MTC 3 – 12 X 44 Mamba Lite

MTC Optics established themselves in a relatively short space of time. Originally their imported Optisan scopes catered for the airgun hunter wanting fully featured optics with useful multi-aimpoint reticles. First they created the SCB (Small Calibre Ballistic) reticule or Christmas tree as some refer to it. They now have an alternative – the AMD (Advanced Mil-Dot) though not available on the Mamba Lite series it does look very interesting and one I’d certainly like to assess.

It Takes Two

The Mamba Lite range consists of the 3 – 12 X 44 and a 4 - 16 X 44, but for the specific purposes these scopes cater for, that’s all that’s needed. Incidentally you can opt for one of the other Mambas (not to be confused with the Mamba Lite range) as they have other features and options.

The Mamba Lite is a stripped down hunting scope, using the same ETE, microlux, fully multi-coated lenses as all Mamba’s but is built around a 1” body tube as opposed to 30mm. This allows it to be fitted closer to the barrel, a fact aided by the 44mm objective too. However, you still need medium to high mounts to clear the protruding magazine of certain multi-shot PCPs!

Robustly built it shows a matt black finish and is waterproof, fogproof, shockproof and Nitrogen purged. The chunky eye-bell features fast focus ocular adjustment and a smooth but positive zoom ring, both aggressively slotted for easy operation. Turrets are low hunter-types and adjust easily enough. Click values are ¼” MOA @ 100-yards, with 60 clicks per turn and eight full rotations. Both windage and elevation turrets have Verniers and are lined and numbered on the outer face. The SCB reticle is set on the 2nd focal plane.

Room to Spare

The side parallax dial is ridged; again for easy manipulation and is marked 10, 15, 25, 50, 100, 200 and 500yds and 8. There’s room to mark a few extra reference ranges between 10 and 50-yards. As it’s not designed as a rangefinder I’d use it for fine tuning the focus on the quarries kill zone.

Optical quality is superb, as is build, coupled with the magnification range and sensible size objective. The scope lends itself perfectly for dawn/dusk low light use or any general airgun hunting situation. The MTC Optics 3 – 12 X 44 Mamba Lite initially seems a bit basic but has all the features many airgunners now want from a scope.