Hawke Airmax 30 FFP SF 6-24x50

I think it’s fair to assume that most shooters have heard of Hawke Optics. They have been around for a long time now and boast a pretty extensive range of products for airgunners and firearms users. There are traditional rifle scopes in either the first focal plane (FFP) or second focal plane (SFP), red dot sights for faster target acquisition, and even prism sights. In addition, there is also an extensive choice of laser rangefinders and binoculars. They also offer a decent selection of accessories, including sunshades, flip-up covers, neoprene scope covers etc. Importantly, a wide range of price points are covered, ensuring that no matter what your budget may be, you will be able to find something to fit your rifle.
Anyway, it’s been a while since I’ve used a Hawke scope, and I figured it was time to change that. On test is the £449.00 Hawke Airmax 30 FFP SF 6-24x50, which represents a good target-oriented scope. This is because it offers a decent magnification range, side focus (SF), a FFP illuminated reticle, and some excellent turrets for dialling.

What’s in the box?
The scope comes fitted with flip-up lens covers and arrives in a well-presented box that also contains a decent set of instructions, a small Allen key for the turrets, a spare CR2032 battery, a 4” sidewheel, a pair of flip-up cover removal tools, a 4” sunshade, and an obligatory lens cloth. So, straight off the bat, first impressions are good.

The build
Unsurprisingly, given this scope and its specifications are clearly aimed at the needs of the target crowd, this Airmax is fairly large and heavy, measuring 14.9” (378mm) in length and weighing 765g (27oz). Obviously, this means that each shooter must carefully consider if this scope is suitable for their particular rifle, as it could be ‘too much scope’ for some smaller airguns, especially when you take into consideration the 3.5” (90mm) of eye relief. To help, there is plenty of room on the 30mm main tube for scope rings, with approximately 2.5” (63mm) behind and in front of the saddle.
The scope shows a high-quality matte black finish throughout, and if you look to the front, you will see a 50mm objective lens that is protected with a high-quality metal flip-up lens cap. As standard, this cap flips upwards, and the stiff opening allows the user to open it and leave it at any angle within its arc. As mentioned earlier, you get a removal tool that can be used to remove the lens cover or rotate it to a different angle. This is of more significance when we look at the same type of cover that’s attached to the eyepiece, as it means that once the fast focus ring is rotated to meet the requirements of the user, the lens cap can be reoriented so that it opens correctly. This is a nice touch.

The controls
As per the specs, the 6-24x magnification range is controlled by a rubberised zoom ring that incorporates raised ridges for added grip, with a more pronounced fin positioned at 12x magnification. The ring is described as ‘high torque’, and it offers a well-judged amount of resistance that remains consistent throughout its entire range of motion. The markings are clear and, therefore, easy to read.
To the left of the saddle, you will find the parallax dial. Importantly, this is marked from a minimum of 10 yards, then 15, 20, 30, 50, 100, 200, 500, and infinity. To aid with precision and to give the user the opportunity to add their own custom markings, the aforementioned 4” sidewheel can be push-fitted into position fairly easily. Hawke has done a nice job of ensuring that it self-aligns, as there are two raised fins on the parallax dial that it must slot over in order to attach. With the wheel fitted, I must say that Hawke seems to have judged the resistance level during rotation very well indeed.
As you would expect these days, the illumination control dial is positioned on the tip of the parallax dial, making the scope quite wide, so take this into account when it comes to shooting luggage/transportation. The outer screw-on cap secures a CR2032 battery, and the dial itself shows six brightness levels with an ‘off’ position between each one—a small detail that I really appreciate! In use, the positions are distinct from one another, with a decent ‘click’ indicating the shift.

The turrets
The target-type turrets are quite tall and are protected with caps. With these removed, my model showed 1/10 MRAD click values and offered 60 clicks per rotation. Hawke states 17 MRAD of adjustment for both windage and elevation, but I found more like 15 for elevation and 19 for windage. Importantly, once you have zeroed the scope, there are three grub screws on each turret that can be unscrewed, allowing you to realign the markings to show zero.
All the markings are very clear and well-spaced, and there is even an arrow and direction indicated on both turrets, making fast adjustments easier. The rotating turrets are situated within a fixed outer housing with a vertical line cut out of it, allowing you to see the base of the rotating turret and its position relative to some rotation indicator markings. Another impressive detail from Hawke, as this system is a lot easier to read accurately than many other designs.
With the windage dial set to zero, the dial shows three MRAD in each direction, helping shorten thinking time when it comes to those tricky and dynamic windage adjustments.

The reticle
As mentioned earlier, this is a FFP scope, meaning that the values of the reticle subtensions stay the same, no matter what magnification setting you are on. Due to the way this works, this also means that the AMX IR reticle in this scope starts off very fine/small and increases in size as you increase the magnification. While this helps with the precise placement of your crosshairs, which is particularly important given the incredible accuracy on offer from modern airguns these days, it does mean that the reticle can be hard to see at low magnification levels. I guess it is a good thing that it can be illuminated then!
The design of the reticle is easy to get along with, and you even get a decent instruction manual specifically for it. Inside, you will find clear diagrams that explain the various subtension values, helping you to make the most of the reticle when shooting on the range. For me, the most used subtensions will be the horizontal lines on the vertical axis that indicate 1 MRAD and the dots that show 0.5 MRAD.

In use
When it comes to maximising image quality, Hawke uses 16-layer fully multi-coated lenses, and it must be said that the quality is very good. Even when shooting indoors and in less-than-perfect lighting conditions, without illumination I was able to precisely place the crosshairs in the centre of black and white targets (which often obscure the exact position of your reticle) at distances from 10 yards to 40 yards, although this became even easier to do once I switched the illumination on, which, incidentally, proved very effective, as the six brightness levels are well-judged, giving effective illumination in bright daylight and in low-light environments. Crucially, there was no bleeding or blurring either, ensuring a precise point of aim in a variety of conditions.
Of course, the fine parallax adjustment was key to obtaining a crisp image, really allowing me to extract all the performance on offer from the scope, and it was good to see that the parallax values were as near as damn it spot on at airgun ranges from 10 yards to 40 yards.
This scope boasts a 6-24x magnification range, but it’s no good if you can’t use it, right? Well, while testing each mag level, I found that the eye relief was very accommodating, as was the eye box, ensuring that it was easy to get a decent sight picture all the way up to 24x from a variety of shooting positions. However, as is often the case at this mag level, the image did get a bit dull, so I stuck to about 18x most of the time. It is also worth mentioning that the reticle was very fine at 6x, so I tended to stick to a minimum of about 10x to avoid fatigue over a long plinking session.
Obviously, the reticle allows you to compensate for drop at further distances, but if you want to dial in the correction instead, then I can confirm that the scope tracked true through my numerous sessions with it, and the turret clicks were well-defined and audible.

Conclusion
Overall, I have been impressed by the Hawke Airmax 30 FFP SF 6-24x50, primarily because it is well-made, easy to use, and allows you to focus precisely and tightly on your chosen target, ensuring you are able to extract all the accuracy potential from your airgun.