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videos >Hawke Sidewinder ED 10-50x60
- By Chris Parkin
-
2
Comments
- Last updated: 20/01/2017
Comments
For quite some time, the Hawke ‘Sidewinder’ has been both a popular entry-level Field Target (FT) scope and also accessible to those wanting to stretch out the range of their centrefire rifles too. I had the chance to try out the new Sidewinder ED in an attractive 10-50x60 specification that looked a safe bet to allow both ends of the rifle arsenal some exercise.
I mainly use my HW100 PCP air rifle for garden pests, as well as getting extra trigger time without travel when I am in the mood. I’m fortunate to have a 70-yard range in my garden and it was great fun to zero the scope on this rifle and really walk the pellets across all likely ranges and target faces on a lazy sunny afternoon without requiring extensive travel, or ear defenders! As a centrefire guy, it is unusual (although not unknown) for me to use 500 rounds in a day but with my trusty Weihrauch, an utter joy to get a break from the norm!
I don’t get too carried away by brochures and advertising and although I know such terms as ED, HD and so on are regularly used, they make little difference to my pre-conceptions. The one shortcoming of Sidewinders of the past was a very long eye relief, with a certain level of variation as magnification was altered. The new ‘ED’ shows little of the sort and with a magnification range from 10-60x, you can now wind it one end to the other with little concern. An ergonomic airgun with extreme high cheekpiece and hamster is a very different animal to a mid-weight, longrange target or varmint rifle, so I welcomed this warmly.
Construction is familiar – a 30mm one-piece aluminium main tube, lockable fast-focus eyepiece to the rear and a rubberised magnification ring to the front of the ocular body. Illumination sits above it at the 10 o’clock position and along with the rest of the Hawk range, finishing standards have improved with more of a distinguished family feel to the brand. Anodising is lush but matte, all controls having a smooth defined feel in motion, with well-proportioned weight to the friction adjustments in reticle focus, parallax and magnification.
The left side focus dial of the squared off central saddle is fine to use but the very tight depth of field at close range is noticeable, and required for accurate rangefinding on airguns. For the serious FT shooter, a four-inch sidewheel is supplied with the scope and a larger six-inch unit is also available, both of which index onto the basic dial with a finger tight screw (wrench also supplied). Alongside these, the comprehensive package includes a 100mm lens shade, tubemounted pointer to align with the parallax dial for rangefinding and superb aluminium lens caps fitted seamlessly at both ends of the optic, with magnetic flip up folding flat back over the tube. Excellent! The fast focus ocular dioptre adjuster also locks in position to prevent any accidental adjustment away from the crisp reticle picture it delivers throughout the magnification range.
Interchangeable turrets are an option with this scope, which is an unusual feature.
It comes supplied with the familiar ¼ M.O.A. (Minute of Angle) variety fitted but 1/8th M.O.A. and Miliradian ones are offered too. They can be changed by simply unscrewing the base of each unit and lifting them off, the alternates simply replacing them onto the splined sockets in the body. The thread pitch that actually controls the movement of the inner erector tube is within these turrets themselves and I feel is a little bit of an Achilles heel!
When removed, you can see/feel the small brass shaft move under spring pressure, which is pressed by the turret and although a nice feature, how many customers are likely to want to just swap their chosen turret unit and click value. I would far rather see this done at the manufacturing stage for the reasons being, I like to keep things simple and opening up this many mechanics to the atmosphere is inviting trouble.
Although the clicks feel is okay, turret markings are a little confusing with the ¼ M.O.A. units showing 7½ M.O.A. (30 clicks) per turn. The mRad ones the same number of physical `clicks` for three mRad per turn (one click equals 10mm at 100-metres). I smell a slight rat here and feel it all looks a little too simplified, airgun shooters may well work in clicks but longer range centrefire target shooters want M.O.A. OR mRads, NOT a close approximation, which I fear is given here!
