Scope Test Minox ZP 525x56

So far 2016 has been a groundbreaking year so far and started with me going Metric. For some time I have used a variety of units on a number of scopes but whereas it didn’t bother me too much when hunting, my high magnification and precision optics were always M.O.A., no Miliradian. With new metric rangefinders and 1st First Focal plane delivered into my life, the day has come and I am now an mRad dialler, with 1cm@100m clicks on ALL my scopes and this was the last big decision.

CONCEPT TO COMPLETION

I have shot this Minox scope type for over 18 months now on several guns, my own personal unit going onto a custom Remington in 260. First impressions for image quality were very good considering very few manufacturers offer a high end 5-25 equivalent to test it against. Other than S&B’s PMII, others fall short when pairing mechanics and optics for precision long range shooting. Although Kahles’ k624i really did impress, here we see a true 5x erector tube and wait for it, it doesn’t ‘tunnel’ and reduce field of view below 7x magnification like the S&B does. The scope is big and bulky but so are its peers and thankfully, these true tactical units don’t try and make a do everything turret like the Swarovski X5i or Nightforce B.E.A.S.T, which although clever, are both like a skyscraper atop your rifle.

Minox’s 42mm diameter turrets are actually quite low profile but well segmented with fine detail knurling to offer great grip to a hand or fingers that doesn’t need an entire fist to move! Both elevation and windage have 150 x 1cm clicks per rotation, which when divided into their full mRad equivalent gives 15 mRad per turn. The right side windage turret is marked left and right of centre, revolving clockwise for left. The markings run to 6.5 mRad either way before reaching a defined stop, so you can’t go beyond into a confusing further turn.

Elevation runs to two turns, anticlockwise and when you get to 13.5 mRad a stop is felt but, if you increase pressure slightly, it overcomes a heavy detent and flicks a white marker into a small window below the turret to indicate you are entering the second turn for the remaining travel. On my rifle this goes a 6.6 mRad (66 clicks) before a definite stop which, + the 15 mRad from the first turn, gives me a total of 21.5 mRad.

Mounted above a 6 mRad/20 M.O.A. inclined Picatinny rail, will dial my 260 out to more than 1500 metres although the bullet will have gone subsonic long before then. There is a zero stop and allows 8 clicks/0.8 mRad below zero should you require it.

TENEBRAEX, DURABLE BUT BULKY

The scope is supplied with Tenebraex lens caps but I dislike these, as they add bulk and require you to space your scope excessively high above the barrel/receiver but they are very durable and easily removed. There is a specific ring to fit them, which will unscrew to leave a smooth edge to the tube around the lenses that are recessed over 15mm within the tube anyway. Parallax to the left of the saddle is identical in knurling to the other turrets and was unthinkingly functional with an 11-position rheostat, sitting centrally within it to control illumination of the centre 1 mRad sector of the reticle.

The magnification ring is again segmented for grip and also has a wing sitting vertically up for grip and to indicate 11x magnification when vertical. Fast focus eyepieces are to be expected and there is one here but it also has a lockring and I suspect this is partially to cope with the Tenebraex cap which might otherwise disturb your focus if it gets twisted. Everything is beautifully machined, finished and effortlessly functional, ‘less is definitely more’.

EARLY PROTOTYPE

The first ZP I shot was actually a 15x unit which at 900 metres, really impressed me with both fine reticle and equally delightful image resolution, able to clearly aim at very small Muntjac targets. I have since shot the 25x in prototype format (slightly different turrets) and my own 25x unit, well beyond these distances toward 1500 metres and never felt under-scoped, even when under gunned.

Clarity and brightness are superb, with solid colour rendition, able to pick out well camouflaged rabbits when varminting, even hidden in shadow. Being 1st focal plane, the reticule shrinks and grows as magnification is altered, so as to remain in constant proportion to the mRad hash marks shown. The four outer bars are heavier but the 10 mRad across the middle are slimmer, in fact very well proportioned given the size range they appear to grow through. I had no problem zeroing on 25mm patches at 100 metres and shooting tennis ball sized plates at 380m, also happily aiming off to compensate accurately for wind variation too. There are small 0.5 mRad markers on the upper beams, with 0.2 markers below for windage aim offs. The lower left/right quadrants of the image shows a finer triangular grid pattern, to help rangefinding work if you use your reticle for this.

LONG LIVE THE KING!

You see, I have shot a Schmidt & Bender 5-25 PMII for over 8 years on my tac-driving long range custom rifle but the time had to come, when a scope would enter my armoury that knocked it off its perch. Now optically it has been superb but its 2nd focal plane, mRad reticule yet MOA turrets have started to get to me and this Minox has usurped it. It is not a decision that I have taken lightly but the performance/price threshold shown here has really impressed me, I like, no LOVE, the turrets and all else being about equal, it’s significantly cheaper than the S&B rivals.

Physical size and weight are about equal but the one factor you cannot mathematically or empirically take away from the Minox is the greater field of view it projects and it does not ‘tunnel’, one of the long complaints on the Schmidt. Eye relief, exit pupil and all other optical factors are without fault and I will pass my finest compliment on to this optic, it offers me a ‘visually relaxed environment’; a phrase I do not use lightly.

When this is combined with effortless mechanics that pass all muster in use and accurately enable your shots to be placed and tracked consistently at long range there comes only one decision, and that is before you look at the price difference. The King is dead, long live the King. www.minox.com