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Hawke Frontier SF 4-16x42, Leupold VX-3 4.5-14x40

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koshkin View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote koshkin Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: Hawke Frontier SF 4-16x42, Leupold VX-3 4.5-14x40
    Posted: May/19/2009 at 21:00
Hawke Frontier SF 4-16x42, Leupold VX-3 4.5-14x40 & Co

By "& Co", I mean a bunch of other scopes that I compared with the two explicitly mentioned:


From left to right: IOR 3-18x42FFP, Super Sniper 10x42, IOR 6x42, Kahles American Hunter 3-9x42, Sightron S2 Big Sky 6-24x42, Leupold VX-3 4.5-14x40, Hawke Frontier SF 4-16x42, Vortex Viper 4-12x40.  Kahles and the 6x42 IOR are mostly there for a photo-op since I ended up not using them in the comparison a whole lot.  After thinking about it a little, I decided to restrict this to scopes with some sort of focus/parallax compensation.  I was mostly interested in looking at these two scope from the standpoint of low light performance and how the reticles look.

Sightron S2 Big Sky was sent to me for T&E by Sightron.  It is not exactly the right configuration for this comparison, so I will have a separate review concentrating on the Sightron in a little bit.  In the meantime, I have enough overall experience with S2 Big Sky scopes to be fairly certain that the 4-16x42 will behave in a similar manner to 6-24x42 at the same magnificaitons.  This one is a Silhouette model with a dot reticle and 1/4MOA clicks.
Leupold VX-3 is the "Test Drive" sample provided by SWFA.  It has a thin plex reticle.
Hawke Frontier SF was sent to me for T&E by Hawke.  This sample is outfitted with a MilDot true at 10x.

The rest of the scopes are mine and I use them for comparison purposes a fair bit.  They serve as a reference point of a sort for many tests.

Now, for some specs of similarly configured scopes that have 1" tubes:

Hawke Frontier SF
4-16x42
Leupold VX-3
4.5-14x40
(4.9-14.2 actual)
Vortex Viper
4-12x40
Sightron S2 Big Sky
4-16x42
(just for reference)
Sightron S2 Big Sky
4.5-14x44
(just for reference)
Nikon Monarch
4-16x42
(just for reference)
Bushnell Elite 4200
4-16x40
(just for reference)
Weaver Grand Slam 4.5-14x40AO
(just for reference)
Zeiss Conquest 4.5-14x44
(just for reference)
Burris Signature Select 4-16x44
(just for reference)
Length, in
12.6
12.6
14.4
12.9
12.56
13.5
14.4
14.3
13.9
15.5
Weight, oz
20.4
15.1
15.6
16.6
15.9
19
18.6
16.5
17.1
20
Field of view, ft@100yards
24.6 - 6.2
19.9 - 7.4
27.1 - 9.2
24 - 6.1
25.3 - 7.0
25.2 - 6.3
26 - 7
22.5 - 10.5 (**)
24.9 - 8.4
26 - 8
Eye relief, in
3.8-3.6
4.4 - 3.7
3.4 - 3.1
4.0 - 3.8
3.9 -3.8
4.0 - 3.7
3.5
3.5
3.5
4.0 - 3.5
Side Focus or Adjustable Objective?
SF
AO
SF
AO
SF
SF
SF
AO
SF
AO
Click Value, MOA
1/4, 18 per turn
1/4
1/4, 12 per turn
1/8, 10 per turn
1/4, 20 per turn
1/4
1/4
1/4
1/4
1/4
Adjustment Range, MOA
80
71 (*)
57
80
80
40
50
50
42.8
32
Objective outside diameter, mm
50
50.8
45.7
55.9
52.6
49.3
N/A
N/A
50
60
Eyepiece outside diameter, mm
42.4
40.6
38.1
41.4
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote JF4545 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: May/20/2009 at 01:02
Thanks Koshkin,

Very Interesting article! Changed my closed mind on Leupold. I enjoy your (Honesty)writing.

JF    
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote puppezed Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: May/20/2009 at 02:19
Excellent article! Thanks.