When set up on the HW100, I was quite happy to spin dials here and there to move the point of impact around the target with reasonable return to zero but on centrefires, all this playing about gets very expensive! Plus, with most ballistic apps running with limited adjustability or `fudge factor` for precise setting of windage and elevation units, it is a false economy to offer this type of interchangeability in my mind. With overall internal elevation travel of 45 M.O.A. or 13 mRad, I found the gun limited and although wanting to think the best of it, I didn’t think it is the best option on a centrefire. Many will say ‘oh, but what about inclined rails?’ Yes, okay for a one off trip to a longer range that may well work, but for those wanting to vary their engagement range day in day out, you need a precise reliable turret and it may try hard, but I think this interchangeability is too much of a gimmick, not all patented ideas are necessarily good ones!
Optically, I rather liked the scope. For this level of magnification performance, the picture was good with little colour disturbance and a good clear image across the flat field of view. As expected, the exit pupil does diminish rapidly as the magnification increases but this is a fact of life, any high mag scope user must expect to have a limited pinhole to see through at full mag. Point of impact held solid as magnification was altered and there was no distinct step in image quality as you rose all the way to 50x.
The eyebox, although restricted through sheer magnification and exit pupil size, remained quite relaxed. Even with the recoil of a 300 Win Mag to disturb the rifle’s position between each shot, re-acquiring the target image was rapid.
The 2nd focal plane reticule is sharp with good weighting to suit target, rather than tactical shooters. There are various hash marks on the mil-dot styled reticule but their exact subtension will always vary with magnification. It does of course allow versatility between chosen adjustment units and a good instruction book is supplied to point out all features and functions. This scope offers a lot, so is impossible to discuss in a small article, so I will leave it at this; I was impressed by build quality, functions and the reticle but think all these positives were sadly wasted by a pointless interchangeable turret system I couldn’t learn to trust, and never gained confidence in.
Yes, lock screws are positioned atop the dials to retain secure position and the markings could reset to zero by slackening grub screws but when I aim a rifle over long range at £2 per shot, I want a little more confidence in my turrets. After all, why pay for the mRad as an extra rather than factory fitted from the start if they are what you want? I tested the reticle subtensions on a marked board and found the precisely calibrated magnification settings to be true. Such a shame!
click on image to enlarge
click on image to enlarge
click on image to enlarge
click on image to enlarge
click on image to enlarge
Comments
For quite some time, the Hawke ‘Sidewinder’ has been both a popular entry-level Field Target (FT) scope and also accessible to those wanting to stretch out the range of their centrefire rifles too. I had the chance to try out the new Sidewinder ED in an attractive 10-50x60 specification that looked a safe bet to allow both ends of the rifle arsenal some exercise.
I mainly use my HW100 PCP air rifle for garden pests, as well as getting extra trigger time without travel when I am in the mood. I’m fortunate to have a 70-yard range in my garden and it was great fun to zero the scope on this rifle and really walk the pellets across all likely ranges and target faces on a lazy sunny afternoon without requiring extensive travel, or ear defenders! As a centrefire guy, it is unusual (although not unknown) for me to use 500 rounds in a day but with my trusty Weihrauch, an utter joy to get a break from the norm!
I don’t get too carried away by brochures and advertising and although I know such terms as ED, HD and so on are regularly used, they make little difference to my pre-conceptions. The one shortcoming of Sidewinders of the past was a very long eye relief, with a certain level of variation as magnification was altered. The new ‘ED’ shows little of the sort and with a magnification range from 10-60x, you can now wind it one end to the other with little concern. An ergonomic airgun with extreme high cheekpiece and hamster is a very different animal to a mid-weight, longrange target or varmint rifle, so I welcomed this warmly.
Construction is familiar – a 30mm one-piece aluminium main tube, lockable fast-focus eyepiece to the rear and a rubberised magnification ring to the front of the ocular body. Illumination sits above it at the 10 o’clock position and along with the rest of the Hawk range, finishing standards have improved with more of a distinguished family feel to the brand. Anodising is lush but matte, all controls having a smooth defined feel in motion, with well-proportioned weight to the friction adjustments in reticle focus, parallax and magnification.
