falcon Menace 4.5-18x56 Metric MP20

[flims]

so i received my Falcon Menace this morning thanks to one bbs member which helped me out. I had been waiting to purchase this model for a while so i got it all setup to head to the range.
http://pic18.picturetrail.com/VOL888.../314862567.jpg

i used sportsmatch high mounts 30mm to mount the scope. i had already read some reviews from prominent sources regarding the scope so i knew roughly what to expect. the scope came with a sunshade too, lens cloth and an allen screw for turrets.
http://pic18.picturetrail.com/VOL888.../314862581.jpg

Why did i purchase this one from the myriad of scopes availble. first of all the price is good but it encorporates the features i wanted. the turrets match the reticle as both are in Mils. this was important for me because when i see the impact on the target i can say exactly how much im off my mark and then dial in exactly what i see, therefore if i was 2.5Mils low, i dial 2.5 Mils and i dont have to do the Conversion to MOA as before. This can be done on the true Mil value of the reticle which is calibrated at 10X and also marked in red on the magnification ring.
http://pic18.picturetrail.com/VOL888.../314862574.jpg
http://pic18.picturetrail.com/VOL888.../314862605.jpg
http://pic18.picturetrail.com/VOL888.../314863100.jpg
http://pic18.picturetrail.com/VOL888.../314863084.jpg
The reticle has a long vertical stadia with a total of 15Mil-dots which is great. 5 on top of the horizontal and 10 below. this means that using only the reticle you can already shoot far out. The turrets are large which i like and the clicks are audible and repeatable which is very important. i checked the Mil- value to make sure its right and at 35m it bracketed 3.5cm which is what i was hoping for.
http://pic18.picturetrail.com/VOL888.../314863092.jpg

lenses- well lenses are very clear, much better than other scopes i have used altough on 18x the eye relief is shorter and if i was using it on a heavy recoiling rifle, i would prefer to leave it on 14x or lower. the reticle first seems to engulf the whole reticle however once you get use to it, you will start to see the advantage of that grid like reticle. from my current 35yard zero i still have 11.5Mils available. yes i could shim it abit however the shim i had was abit too thick and POI was high at 35m. with 11.5 Mils i could shoot the rifle to 155yards. i converted the MOA values i had done for my other scope to Mils however i will have to try them out on the plate. if i Use all the 11.5Mils available on the Turret, i can still use another 10Mils which should send the pellet out to 220yards easily.

tomorrow i have to do the box test just to make sure that each 1mil on the turret moves the bullet by 1MIL or 10cm at 100m. since it is mounted on an air rifle the test will be done at 25m just to make sure i get one hole groups even if its windy. the box test is very important but more than that i want to make sure that if i see a hit that is 1 Mil off on the reticle, the turret will move it exactly 1Mil so i can rely 100% on the reticle/turret combination.
http://pic18.picturetrail.com/VOL888.../314862594.jpg
here's a pic of the target i drew for the box test and reticle.
http://pic18.picturetrail.com/VOL888.../314863770.jpg
Another good thing on the turrets for those who dial in is the fact that there are arrows showing the Right and left for windage and these can be seen from behind the rifle thus you dont get confused altough since the mounts are close to the windage knob, i still have to lean alittle bit to check if the correct amount of windage has been dialed in.

all in all I am happy with all this but i have to spend some more time playing with it at long range to check its potential. the scope weighs 811grams, a little heavy but that doesn't bother me as long as it doesn't fail.

[verminhunter]

Very nice review Flims and a very nice scope. Glad you got everything in good condition and not late either from the post, good luck and have a happy shooting event.