Hawke scopes are substantially cheaper in Europe if you compare other scopes non-European brands. This makes Hawke pretty good bang for a buck even though the warranty isn´t as good as it is with other manufacturers.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote lucytuma Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: May/20/2009 at 05:37
Excellent review as always,  glad to see leupold properly dressed for the party.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote bugsNbows Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: May/20/2009 at 15:57
WOW, very thorough. I was glad to see that (in your opinion) the VX3 has improved. Thank you sir.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote mike650 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: May/20/2009 at 16:11
Excellent
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Bitterroot Bulls Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: May/20/2009 at 16:30
Hmmm.  Many choices in my budget ... well, looks like time to start putting my own eyes to those lenses.Excellent

Thanks for the great review.
-Matt
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote RifleDude Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: May/20/2009 at 16:47
Thunbs Up Nice review, Ilya!
 
Thanks!
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Kickboxer Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: May/20/2009 at 17:18
Bang up job, old man... jolly-o.

Thank you, ILya.  Great info.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote swtucker Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: May/20/2009 at 19:43
Excellent as always.  Thank you for taking the time to do these. 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote koshkin Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: May/20/2009 at 19:56
You are welcome.

The other day, someone brought up an interesting point, that most of my reviews are pretty favorable to the products I review.  Well, actually, that person implied that I am not exactly un-biased with my reviews.

After thinking about it, I think that the products I have been reviewing are, by and large, a self-selecting sample for a couple of reasons
1) I do not get paid to do the reviews, but I do get to choose what I review
2) I have been mostly reviewing the products that are of interest to me, so I have been, for all practical services, pre-screening stuff.

As I start looking at products that the manufacturers send me, as opposed to the stuff I buy, I wonder if that trend is going to last, since I am looking at some stuff now that I probably would not buy for a purpose of a review.

We'll see.

ILya
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Roy Finn Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: May/20/2009 at 20:09
Nice review ILya. Glad to see Leupold is making some upgrades in the glass dept. If they could just fix that eye relief issue..............

Roy
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Bitterroot Bulls Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: May/20/2009 at 23:08
ILya,

It may not be that your reviews are unnecessarily positive, but optics companies, due to competition, are putting out gear of increasing quality.  Good for them ... good for us.

I, for one, find your reviews quite informative.


-Matt
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote stickbow46 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: May/20/2009 at 23:16
 Thank you so much for a terrific review,detailed,honest & very time consuming on your part.Also my hat goes off to you for keeping it simple so non tech people like myself  don't get board with the article " The Pearls of Wisdom are Heard not Spoken"
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote JGRaider Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: May/21/2009 at 10:01
Originally posted by Roy Finn Roy Finn wrote:

Nice review ILya. Glad to see Leupold is making some upgrades in the glass dept. If they could just fix that eye relief issue..............

Roy
 
 
I agree with Roy.  It's way overdue IMO. 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote pyro6999 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: May/22/2009 at 16:39
the more i read about the new vx3 the more im tempted to give leupold another chance. thanks for the great info as usual ilya!
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Roy Finn Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: May/22/2009 at 17:26
Originally posted by JGRaider JGRaider wrote:

Originally posted by Roy Finn Roy Finn wrote:

Nice review ILya. Glad to see Leupold is making some upgrades in the glass dept. If they could just fix that eye relief issue.............. Roy

 

 

I agree with Roy.  It's way overdue IMO. 


When you consider all the positive attributes of Leupold scopes (great customer service, tons of options, lifetime warranties regardless of the owner status and a good reputation for reliability) and durability, the variability of eye relief would seal the deal for me and many others I'm sure. While the glass upgrade was probably a fairly simple upgrade, the changing eye relief is probably a somewhat more difficult task to undertake. I am only guessing, but this would probably involve a more costly redesign of the optical design/system. Like I said earlier, the glass improvement, beefed up erector assembly and more accurate adjustments are very big steps in the right direction for this consumer. The fact that all the improvements thus far were brought to us at a modest price increase is wonderful news. I am now considering purchasing a Leupold FX3 6x42 for my 280 Ackley just because most of my shooting for whitetails up north don't really require very close snap shooting. It will probably save me a few ounces as well over my present B&L 2.5-10 Elite 4200.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Duce Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: May/27/2009 at 13:17
Thanks for a great review and information Ilya, we appreciate all your time and trouble to test and write up the reports.
 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote SamC Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July/30/2009 at 20:25
Thanks ILya,
Glad to hear Leupold is making progress, maybe it's nostalgia on my part but but I'm happy they are getting back on track.
Sam 

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Tip69 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: August/02/2009 at 09:55
Wow.... thanks for taking the "time" to do these tests!   Great writing, as this was easy to read and understand!!
 
Would be interested in hearing more about your "perceived" bias!  Maybe you need to include a POS scope so you can at least give one unfavorable review.  Big Smile
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