Rudolph Tactical T1 6-24x50

Optics Warehouse have been around for some time but have recenelty expanded with the acquisition of Sightron and added a new name – Rudolph Optics.

What’s on offer, as I discovered, is some serious and practical equipment at very good money. But where do they come from?

They are the brain child of South African hunter and outfitter Rudolph Baard. Obviously an experienced man with firearms, he wanted a rifle scope that was tough, practical and with no extraneous frills and it took him some time to get what he wanted. Truth is, if someone puts their name to something like this, they’d better be good; so, let’s just see!

All products are designed in South Africa and made in Japan, which in terms of build quality are the best by far of the Far Eastern optical manufacturers, as they also produce for the US and European markets too. Rudolph also offers their no quibble, full lifetime warranty (NQA), stating: “If at any time a Rudolph sports optic product is found to have a defect in material or workmanship, it will be repaired or replaced free of charge!” This guarantee is transferable, but all owners must register their product to be eligible.

Small but enough

The range is not massive, with just nine scopes, two standard binoculars and two laser rangefinders – monocular and bino types. Scopes are broken down into Tactical, Varmint Hunter, Hunter and Hunter HD series, in various specification to suit needs. On test, is the T1 6-24x50 Tactical, in a choice of first and second focal plane options (FFP & SFP) – I had the latter.

First impressions were most favourable; the finish is a semi matte black with a 30mm, one-piece body tube with a fast-focus eyepiece, side parallax and tactical/target-type turrets. Given the reasonably high specification of 6-24x50, the T1 is not that big; weighing 23.77oz and 13.78-inches in length. Unusually, all models come in a wooden box packed with wood shavings, (not sure about that) and include a sun shade, 6mm neoprene scope coat, lens pen and a throw lever for fast magnification adjustment. Oh yes and a green bush hat; always useful!

Quality will out

Lenses are multi-coated and the interior is 100% water, shock and fog proof and filled with nitrogen gas and the whole build just screams subtle quality! Rudolph does not quote a light transmission figure, all they say is that it’s high and it’s only when you get up to the top end magnification do you notice a tiny bit of dimming. Which is par for the course on the majority of makes!

The turrets are uncapped and quite tall and are easy to dial but click solidly with little chance of accidental movement. Markings are in bold white and easy to read, with the drums being divided into 12, 1 MOA sections with four sub-divisions each!

Sensibly, windage is split 1-6 either way, so making dialling in a tad easier. Click vales are ¼ MOA, with 48-clicks per rotation and five full turns in both planes. The fixed sections are marked with a grid, so that you can see where you are in both directions. Turrets can be set to zero by undoing a large, slot headed screw on top; much better than lots of tiny and fiddly Allen screws for certain!

Super fine

This model offers what Rudolph calls its Super Fine T3 reticle. Essentially, it’s a slim/skeleton Dual-X style, with an open centre and single aiming dot, which pleasingly subtends ½-inch @ 100-yards. I say this, as most dot systems like this normally cover an inch/inch +, which does little for a precise zero! The inner arms are marked with hash lines, elevation is split into 1 MOA divisions and windage 2 MOA, so if you don’t want to dial you can calculate your drops and just aim off.

Reticle thickness is what I would describe as just north of fine, and though slim, seemed to stand out well enough against duller/darker backgrounds. Unusually, it’s not illuminated, but for lower light usage I would have liked the option of a red aiming dot! Being an SFP system, values will only correspond at a set optical power, Rudolph elected for 20x to give true ¼ MOA clicks. They have also marked the magnification ring with a white triangular pointer above the number 20. There’s a slim parallax drum on the left of the saddle, marked in meters; 50, 75, 100, 150, 300, 500, 1000 and ∞. These are more a guide and I didn’t use it for range-finding, just target focus!

Conclusion

What I did find particularly useful was the throw lever, the magnification ring is firm in operation but not stiff, but the lever offers better and faster control! I fitted the scope to a number of rifles in various calibres from 223 Rem to 308 Win and worked very well, offering excellent crispness and clarity, along with good light transmission. Turrets dialled positively and the reticle proved easy to see in most conditions.

Though all my longer-range scopes offer a max of 15x, which I like, the ability to dial past that for small targets was useful, with four-inch gongs being easy to get onto at 400-yards+. Likewise, turrets offer a generous range of adjustments and if you run out of clicks the reticle should be able to compensate by holding over. Overall, most impressed with build, performance and price and looking forward to testing others in the range!