[flims]

as i promised today i followed up with some more testing of the scope. the most two important things I am looking for are repeatability and dependibility especially to check if each click represents its true Value and if the reticle is truly synchronised with the Turrets. then i went on to convert my moa table into Mils and had some fun that way.

here is the box test each time i was adding 4 mils. then i decided to take a shot at the centre of the box and back to my starting point with another 2 shots to confirm zero.
http://pic18.picturetrail.com/VOL888.../314960391.jpg


i then went on to dial in sum elevation, 7Mils to be precise and i printed a very nice group at 131meters. I changed everything to meters and cm's now. i have to say that i love the fact that i can dial precisely the error without having to convert. some friends at the club had a go at it and the fact that they didnt have to convert anything made it a much more enjoyable thing for all.

here's a group at 131m. the last shot i centered using the reticle /turret system and it worked.
http://pic18.picturetrail.com/VOL888.../314959868.jpg

the system is a joy to use and the glass allows for some fine spotting. i didn't realy use it at anything above10x because at 11am the mirage was already bubbling here and trying to keep the crosshair on a definitive point was already challenging. in August the reticle will be floating on the mirage!

[pieter]

carry on as its very good to read

[flims]

hi pieter, thanks for your message. i have a couple of clay pigeons which i will take at 130-180m. so those are next on the list.

the only problem at the moment is finding time to get all this drop done as i have to convert the data i have which i already did, then do real world tests and if the wind is gusting, getting a correct drop at those ranges can be tricky. for each distance i fire 10rounds and i increase the distance by 5m evertime. this takes alot of time filling, reloading seting up etc..the good thing however is that essentially you only do it once then you do slight adjustments from summer to winter.
the reticle will save me some work though.

today i had a wind from 11 o'clock blowing from 3-5mph but it was constant most of the time and when i dialed 1/2mil for wind i was off the plate, removed the correction and i was dead on.

[joffy]

i've been looking at one of these scopes hows yours going ?

[Scott in CO]

Great review flims! I wonder if you could comment on the glass quality for us? Light transmission and clarity? Have any other well known scopes you could compare for us? I like all of the features these scopes offer, but my eyes are bad and I must have decent glass. I'll say I have spent the money on a MTC viper 3-12 in the past, and while I loved all the features, I was a bit disappointed with the glass itself... I do hope the falcon line might be a step up, as I've got high hopes for some of their higher magnification models...

Thanks,

Scott in CO

[flims]

the glass on the falcon is quite good especially when i consider the other features on the scope plus glass and for the current price, i would go for the menace for sure for anything like air, rimmy or smaller caliber rifles. they are good and when i compare the optics of my leupold MK4 and my menace the difference is not that pronounced but i havent been looking through them at twilight or something so thats not a very accurate answer however some time ago i found a thread and i had copied it with some interesting photos. this was from snipershide forum.
i found one here in switzerland mounted on a 300win Mag and it was riding that bore very well, held well and owner was also pleased. looking at the archives i had a review saved of some rough times that the menace went through while being tested by various users.

this one is from snipers hide but since i couldnt find the link so im pasting it myself here. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A while back I did a review for the 4.5-18x56. I was impressed but noted a few changes that needed to be made. I recently was able to acquire a 4-14x44 FFP model to evaluate. My summary is that the 4-14x44 is a better optic in terms of costruction and reticule design. But this isn't a comparison between the 4.5-18x56 and the 4-14x44. It is instead a comparison between the 4-14x44 and my Leupold 3.5-10x40mm M3.
1http://pic18.picturetrail.com/VOL888.../337246764.jpg
2 http://pic18.picturetrail.com/VOL888.../337246761.jpg
So first I started with a box test. The test was done at 100 yards, and again later at 200 yards to make sure the tracking was good to go, and they both passed. I confirmed the Mil spacing on each optic using a 36" scale at 100 yards, they both read correctly. So from there I tested optical resolution at 25 yards using this chart:
3http://pic18.picturetrail.com/VOL888.../337246760.jpg
4http://pic18.picturetrail.com/VOL888.../337246759.jpg
5http://pic18.picturetrail.com/VOL888.../337246758.jpg
6http://pic18.picturetrail.com/VOL888.../337246755.jpg
7http://pic18.picturetrail.com/VOL888.../337246753.jpg
Here is what I noted:

Falcon 4-14x44mm @ 4x = 8
Leupold 3.5-10x40 @ 4x = 9

Falcon 4-14x44mm @ 10x = 11
Leupold 3.5-10x40 @ 10x = 12

Optically they are quite similar in resolution. Next I conducted athe same test in low light conditions:

