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.
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.