Originally Posted by
angrybear
It's down to what your eye likes.
The cheap Hawkes 10 years ago were pretty poor, today even the cheapest are much better, the Sidewinder has always been good quality I've got a 4-16x50 & love it.
I've got 2 MTC (optisan) mamba-lites, which I love but they're not as good as the Sidewinder, I don't get on as well with new MTC scopes, but I'm very impressed with my Optisan EVX ffp.
The Sidewinder is a pretty big & heavy lump, so I can understand your wanting a lighter model but there's a lot of choice around that price level.