Hawke "Panorama- EV" 4-12x40

[Amac]

Ordered this scope on Saturday night directly from Deben as I dont believe they are in the shops yet. It arrived this morning so well done Deben on that front.

Having read the specifications regarding this new range from Hawke, it certainly looks like the range has been designed with Airgunners in mind. I have been looking for a reasonably light 25mm scope to sit atop my Rapid MFR primarily for field use, and this one sounded like it might fit the bill.

Anyway, on unpacking the scope, I was pleased to find a couple of rubber flip up lens protectors provided and decided to weigh the beast immediately. She came in at 1lb 3oz so will not overload the very pointable Rapid in any way. Slotting the optic into the standard 25mm Theoben mounts, I was pleased to note that despite the inclusion of an adjustable objective, there was a good clearance above the barrel shroud, even with the lens cover fitted.

Next job was to set the fast focus ring for my apparently failing eyesight in the fading afternoon light. Once that was sorted I was intrigued to see if the "Extended View" facility actually made any noticeable difference to the sight picture. Hawke claim an additional 20%, but to me, I couldn't honestly notice any apparent difference in field of view. What I did notice however was the amazingly sharp image and optical clarity of the lenses, with a genuinely bright pin sharp image from edge to edge and good colour saturation. Next it was the turn of the blue/red half mill dot illuminated reticle to be given the once over. I have always considered the Hawke half-mil reticle to be an excellent choice for both HFTers and hunters like myself, and I was not disappointed with the genuinely useful ability of the scopes "MAP 6A" reticle to change from the more day focussed blue( looks particularly good) to the red I would use for evening shooting/lamping sessions.

The low profile turret "finger tip"adjusters live safely under the cover of the usual screw caps, and it will be my intention to check upon any zero shift when adjusting the mag at my clubs indoor range tomorrow evening.

It will be my intention to add to this review when I have had a chance to give the scope a thorough thrashing in the field, at HFT and of course the indoor range.

My initial impressions are that the scope represents somewhat of a bargain for anybody looking for a scope suitable of doing most things, apart from range finding as our colleagues in FT do with their "torpedo-tube esqe" optics. To say I am impressed at this stage would be an understatement.

On my usual HFT rig lives a Bushnell 6500 and very nice it is too. Considering that it cost nearly three times what this Chinese produced Hawke has on offer reminds me of just how far the Chinese have come in the production of relatively low priced high quality optics. OK, its not a Zeiss or a S&B, but for the money it represents outstanding value for money in my opinion and is well worth checking out for yourselves.

I will of course add to this review as and when I discover the optics good and possibly bad points, although at this early stage I think I might be struggling to find any bad ones!

Highly recommended.

Andy

[Tank]

Nice review andy, i'll be looking forward to seeing if there's any zero shift when you get it down the range. I'm in the market for a new scope and have this model in mind as well as an MTC Mamba Lite and possibly the new Hawke Varmint SF.

[poison dwarf]

I think most HFT'ers would be interested in dof for this scope. Cant wait for next installment.

[Amac]

Used the scope this evening for the first time at the indoor range. My initial comments that the field of view didnt appear much increased were incorrect, as the sight picture was much larger than on "normal" field of view scopes.

The lens quality is genuinely first class. An amazingly good image that would compare with "big brand" scopes costing many times more than this Chinese offering.

I managed to achieve a zero in all of five minutes, and proceeded to fire 150ish shots down range with the parallax set at 25 yards and on 8 mag. A couple of fellow club members that are far better shots than I tried the scope out for themselves and were truly stunned at the image quality. One of these shooters is somebody who, until this evening, would rather chew his own arm off than buy a Chinese scope. However, he is ordering one this evening as he was that impressed.

The other shooter who is one of our clubs best shots currently enjoying his FT with Anshutz/Big Nikko, then started experimenting with parallax adjustments and proceeded to put 5 shots through the same hole at 30 yards. I am aware that many of us can do this, but what was most impressive that with the scope settings at 8.5 mag and a 40 feet parallax, was that the Rapid was hitting everything it was pointing at with no aim off adjustments for ranges from 10-40 yards. At 20-25 yards it was still just a pellet or so high of POI.

The Rapid MFR is running @ 810fps with Crosman Premier 7.9 and the scope sits nice and low at 1.5 inches above the centre of the barrel. I am obviously delighted that I now have a combo that shoots so flat, with the critical up to 25 yard reducer targets being in crystal clear view for HFTers like myself. The 40 yard targets with these settings are not as pin sharp, but then I use this to aid range finding anyway. Bare in mind this was indoors under artificial lighting, and I am confident that the image would be even brighter when in the great outdoors. I adjusted the mag from 6,8 & 12 and didnt notice much, if any change to POI , but as i will be leaving the parallax adjustment well alone after finding the optimum setting, for me this wont matter once the scope has finally been "set" and zeroed at its preffered range of 30 yards, not my usual 35.

If this combination proves as effective as I suspect it might at Oldhams HFT shoot this Sunday, I can see my Steyr/Bushnell 6500 becoming redundant and in search of a new home very soon! I have always enjoyed shooting Rapids, and this combination of gun, scope and pellet is both great to shoot and extremely accurate. It remains to be seen if my performance will improve further, but ones thing is for sure, with this scope and its strange parallax setting allowing such a relatively constant POI, I honestly believe that I will enjoy shooting both competition and in the field with even more confidence, and I really cant give higher praise than that.

Will update after Sundays competition when any scope issues will become apparent following a challenging round of HFT.

Andy

[Rubi-tong]

I've got the non-paralax adjustable one on order, hope the lock ring on the objective is'nt loctited in, think it will need bringing down a few yards or so. After reading this review I can't wait.

