Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics Hawke Vantage 4x32, Weaver Classic K 4x38, Meopta Artemis 2000 4x32

Picked up one of these from Doug for a spare optic. Did a little informal side by side today against a Weaver Classic 4x38 and a Meopta Artemis 4x32.

The Hawke had some good points going for it. Got a lot of mounting length on the tube, should be easy to put on just about anything. I like the lines on the Hawke, looks clean and trim, also something I like about the Weaver, the Meopta looks, for lack of a better way to put it, very East block industrial. So I guess points to Hawke for building an aesthetically pleasing optic. Weights of the optics are Weaver 9.9 ounces, Hawke 11.1, Meopta 14.1(the Meopta is, by a fair margin, both the most compact AND heaviest, steel construction will do that).

Eye relief seemed to be about the same on all 3 with the Artemis having the biggest eye box(keep in mind this was just 15 minutes of looking at random stuff with all 3). The Atemis was, easily, the brightest of the 3 followed by the K4 which was a little brighter than the Hawke(noticeable, but not a HUGE difference). Reticle was probably not a fair comparison, the Meopta 8A is just about perfect in a 4x, HEAVY balistic plex, really brings your eye to the center and should be great in low light. The Hawke and Weaver optics both have their "plex" reticles, didn't really have a preference. Image looked good edge to edge on all three.

All in all, they lined up where their price would indicate they should, I feel that the Artemis was the clearly better glass, but for almost $450, it should be. I wouldn't feel handicapped with any of them really and my first impression anyway, is that the Hawke is an awful lot of scope for $70. I'll know more when I test the 8x57 I'm building with it. I've been a fan of the Weaver scope for some time, kinda pissed that they discontinued it...but then, there hasn't been any real design changes to it since the 80s maybe it was time.

Good info. Thanks for taking time out to share your observations.

My Hawkes are all Endurance LER or Endurance 30, which have 16-18 layer multicoating as opposed to,the Vantage 11(IIRC). Gotta think that makes a difference. Still, almost any newer scope is going to be brighter than the ones I started with way back when, and we got by somehow.

The Lyman Perma-center that came with my "new" Husky still gets it done, and the adjustments seemed fine, once I figured out the increments.

I am betting the adjustments on both the Weaver and Meopta were nice solid precise clicks. The Hawke maybe less so ? Weavers, Meopta and Sightron I have owned all had great, tactile, adjustments. Leupold, Burris and Hawke are kind of mushy.

Will let you know when I get to the range. The Weaver has good solid precise adjustments, and I've had several Classic K4's. I have not adjusted either of the others, but, they will both be mounted on 8x57 98 Mausers, should be a fair test.

Was surprised to hear the Weaver Classic K series was gone, a quick check of ebay shows new 4x are nearly $200 and no 6x's... they use to run $125!

In today's Natchez ad I found they still had Weaver 6x38 and they are on sale for $129 so I grabbed 1, at that price I should have ordered two...