Hawke Airmax 4 - 12 x 44 PX R/Finder WA

[Hawkeye75]

Hey shooters,

I was looking on the jsrammsbottom site today, looking for a scope and i came across a rather cheap, high magnification scope.

It was 4 - 12 x 44 PX Hawke airmax.

 

The scope

THe thing that struck me, asides from its good 'zooming' power was the words R/Finder beside it.

Now i know that you can buy electronic rangefinders by hand, but what does this mean on a scope? It is simply taking advantage of the fact the scope has a mildot sight and is extorting this as a range/finder? Or will the scope actually tell me how far away the target is i am aiming at? :thumbs:

 

Thanks,

 

Hawkeye75

[1 of 5]

The scope has a parrallax adjustment ring (focuser) at the far end of the scope which will have markings on to indicate the range. You turn it to max mag and twiddle the focus ring until it's in focus and read off the range. When you wake up :thumbs: the reality is that

a) the magnification to achieve this starts at 24x and goes upwards and

the markings are pure fantasy. Target shooters put some tape on and mark their own ranges.

 

This system works well on 24x and over scopes but is of very limited use to a hunter who usually doesn't have the luxury of the time to rangefind. A high or low mounted laser will do a great job of rangefinding for rabbits.

Here's a review I did a while ago

 

Using a Laser with an Airgun

 

Much has been written about lasers, a lot of it by folk who've not persevered enough with the system to fully understand it. I hope that this review will clarify some of the murky areas.

 

Laser type

You need a laser that has a good bright dot. To achieve brightness that means a tight dot at distance. The poorer lasers have a beam that diverges at distance and thus the available light is diffused over a larger area. As ALL lasers are limited by international agreements in terms of the power output you are not looking for a more powerful unit but a better-made unit. As well as of a good bright small dot you want a unit that is easy to mount (more of which later) and easy to aim in the required direction. Ignoring the cheap Asian units (these are simply awful with dot sizes of 2 inches or so at 10 yards) there are three main players in the airgun laser department:-

 

Crosman

Claim to be the world’s most powerful etc etc... As I said they are all the same power. The Crosman unit is one of the worst for dot size so leave them alone.

 

Beamshot

Make a range of different models and prices. They are similar looking to the Crosman but much better in terms of dot size. As a rule, the more you pay the better they are. Like the Crosman unit they have a simply awful zeroing system so unless you enjoy hours of frustration attempting to zero the thing you'd do well to leave these too. If money is tight then the basic Beamshot will do but be prepared for the zeroing problems and bright sunlight will prevent you seeing the dot!

 

Corsak

By far the best of the bunch for both dot size / brightness and a zeroing system that makes the other two obsolete. There are two types of zeroing systems on offer from Corsak and both are easy to use when compared with the competition. This unit has a dovetail for mounting. These are available at £68 from Soviet Bazaar and are far and away the best bet unless you've got £500 for a green laser! (I'll ignore the mega expensive units for this review.)

 

Where to mount it

Now the bad news. There are no commercially available mounts that I consider to be worth a monkeys! Why? Well to be of most use to an airgunner the laser should ideally be mounted at least 4 inches above the scope. There are differences of opinion here as to what's the best height but the experts’ opinions all fall somewhere between 4 and 7 inches. See my home brewed mount as to how to construct one. A pair of high mounts and some M10 threaded bar are all you need.

 

 

Why so high? If you get one of the pellet trajectory programs such as Ian Pellant’s Airgun 7.5 or Chairgun (they are free to download so you have no excuse) you will see that by putting the laser up high and with careful choosing of the zero for the laser (not necessarily the zero of the scope) you can create an additional tangent to the pellet’s flight-path. In other words as your pellet falls away from your crosshairs beyond your chosen zero the laser can pick up the flight-path for another 20 yards or so (dependant upon many factors) giving you an aim-point accurate to half an inch or less if required out beyond 55 yards in .177 or approx 45 yards in .22 at 12 ft/lbs. It is useful to have a multi-aim-point reticle so you can dab the laser on the target to see where the dot intersects the reticle, then use that part of the reticle to aim at the target. A zoom scope is useful too. At some point the pellet is going to arc away from the laser beam (around 58 yards for my set-up) so I set the scope magnification so that the laser coincides with a certain point on the reticle at 55 yds - this then tells me when I am out of range as the laser will appear below this mark to indicate this.

