Weaver Grand Slam & Tactical

Although we tend to presume that European optics are the ultimate, they are only recently starting to catch up with their ‘Tactical trend’ specifications and relevant mechanics. By contrast, US/ Japanese collaborations have often shown superb mechanics without the premium glass and coating technology to match, but are things changing?

Weaver

I was recently sent two Weaver scopes. This brand has been a popular choice for our American cousins for decades but certainly to my eyes, has never seemed to catch on here. Niche markets such as Benchrest have seen pockets of the T36 for example but elsewhere they seemed thin on the ground for stalkers and vermin control. I have here two widely differing optics, the 2.5-10x50 Grand Slam and a 4-20x50 Tactical.

Both show many core design features that are universally desirable before they divert in terms of individual specifications and suitability for key roles/disciplines. Made in Japan with multicoated lenses and gas-filled single piece aluminium tubes, all surfaces are anodised a solid black. The larger 30mm tube on the Tactical shows a slightly coarser surface finish to make it appear more matt than the satin on baby brother.

Grand Slam

The Grand Slam’s 1” tube is complemented by a stylised rubber cover on the zoom ring offering easy grip for adjustment and small finger adjustable windage and elevation screws beneath small caps. With ¼” clicks and 60” total travel available in both elevation and windage; zeroing is assured on a wide range of rifle types.

The target turrets featured on the Tactical, part of the “Super Slam” range are calibrated in ¼” Minutes of angle (MOA) and an outer sleeve lifts to turn so no accidental slippage. With 15 MOA per turn on offer, I found 55 MOA to be available in total; these figures exceeded the published values. Fast focus diopter adjustment of the eyepiece is found on both models and compliments a parallel tube suitable for fitting generic Butler Creek style lens cap as no other caps were supplied.

Compact Hunter

The smaller Grand slam is well specified for a hunting rifle. X2.5-10 magnification coupled with a simple Dual X reticule (2nd focal plane) is a simple solution to hassle free shooting. No parallax adjustment is offered and is hardly needed at x10 anyway, all click values appeared to be honest and tactile with no need to look, just feel! Although this is the kind of scope likely to be fitted and zeroed on a stalking or rabbit rifle and hence unlikely to be dialled onto a long range target, the return to zero was spot on when a tracking test around a box was performed.

I fitted it to my CZ 22rf and used it for precision shooting of short-range vermin and found it to be simple to use with no unnecessary bells or whistles. Just good clear glass giving fair light transmission all the way through the dusk period until the lamp was needed. It is fairly hard to get a x10 scope wrong and edge-to-edge clarity was assured with good colour resolution.

Tactical or Varmint?

Ok, Im a sucker for longer-range vermin shooting and the Tactical got tested in this environment. Mounted onto a 243 it was used for vermin and foxes as well as a few plinking targets out to around 400 yards, performance was without any real fault. The left side of the saddle situated centrally in the maintube presented a crisp parallax drum that would focus from 30 yards to infinity.

The Mil-Dot reticule (1st focal plane) grew and shrank as the zoom was altered on the knurled aluminium adjustment ring. Though it does become very small at x4, it was never too bulky at x20x and from here down to x10x is where most shooting got done! It has the benefit that it does show up well under the lamp and you don’t find yourself seeking it out in vain. Clarity at the very edge of the field of view did start to get a little fuzzy but didn’t affect the usability of a modestly priced scope for this level of specification.

The return to zero and tracking both passed tests and although no zero stop is featured, the turrets can be reset to zero after initial setup. For the serious long range types, 55 MOA of travel is not a lot to play with although primary zero can be accommodated using an inclined rail with elevation built in for any shooter that way motivated. Both scopes offered sufficient eye relief that recoil was never a problem and more importantly, the 4-20 didn’t vary significantly with magnification setting, a pet hate of mine.

Objective Testing

Of course, long-range vermin are the toughest test I can think of when the light fades. Though the performance gap between budget, competitive and premium glass continues to narrow, there is a definite margin and this can be picked up in a well-defined way in these conditions, who stops shooting first?

Although the hierarchy of this situation is still firmly in favour of the Europeans, what matters is the ability relative to retail price and I was very pleased with both these scopes in that respect. They are well under 50% of the price of their Euro cousins and styling aside, the mechanics and specifications on offer are well above this threshold with the glass getting ever closer. My own cabinet used to be German only but I find myself becoming drawn to these well-designed US/Japanese collaborations that are more suited to the economic climate we face. The ultimate cost of ten minutes of shooting time is an acceptable compromise to many!

PRICE: £376.80 / £820.80