Hello all, I am considering buying a Hawke brand scope. I have read several reviews, most of which were positive. The scope I am looking at is a 6 x 24 50mm AO IR with SR 12 Reticle, $ 199.00 from E Arthur Brown Company. They compare it with a Leopold scope on thier web site. It is a named as being a top line scope in Europe. Does anyone have any knowledge of these scopes and if they are as good as they claim? I would be mounting it on my TC Encore 22.250.

They are certainly an unknown quantity to me...but the price sounds good.

I think either English Mike or Aloysius are the ones to answer this one seeing as how they live in that part of the world.

Cheers, Vince

Thanks for the response Vince, they also have 10 day return policy, if you dont mount it, and Hawke has a life time warranty.

For what it is worth: when somebody calls himself (or his product) "a top line scope in Europe", then his name should sound german...
In my opinion most of them fall in the category chinese scopes and I don't care if their name is Hawke, Hunter, Accushot, Tasco, Bushnell, Barska or even Suzy. So I compare them with these 'Hong-Kong-salesmen'.
And don't think they are all bad. When you have a lot of rifles, you don't put a Zeiss or a Swarovski on everyone and you try also the cheaper optics. And no, they are not going to give you the same sharpness as the germans, but I'm already often surprised by the chinese quality (and service!). And even if you don't like it, you are not broke when you throw it away.
So now forget a moment about quality and look at the prices. And I'm almost sure you can find such a scope for less than 100 $ when you buy it straight from the Hong Kong chinese.
I think you can find examples enough of companies importing chinese goods and double or triple the price. Well, I don't need the marketing stories, I prefer to buy 2 or 3 for the price of 1 and do my own service when needed.
But when you only have a few guns, you better support the local producer (NOT the local salesshop!) and go for the best you can afford.

For your info: my every day rifle is now a single shot Baikal in .222 Rem, bought second hand for 50 euro (thanks to the new gunlaws) and I put on a 25 euro chinese optics that's surprisingly clear (even late in the evening) and till now just seems to keep its milldot-cross right 4 cm under POI on 100 m. It's a special feeling when you shoot such a cheap thing and the results are better than your friend's Swarovski topped Blazer
Top quality equipment makes life easier, but sometimes one needs a challenge...

okiephil wrote:

They compare it with a Leopold scope on thier web site. It is a named as being a top line scope in Europe.

The above is true of Hawke's older production scopes. I just bought two 4x16 Mil-dot Hawke scopes which were in a group from the last production run using Japanese optics and manufactured in the UK. They are a high quality scope. The retail was around $800 a piece. At close-out prices, I got both for that price.

Hawke could no longer use Japanese optics and keep in their market niche so have switched to marketing Chinese scopes in the lower price market. I have no experience with them nor have I even seen one at a gun show. That doesn't mean they aren't good.

I did pick up and handle a Sun Optics scope at the last gun show in the power range you are looking at. It was a 30mm tube with a lighted mil-dot reticle and included a level inside the scope (nice!) for around $210. I was tempted by the clear optics. It had the focus knobs on the side of the turret. You might call them and see if they can email you some information for comparison. Their website is under construction.

www.sunopticsusa.com/

info @ sunopticsusa.com

817 783 6001
817 783 6433

Thank you, Aloysius and Slimjim, for your comments. I am still checking on other options. E. Brown does state, they bought out all the old stock of Hawke, and are offering them at a discounted price, as Hawke is redoing the scope line, but it is thier web site, so they can and will say whatever sells thier product. One of the cable tv hunting shows brags on the Hawke scope, but I am sure they are a sponser of the show. That is where I heard of the brand and looked it up on the internet.

Slimjim, I will check with Sun optics, to see what they have to offer, thanks for the number.

okiephil wrote:

E. Brown does state, they bought out all the old stock of Hawke, and are offering them at a discounted price,

At that price, I would be suspect that E. Brown bought a discontinued model that was Chinese manufactured to begin with vice a prior UK production unit with Japanese optics. I paid $350 for mine and a group of us went together to buy the last 14 of them.