On another forum I noticed an ASI Airgunner for silly money. I have only seen the ad on the back of the main player magazines and know they are made by Nikko Stirling. Before anyone else did, I said "yes please" and paid my money.
Whilst waiting for the scope to arrive I set about finding more out about the scope but found very little. What i did find was the RRP is £75 and in the shops they are selling for £65 to £75 which is dirt cheap and being honest not expecting much even though Nikko Stirling never make duff scopes.
The Sabre arrived and it was in very good cosmetic condition with minor chipping paint rubbing. I cleaned the lenses and they came up nice. It came with a cheap one piece mount but I give it it's dues, it has held up well.
With slight adjustment I got the eye relief and Mil-Dot Reticule correct. I set off out to zero it in and a do a bit of plinking.
The first thing that impressed me was the quality of the optics, amazingly clear for a budget scope, edge to edge on the lower mag with very minor distortion on the higher mag but only on the very edge of the picture.
The turrets are finger friendly and robust although there is no fine adjustment. 1/4 clicks mean nothing and equal about 3 or 4 full rotations. It felt a bit knotchy too.
The AO adjustment isn't fine tune either and the meter markings are for show and mean nothing on my example but I will say that for a 12ft/lbs air rifle this is not a problem.
I played with the scope for the rest of the afternoon and it performed extremely well and to be honest I would be happy to have one myself if I needed to scope a gun.
I am not sure and doubt the glass is multi coated but it is a nice shade of green at least, and the optics it must be pointed out are just SUPERB, clear and bright.
Once zeroed the POI stays put and the slightly notchy turrets need not be touched so no big deal here. The AO adjustment once adjusted to shooting distance stays the same so again no big deal and has fast focus to help anyway.
The Mil-Dot reticule isn't big and bulky like most cheap scopes are, very usable.
It has short comings yes I agree but they are trivial and combined with that silly asking price plus what you get for your money makes it is near impossible to beat.
Whilst waiting for the scope to arrive I set about finding more out about the scope but found very little. What i did find was the RRP is £75 and in the shops they are selling for £65 to £75 which is dirt cheap and being honest not expecting much even though Nikko Stirling never make duff scopes.
The Sabre arrived and it was in very good cosmetic condition with minor chipping paint rubbing. I cleaned the lenses and they came up nice. It came with a cheap one piece mount but I give it it's dues, it has held up well.
With slight adjustment I got the eye relief and Mil-Dot Reticule correct. I set off out to zero it in and a do a bit of plinking.
The first thing that impressed me was the quality of the optics, amazingly clear for a budget scope, edge to edge on the lower mag with very minor distortion on the higher mag but only on the very edge of the picture.
The turrets are finger friendly and robust although there is no fine adjustment. 1/4 clicks mean nothing and equal about 3 or 4 full rotations. It felt a bit knotchy too.
The AO adjustment isn't fine tune either and the meter markings are for show and mean nothing on my example but I will say that for a 12ft/lbs air rifle this is not a problem.
I played with the scope for the rest of the afternoon and it performed extremely well and to be honest I would be happy to have one myself if I needed to scope a gun.
I am not sure and doubt the glass is multi coated but it is a nice shade of green at least, and the optics it must be pointed out are just SUPERB, clear and bright.
Once zeroed the POI stays put and the slightly notchy turrets need not be touched so no big deal here. The AO adjustment once adjusted to shooting distance stays the same so again no big deal and has fast focus to help anyway.
The Mil-Dot reticule isn't big and bulky like most cheap scopes are, very usable.
It has short comings yes I agree but they are trivial and combined with that silly asking price plus what you get for your money makes it is near impossible to beat.
