Ultimax UL31256

The Optics Warehouse is a one-stop shop for all things optical, be it scopes, mounts, spotting scopes or accessories and their broad range of kit will appeal to shooters on all budgets. One make that caught my eye, not only due to the price but also the spec, was the Ultimax 3-12 x56mm with illuminated reticle, made in Japan for £395 – bargain! This is a common and useful spec, so I was keen to see how it would fare on a few Potty rifles.

Spec

It’s hard to believe the price to be honest with you, which has been discounted, especially seeing as the Ultimax is made in Japan. I always consider Japanese optics far superior to other eastern scopes. Unusual in this day and age, it offers all-steel construction, which makes it heavy at 745-grams/1.64 lbs and it’s quite long at 15-inches. Saying that, it’s a strong design, so capable of taking the hard knocks that hunting can sometimes generate. It’s also non-parallax adjustable, which is not really a problem for fox or deer work, as it’s pre-set for 100-yards no doubt. It feels more like an IOR or Meopta scope, such is the build.

You have a 30mm tube diameter, enabling a good internal adjustment range and just over 2.25-inches inches of mounting length front and back of the adjustment turrets, so you can mount the Ultimax to suit your eye relief. This is 90mm and is constant at all magnifications and the large 1.75-inches diameter eyepiece allows a speedy focus that is not that critical to view, except in respect of keeping a constant parallax.

Mag

The 3-12x magnification is a pretty standard zoom range, and when coupled to a large 56mm objective, you can still achieve good light transmission and clarity, even at the highest power settings. The quality Japanese lenses are multi-coated for good light transmission. The 56mm objective lens allows an exit pupil at 3x mag of 11.5mm and at 12x mag of 4.9mm, so still good amounts of light reaching the eye. You also have 37.1feet field of view at 100-yards set at 3x mag and 9.3 feet when zoomed up to 12x.

So, what you have is a scope that’s ideal for woodland stalking set at 3-5x mag, where a wide field of view is required; or if calling foxes, 6-12x mag for a more deliberate shot at longer range. The 56mm multi coated lenses still allow a sharp image at any mag setting, with very good edge to edge clarity and the image is flat with no aberrations- impressive!

The zoom ring has raised rectangular ridges for grip and a clockwise movement increase mag from 3x to 12x very smoothly. You also have a fast-focus eyepiece for diopter adjustment, which has a rubber eyepiece ring for protection.

Adjustments

The elevation and windage have low, hunter-type turrets, accessed by unscrewing the waterproof cover cap. Click values are ¼-inch at 100-yards, with the drums divided into 12x1-inch (0 – 11) sections, sub-divided into fours. So, you get 12-inches per rotation and 48-inches overall movement, in both windage and elevation. Clicks are smooth and audible but there is no lift and lock feature to zero the turret, which is not really a hardship, as somehow we got on without them before they appeared!

Given this is not a scope that allows you to dial in the range adjustments, there’s plenty enough movement for a zero out to 150-200-yards, given the calibre. Then, using eyeball hold over in the normal way.

The reticle is a 4a-type, with thick posts to the 3, 6 and 9 o’clock positions and a 12 o’clock fine stadia line, so as not to obscure the target. The inner sector is fine too and a central dot illuminates when necessary. On that point, the rheostat is set on the left side of the saddle and uses a CR2032 battery and offers 11-positions, this is well-positioned for operation by the supporting hand. The dot is a fibre optic type and shows bright red illumination with minimum bleeding around the edges, it subtends to 3.5cm on 3x mag at 100m and 0.9cm on 12x mag. Set at maximum, we have a visible shooting mark in bright conditions or against snow, sand etc. In low light hunting scenarios, the lower 1-5 range allows a dimmer dot, so as not to destroy your eye’s natural night vision. Very handy is the stop position between each illumination setting, so you can switch off and on without having to dial up from 0.

Conclusion

I fitted the Ultimax to a Tikka TX3X rifle in .222 Rem and was soon sighting in with some excellent Norma 50-grain V-Max loads. After initial bore sighting, it was soon spot on at 100-yards, with still more than half the adjustment range left in the elevation turret. There was no appreciable backlash to the clicks and ¼-inch was ¼, and when adjusted for range and back again, the zero remained the same, so tracking was no problem either.

Clarity was really sharp for a scope of this price; then they are Japanese optics and low light level capabilities were equally good. I took it out after muntjac a few evenings, but had no luck, but an unfortunate fox on the third morning popped out of the maize at the wrong time and the Ultimax did its job. Yet again, another bargain from Optics Warehouse. I was left scratching my head to find anything wrong, except for the heavy weight maybe. You get great optics, good build quality, reliability and illumination for less than 400-quid – no brainer!