[Amac]

I considered the fixed version as well Rubi with the half mill reticle, and if the objective loosens easily and you can get it down to 15 yards or so I am sure you will be as chuffed as I am.

I was down at the indoor again this evening for a play as I was still surprised at last nights findings. You do have to aim off very slightly for close or longer range targets, but the combo shoots flatter than anything I have shot before, with the ability to see all of the crucial 8-25 yard targets very clearly while still getting a shootable picture at 40 plus.

Hope you enjoy yours!

Andy

[GAV1N]

Sorry have i missed something here? How can the quality of the scope flatten the trajectory of the pellet??

[gasman1]

obviously, it cant. i think he's on about how low the scope sits in the mounts he has on the gun. the nearer to the barrel, the flatter the trajectory seems. i think. lol. been thinking about trying one too. i have 2 tac 30's and think they're great scopes. i think its a shame they dont do the panorama half mil dots with ao. although the map 6 aint bad, the half mil dot ret is loads better. they should do both. i'd defo get one then. as it stands, its a toss up between the panorama 4-12x40ao or 4-12x40 half mil dot or the mamba lite. as ive already said, i'd have a half mil dot ao straight away without even thinking about it. great ret.

[laity]

Deben told me that they will be getting another load of Panorama's in stock in about 20 days time and they will go straight out to dealers. I reckon its a cracking little scope to be honest.

LAity

[Amac]

For ratting Terrier I might be inclined to go for the 3-9x40. Mine focusses down to 10 yards so no problem for rodents!
Regarding the pellet trajectory, due to how low the scope sits in comparison to the barrel, and the ability of the scope to retain a clear sight picture from 10 to nearly 40 yards (slightly further outside,)the ability to reduce the amount of holdover/under makes the gun appear to shoot flatter, certainly more than my Steyr/Bushnell HFT rig with Mosquitos. This obviously will allow me to feel more confident in hitting reducer targets, as the sight picture is much more focussed and the low sitting scope will make the most of the improved POI variance. This usually means having to increase holdover at 40 plus, but for some reason the combo appears to shoot flat out there as well.
I am not saying that the characteristics of this scope defy the laws of gravity working on a .177 air pellet, all I am trying to say is that with a low mount and barrel arrangement in combination with this particular scope, the combination appears ideal for both HFT and hunting at legal limit airgun ranges. All will be revealed on Sunday when I will discover if the scope has had a noticeable impact, as I am confident it will with 15mm targets at up to 25 yards. I managed to achieve joint top score at Oldham last time with a 45ex50 using the Steyr and look forward to bettering that using my preffered Rapid/cheap scope combination.

Andy

[Dave Ramshead]

called in at BAR earlier to have a proper look at the new scopes.

People have said they are similar lens spec to a Frontier (which I doubted) as I have 2 Frontiers already so know the scope and know why they carry the £400 price tag.

Anyway, cutting to the point and a direct side by side comparison between a £150 and a £400 scope......

Both set to my preferred 12x with the focus set to an approx true 22yards (not what the markings say on the AO), the depth of field is the same, the frontier has a small advantage in picture quality (and so it should), but not £250 worth of an advantage.

Where the Panorama had a massive advantage over the more expensive Frontier is Field of view. With the Panorama, you can see AT LEAST a 20% wider picture which I found amazing. I think the advantage here is you get to see more of what's happening around the target area so can give a better guess for windage allowance.

Will do a full review of mine when i've had chance to get it on a gun and have a play. I went for the Map6a, 4-12x40 (AO) Panorama EV

[Amac]

Glad you like yours Dave. Same choice as I made, and a very interesting comparison with your Frontiers.
Andy

[gasman1]

still cant get my head round why they havnt done the half mil dots with ao. theyd sell a lot more.

[Amac]

Used the scope today for a local HFT event. It performed admirably, but will reset parallax to 25 yards as normal when using it next time out, as the 15 yard setting did induce some error (not surprisingly) at the 45 yarders.
I found the MAP 6A reticle spot on incidentally, with the first dash below cross hairs equating to both 10 and 45 yards.
Another mate was well impressed and has ordered the same model as mine this evening, he is currently using the half mill Hawke TAC 30.
The sight picture, as I have previously mentioned, is both very wide and very bright. All in all I am more than chuffed with a quality optic not costing the earth.

Andy

[Rubi-tong]

Well got my non px adjustable Panorama on top of my new EV2 on sportsmatch low mounts today. before the zero session got under way, I did have to adjust the paralax, this entail unscrewing the lock ring at the front which was very tight, but after this was done I reset it so my 45yarders were blurred (but still shootable) and then preceeded to check all the ranges. Well all I can say is wow, for a scope that only costs £129 it's brilliant, my 8yds targets were pretty clear, easily shootable and bracketable. There is a hint of blurr at 15yds progressively getting more blurred down to 8yds, clear at 20yds out to 30/32yds and then getting blurr out to 45yds+. This may not sound ideal but I also use blurr as well as bracketing to rangefind so very usefull to me. I had to wind the ocular eye out to bring the reticle clear for all targets but this is down to the users eye.
The reticle is the Half mildot type, exactly the same as the Tac 30 with the hollow posts etc and illumination comes in red and blue (very good actually) in 5 intensity settings.
Over all, this scope would suit the hunter and the HFT shooter on a budget whilst still offering some top quality features. for the hunter then probably the AO model would be better if you don't mind the Map6 reticle. For an out and out HFT scope then, yes there are better scopes available but for £129?
I'll keep you all informed of it's progress.
Mark