Hawke Optics

[Cannon]

Anyone else noticed a marked drop in quality with Hawke Optics? I've just had to send my 4th scope back to them, with all four suffering from issues straight from the factory. 

Bought a Frontier which is supposed to be their flagship model. When it arrived there was a terrible amount of glare on the left side of the illuminated crosshair. Very off-putting when looking down the scope. Figured I'd get it zeroed anyway to see what it's like. At one point during zeroing I heard a springing noise inside the scope during windage adjustment. One click had moved the crosshairs six inches at 50 meters. It took over 20 clicks to bring it back. At this stage I had lost confidence in the scope so it went back to Hawke. They confirmed the scope was losing zero on recoil, and that the parallax had shifted. 

The replacement arrived just over a week later. Same situation with the glare. Hawke stated that it's impossible to eliminate this, yet other brands such as Athlon, Arken and Sightron for example seem to be able to do so at cheaper price points. Anyway I mounted the scope and went to zero it. The windage and elevation turrets were so mushy it was difficult to tell when you'd made an adjustment. The scope also didn't track properly, with the MIL adjustments seemingly not following a calibrated MIL target sheet. Back to Hawke again but this time Hawke could find no issue with the scope, so they refused to replace it and offered to send it back or refund the purchase price. I opted for the refund as I had been without a scoped rifle for 3 weeks at this stage. Time to buy another brand.

Around the same time I had purchased another Hawke scope from another online retailer. This time it was a Vantage FFP model. It ticked all the boxes until it was mounted. After mounting I realised that the parallax adjustment was extremely tight. It needed to be gripped like a fist to adjust it. These adjustments tend to loosen up over time, but I'd have wrecked my fingers waiting for that to happen. On top of this it suffered with pincushion distortion at close ranges. Anyone who has ever looked through an optic with pincushion distortion knows how annoying and sickly it can be. Back to the retailer it went, with a note asking for the replacement to be tested prior to sending it out. The replacement arrived with the same issues, and the side parallax made a point of seizing at the 50 meter point on the side wheel.

I own several scopes from Nikko Stirling, Bushnell, Tasco and Athlon and none exhibit any issues such as those experienced with the Hawke scopes. My Athlon tracks perfectly with positive windage and elevation clicks, and has clearer glass than the Hawke even though it was over £300 cheaper. I've just purchased another Athlon which I should have done in the first place. This will be my last involvement with anything Hawke branded or related. Their warranty is great compared to some, but you don't want to have to keep using it. It's a shame really. If their products matched the sales jargon that accompanied them they would be great choices for loads of shooters, but the quality just isn't there. Maybe they've done away with their quality control department in China.

I'm sure others have had Hawke scopes with no issues, but having 4 faulty scopes in a row was enough for me to stop considering them as a viable option for optics.

 

 

[Ultrastu]

Thanks I've not bought a new scope in probably  5 years  .hawke are my go to brand  but I will be looking carefully  in the future  .cheers  

[oldypigeonpopper]

Hello, I have 5 Hawke scope and never any problems, I do not go for the expensive ones, my SF only cost £120

 

[samboy]

I've had 2 Hawke scopes and a pair of Hawke bino's in the last year and whilst there has been nothing wrong with them

 they were just not for me.  So i will stick with my old Simmons Aetecs and my new Nikon bino's which are very good.

[London Best]

The only scopes which have ever let me down in any way were a Hawke on a borrowed .243 in Africa and a Nikko Sterling purchased secondhand for my .22 Hornet.
I would never consider either again.

[THEINVISIBLESCARECROW]

The only Hawke scopes I get on with are old fixed focus HD's or old Sidewinders.

[snipers eye]

used hawke scopes for years without any issues,maybe im just lucky

[London Best]

Everybody will tell you that Hawke customer service is fantastic. 
I get the impression that it needs to be because they get so many issues with their products. 
Must state that I have never owned one, but I have never been impressed looking through them and a borrowed one let me down badly.

[Sweet11-87]

im not after another scope but if i was id not even look around. the vortex range of scopes is just dominating the marked in terms of price to performance, robustness and warrenty. transferable life time no questions asked...

for the price of the vantage ffp you could get one of the  diamondback range. and theyre not even in the same league

Edited September 11, 2023 by Sweet11-87