The left side focus dial of the squared off central saddle is fine to use but the very tight depth of field at close range is noticeable, and required for accurate rangefinding on airguns. For the serious FT shooter, a four-inch sidewheel is supplied with the scope and a larger six-inch unit is also available, both of which index onto the basic dial with a finger tight screw (wrench also supplied). Alongside these, the comprehensive package includes a 100mm lens shade, tubemounted pointer to align with the parallax dial for rangefinding and superb aluminium lens caps fitted seamlessly at both ends of the optic, with magnetic flip up folding flat back over the tube. Excellent! The fast focus ocular dioptre adjuster also locks in position to prevent any accidental adjustment away from the crisp reticle picture it delivers throughout the magnification range.
Interchangeable turrets are an option with this scope, which is an unusual feature.
It comes supplied with the familiar ¼ M.O.A. (Minute of Angle) variety fitted but 1/8th M.O.A. and Miliradian ones are offered too. They can be changed by simply unscrewing the base of each unit and lifting them off, the alternates simply replacing them onto the splined sockets in the body. The thread pitch that actually controls the movement of the inner erector tube is within these turrets themselves and I feel is a little bit of an Achilles heel!
When removed, you can see/feel the small brass shaft move under spring pressure, which is pressed by the turret and although a nice feature, how many customers are likely to want to just swap their chosen turret unit and click value. I would far rather see this done at the manufacturing stage for the reasons being, I like to keep things simple and opening up this many mechanics to the atmosphere is inviting trouble.
Although the clicks feel is okay, turret markings are a little confusing with the ¼ M.O.A. units showing 7½ M.O.A. (30 clicks) per turn. The mRad ones the same number of physical `clicks` for three mRad per turn (one click equals 10mm at 100-metres). I smell a slight rat here and feel it all looks a little too simplified, airgun shooters may well work in clicks but longer range centrefire target shooters want M.O.A. OR mRads, NOT a close approximation, which I fear is given here!
When set up on the HW100, I was quite happy to spin dials here and there to move the point of impact around the target with reasonable return to zero but on centrefires, all this playing about gets very expensive! Plus, with most ballistic apps running with limited adjustability or `fudge factor` for precise setting of windage and elevation units, it is a false economy to offer this type of interchangeability in my mind. With overall internal elevation travel of 45 M.O.A. or 13 mRad, I found the gun limited and although wanting to think the best of it, I didn’t think it is the best option on a centrefire. Many will say ‘oh, but what about inclined rails?’ Yes, okay for a one off trip to a longer range that may well work, but for those wanting to vary their engagement range day in day out, you need a precise reliable turret and it may try hard, but I think this interchangeability is too much of a gimmick, not all patented ideas are necessarily good ones!
Optically, I rather liked the scope. For this level of magnification performance, the picture was good with little colour disturbance and a good clear image across the flat field of view. As expected, the exit pupil does diminish rapidly as the magnification increases but this is a fact of life, any high mag scope user must expect to have a limited pinhole to see through at full mag. Point of impact held solid as magnification was altered and there was no distinct step in image quality as you rose all the way to 50x.
The eyebox, although restricted through sheer magnification and exit pupil size, remained quite relaxed. Even with the recoil of a 300 Win Mag to disturb the rifle’s position between each shot, re-acquiring the target image was rapid.
The 2nd focal plane reticule is sharp with good weighting to suit target, rather than tactical shooters. There are various hash marks on the mil-dot styled reticule but their exact subtension will always vary with magnification. It does of course allow versatility between chosen adjustment units and a good instruction book is supplied to point out all features and functions. This scope offers a lot, so is impossible to discuss in a small article, so I will leave it at this; I was impressed by build quality, functions and the reticle but think all these positives were sadly wasted by a pointless interchangeable turret system I couldn’t learn to trust, and never gained confidence in.
Yes, lock screws are positioned atop the dials to retain secure position and the markings could reset to zero by slackening grub screws but when I aim a rifle over long range at £2 per shot, I want a little more confidence in my turrets. After all, why pay for the mRad as an extra rather than factory fitted from the start if they are what you want? I tested the reticle subtensions on a marked board and found the precisely calibrated magnification settings to be true. Such a shame!
click on image to enlarge
click on image to enlarge
click on image to enlarge
click on image to enlarge
click on image to enlarge
