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Kelly Ross/
Skyline Adventures
This
past fall I had the pleasure of field testing a riflescope from a
Canadian optics company. Yes, you heard me right, Canadian! I had
seen the ads for King Optics in the periodical Access to Firearms
and finally decided to check out their website. What I saw was
interesting so I contacted them and spoke to Nicolas Makrides, the
CEO of King Optics Canada Ltd. King Optics is based in Nova Scotia
and their scopes are assembled right in Nova Scotia, Canada.
Nicolas agreed to send me a prototype of a new scope model for their
Dangerous Game Series to review. This scope is not yet on the market
and I would be the first one to use this model in the field. Now who
wouldn’t find that exciting!
Several weeks later a package arrived from King Optics and the scope
I received was their EGR-IR4 1.5-6x42mm with a 30mm scope tube. It
is equipped with a rubber armored quick focus ring on the eye piece
and their illuminated dot EGR-IR4 reticle. The 30mm tube is a one
piece unit made of high quality aircraft grade aluminum and the
scope has a hard, scratch resistant black matte anodized finish.
The
King Optics 1.5-6x42 scope with the 30mm tube is the perfect scope
for big game rifles such as the authors custom Sako chambered in
.375 H&H.
On
the Dangerous Game Series the etched glass EGR-IR4 reticle is
composed of three heavy posts, which reduce to a fine cross hair and
a center illuminating dot. The reticle design on its own, without
the illuminating reticle, is a good one as the heavy posts show up
well, even in low light conditions. This European style reticle
deserves a closer look by North American hunters………..with the added
IR feature it proved to be outstanding. All King Optics riflescopes
are nitrogen filled and 100% waterproof and shockproof.
The
Dangerous Game Series scopes are also advertised as being “designed
and built for the most demanding conditions. It has been tested to
withstand the recoil of all powerful magnum calibers and obtain
maximum point of impact accuracy.”
I intended to test these claims by putting the scope on the heaviest
recoiling rifle I currently own, a custom .375 H&H built on an older
Sako action. Yes there are heavier recoiling rifles, but this
particular rifle has a synthetic stock and weighs in at about 6 ½
pounds……..so the recoil is fairly hefty with stiff hunting loads and
if this scope had any weaknesses I was pretty sure they would
quickly become apparent on this rifle
King
Optics rifle scopes are made with a one piece tube of aircraft
aluminum and coated with a scratch resistant anodized matte finish
My
wife regularly shoots a .338 Winchester Magnum with 210 grain Nosler
Partitions and she finds the recoil on my .375 to be “disturbing”. I
mounted the scope with a set of Warne Quick Detach rings and bore
sighted it, then headed out to the shooting bench with my favorite
big bear loads, which are 300 grain Nolser Partitions ahead of a
stout charge of W760. This old girl has been many a mile with me and
is extremely accurate, so it was no big surprise for me when the
first three rounds produced a respectable 1 ¼ inch group a little
low and to the right of centre.
I
used the very convenient finger adjustable windage and elevation
knobs to shift the point of impact to center and then shot another
three shot group. I then changed the point of impact a specific
number of clicks a number of times and returned to zero. Changing
targets, I then shot a continuous string, while adjusting the power
setting up and down between shots. After 10 rounds I ended up with a
group that measured 2.7 inches. No problems were experienced with
this scope despite dozens of heavy loads.
Windage and elevation are finger adjustable in positive ¼ M.O.A.
clicks
The
windage and elevation adjustments were positive and repeatable, and
there was no noticeable change of point of impact between power
settings. In early September I spent several evenings bear hunting
on our ranch. There were opportunities to shoot every evening, as
large numbers of bears came in each night to the bait, but I held
off as I was waiting for a really big chocolate colored boar that
had been hanging around to show himself. This proved to be a perfect
opportunity to evaluate the illuminating reticle on this scope with
real live bears in low light conditions.
The
evening light fades quickly in the dense forests of Manitoba. Well
before the end of legal shooting light a black bear begins to blend
in rather well with the forest floor when you are looking down from
a tree stand twelve feet in the air and 40 yards away amongst a
forest canopy of large spruce and aspen trees. I found the large
30mm tube on this scope definitely improved its light gathering
ability over similar models with one inch tubes that I have used
from other manufacturers.
The
rheostat for the illuminating reticle was conveniently located next
to the windage and elevation turrets.
The
illuminating dot proved to be just the ticket under these poor
lighting conditions. The rheostat is located on the left side of the
scope tube next to the windage and elevation turrets. You simply
turn the knob to activate the illuminating reticle, which has the
option of red or green illumination and 5 intensity settings in each
color which allow you to adjust the brightness of dot up or down as
the conditions change. With the dot illuminated it was possible to
place it precisely on the shoulder of a black bear that was becoming
difficult to see with the naked eye.
On
the third night the bear I was after came in to the bait with only
minutes of legal shooting light remaining. I knew this particular
bear would only be in the clearing for seconds as his usual method
of operation was to enter the clearing, reach up and tear the beaver
carcass wired to the tree seven feet off the ground and then beat a
hasty retreat into the thick stuff. He had already out foxed a
couple of hunters we had placed on this stand previously.
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