18:15 CDT (40 minutes past sunset)
Sunset: 17:36 CDT
Civil Twilight: 18:06
Conditions: Clear 79.0 F
Range: 25 yards

Falcon 4-14x44mm @ 10x = 7 and 3 triangle
Leupold Mark 4 3.5-10x40mm LR/T @ 10x = 7 and 4 triangle

I froze the scopes at 0°F for two days and took them out in 100°F heat to warm them back up
8http://pic18.picturetrail.com/VOL888.../337246752.jpg
Both had frost form on the outside of the lenses, they performed like nothing had happened once the frost melted. I also left them in my truck all day reaching 152°F, no problems but don't forget the oven mitt when retreiving them like I did . WOW they're hot.

Next I submerged them in the tub for 5 minutes at 68°F.
9http://pic18.picturetrail.com/VOL888.../337246751.jpg
Both passed. Overall, I really like the new 4-14x44 far more than the older 4.5-18x56. The reticule is improved over the skeletonized SLR of the previous Menace. Adjustments are still a bit mushy but repeatable and audible/tactile. Improvements? Still like to see an illuminated reticule and them adopt a solid reticule for their MP16 Miliridian models. But so far this $380 scope has challenged my $1000+ Leupold quite well.
10
http://pic18.picturetrail.com/VOL888.../337246747.jpg

[C3PO_1]

Wow -- what an amazing review!

[Steve83]

...thanks very much on helping me make up my mind on a new scope

[flims]

you're welcome mate, im glad that it helped you out, let me know how you find it and post some pics, did you buy the same model?

[flims]

it had been about 4 months since i last touched my menace and while i was here enjoying some rest i decided to take it out for a spin. i had a friend who wanted to see how the rifle performed and placed a plate at 120m since he had heard about its potential. he didnt give me time to recheck my zero so i filled up to 200bar, ran the turret 6.3Mils and 1.2Mils left windage for the 5mile/hour wind and sent the first one down range, connected right away, a grin on my face and sent down another 3 averaging a group of 3" at 120m. ive done better but the Menace performed as it did in Summer in the scorching heat. after that i ranged the closest rock at 35m, rezeroed the turret till it stopped turning since i now installed the Zero Stop, sent another one down range and the rock went flying.
zerostop installed. http://pic18.picturetrail.com/VOL888.../345751066.jpg
these two were shot with the same wind dope but we had an increase in wind by about 2mile/hour and it resulted in hits to the right, very constant in windage and i cannot complain about the elevation, less that 10ft/s spread on those shots.
http://pic18.picturetrail.com/VOL888.../345849010.jpg
http://pic18.picturetrail.com/VOL888.../345849011.jpg
http://pic18.picturetrail.com/VOL888.../345849012.jpg

we then ranged a 100m 4" rock, dialed in the neccessary elevation and windage and we got a hit at 5 oclock about 1.5" from POA.

to complete it we ranged another at 140m sent two shots at the plate, one was slightly low and right about 2.5" from Aiming mark, corrected and the next shot was 1" from POA.

last group we shot at a stone ranged 70m away, we shot 6 and resulted in a 2" group. the newcomer was surprised especially when he found out he had even hit a cigarette packet at 120m on his 4th shot. my infinity again performed flawlessly and the Menace takes 60% of the Merit. it gives me a satisfaction and a sense of trust in it.

[ZaksGod]

just to add what i have to say about the 4-14 by 44 menace after only owning 1 for 3.5 hrs.i did a deal with a guy at the club who i got the gun+scope combo from as i could not get on with the hawke nighteye 3x9 by 50.i have owned a mtc viper 10x44 and i found the falcon to be as good.i shot a 99 today so it must be pretty good .very clear lenses only downside as said is it does weigh a bit.noticable on my s410 the difference is

[voucher76]

Does anyone know if the Falcon Menace is rated for magnum springers? (Diana 48/52/54)

Best regards.

[sniperkona]

well if it can go on a full bore rifle, i would say so,
anyone know where the best deal is on these scopes