm that it replaced. Whether it is better than say the Hawke Panorama or Airmax I couldn’t comment because I have no experience of these but, so far, I am pleased with my purchase.

So, would I buy another based on my findings so far? That would be a yes. Sure, there are areas of what you might call “attention to detail” that are not quite up to Hawke standards but so minor they are not worth noting here, on the other hand there are features on the Nikko that appeal to me. A 2-7x32 though not available would be right up my street!

Well, that’s it for now. Once I have it zeroed in and a shot a tin or so in anger I will do part 2.