 

If you want to mount your laser elsewhere (under the barrel for instance) you need to create the maximum distance from the scope centreline to the laser centreline as with a laser below the scope you are going to use the laser as a rangefinder rather than an aim-point. This is because with a laser lower than the scope the dot is going to appear above the crosshairs at distances above the zero. You should zero the laser at the scopes zero and then spend time on the range working out what the different divergences of crosshair-to-laser mean in terms of pellet drop to work out your holdovers. As you can see this system is of less use but does have the advantage that the combo will still fit in your gun bag. A larger version may be needed for the high laser.

 

Anywhere offset to the side of the vertical from the crosshairs is a compromise and should really be avoided if at all possible.

 

When you have got your laser set up as you want it you'll find that it's every bit as accurate as a big mag. FT scope for telling you the distance to your target but is MUCH faster and cheaper than that system. I can range-find and aim at any target within 8-58 yards in the time it takes just to aim. This is invaluable out in the field whilst hunting rabbits. A rabbit will happily sit there and have a laser pointed at it without running whereas birds will usually fly off at the first sight of the dot so you have to range-find quickly behind them. I can honestly say that the high laser has NEVER been a problem in the field for me in terms of catching the unit.

 

I think this covers most aspects of laser use for those likely to be interested enough to have got this far. There are other ways such as high scope / low laser for a bullpup or laser on top of barrel for ratting but what's written will cover the majority of users. So to summarise, get a Corsak, download a trajectory program and spend a few minutes playing around with different heights of laser and different zero ranges then make yourself a mount and hit what you aim at more often.

 

[kdubya]

what it means is that it has paralax adjustment? ie the front lens ring is turned to achieve focus and the ring is graduated from 10 to 300 yards so if its in focus at say 25yds on the scale then thats its distance however infininty is from 300yards so

thats it as far as approximating distance is concerned

ps have the very scope sat in my mit, in truth I was never happy with it it constantly needed re zeroing! went for a second hand whitetail classic (bought of through the for sale section of this site, best move I have vere made the bunnies hate it!!

cheers Keith

[1 of 5]

If looking for a scope at that price ignore the Airmax.

Either a 3-10x44 reflex or a 3-9x40 ags are both much better. If you've got a few more pennies import a 4-16x56 Leapers from the USA for about £115 or so inc. all taxes. These sell for £200 labelled as AGS over here.

[Hawkeye75]

Im looking at attaching it to a Webley Tomahawk. This has a power of 20f/p and a .22 pellet velocity of 800fps.

What would the ideal scope magnification be for long range hunting aspects?

 

Hawkeye75

[1 of 5]

With a full power Tommy you'll get a similar trajectory to a 12 ft/lb .177 though with more energy delivered to the target. The gun will have plenty of power for vermin well beyond the range at which you can place the pellet with any degree of certainty as to where it'll land. This means the range is limited only by the shooter. In reality this will probably equate to somewhere between 40 and 50 yds dependant on the shooters skill. Any magnification from 6-12 ought to be fine for the job and is as much personal preference as anything else. Some may suggest as low as 4x. Going above 12x will leave you probably having to adjust the parralax setting dependant on whether it's a short or long shot. During this time and with the movement the quarry may do a runner (or flight). A 3-12 or 4-16 ought to be all the scope you'll need. The 4-16x56 Leapers branded scope from the USA will cost you around £120 inc. taxes to personnally import. This is the AGS brand over here and retails at £200 and is a very good scope with side focus.

[kdubya]

1 in 5 do you have an idea of a good supplier of night vision scopes (stateside) not bothered about if they will ship to the uk as I will get it sent to my brother in laws in san dieago iam in the market for a "good" gen 2 or if dosh permits a gen 3.

cheers Keith