Zeiss 4.5-14x50 MC RapidZ 800 ret

[Br0dy]

It took 4 days to get to UK from USA then it disappeared for another 26 days. Insurance claim was filed and I was informed "It's been at the sorting office awaiting your collection" allegedly customs n excise are supposed to notify me by letter. Anyway I have it at last
On opening the zeiss box I must admit at being a little disappointed most "high end" scopes come with decent packing/packaging and accessories. Not the zeiss. You get a thin cardboard container inside you get a book of instructions and the scope wrapped in one layer of corrugated cardboard. The scope caps are the elasticated rubber band type.
The scope turret caps are plastic and even the side parallax adjuster is now plastic. It screams "built down to a budget" on first impression.
Put the scope up to your eye and you forget about the cosmetics. Clear as clear can be, wonderfully clear optics even with my knackered eyesight
I tried it in daylight and twighlight, deliberately pointing it into the darkest corners. The reticle was clearly visible at all times.

Off to the range:
Strapped it to the steyr (785fps with daystate 4.53's)
Zeroed it at 30 yards with parallax also set to its lowest setting of 30 yards. I used x10 mag as thats what i am used to on the falcon. I lined up a 10 yard target and of course it was a little blurred but was very easily seen. I wound the mag down and when i got to 7.5 mag it was just about spot on. Flaking paint and pellet marks were clearly defined. On x10 mag clarity is that good as well at about 18-20+ mark. At 45yards very very clear as well.

The reticle:
At first I was concerned about the mildots/lines and where the pellets would strike in relation to them. I used x10 mag zeroed at 30. first mil was 40, mil and a half was 45, 2 full was 50 and 2 and a half was 55. I can live with that Will do the shorter range stuff this weekend.
picture of reticle (taken indoors in dim light pointed at a wall 6ft away)
http://i307.photobucket.com/albums/n...pidZ800ret.jpg
apologies for the slight blurring but thats me and the camera not the scope
As you can see, if the lines below the crosshair went half then full instead of the other way round I would consider it perfect.

What else can i say except its bright bright bright and i ♥ it already
Lets hope i can do it justice. Would I buy another? .... Absolutely.

[D Hat]

Had a good look through this and as Dan says the optics are stunning.

[simmmo]

Nice review you haven't got the contact details for the supplier by chance have you.

Andy

[D Hat]

It came from Euro Optics in the states. If you contact them ask for his best price, he'll email you a new price list. When i looked into it he knocked a $100 off some models.

[jamie g]

nice write up im just waiting for mine to come when the cheque clears.
ive gone for the 6x20x50 with no4 rectial. i had the chance to look at one saturday with zplex rectial and your right the glass is super.

i think for the money these scopes cant be bettered and im really looking forward to getting the scope now.

i see the rectial you have got is the newer ones they have got out i bet it works very well on rimfire and centrefire to for the different poi

[BigDuncs]

I bought one of these as well when I was in the US in July. On my rimmie, the Rapid Z 800 reticule first (major) horiz line is 75, next small line is 85-90 and the second horiz line is 100 at 8x and subs.

Great scope.

[Rapidnick]

Nice one Dan.