At the Paris Country Show this last weekend I looked through a Meopta Meostar 1-4 X 22mm scope and was amazed. This has to be one of the best one power scopes I have ever looked through. It is true "both eyes open" sighting" and the scope disappears, all you see with both eyes open is the K-Dot. Unfortunately, I hate the idea of an illuminated dot for African hunting (if it's electric it will probably break) and I don't really like the Meopta n°1 and n° 4 reticles which take up too much room in the view. Still, darn nice scope for DG. Anybody out there used one?

Wink,

I've not used that particular scope, but I have a couple of Meopta's, an older 7x50 and a relatively new 4x32mm.

I believe they are excellent value and a good honest scope for the money..

What was the eye relief like on that 1-4x22mm?

On my 4x32mm, the listed eye relief seemed a little short, and I was a little concerned..Once it was mounted on my 9.3x62mm however, it seemed fine and I've had no problems with it..My only "complaint" is the ocular housing is sligthly larger in diameter than some of my other scopes ie my 4x36mm S&B and the when the bolt is lifted, it rubs slightly...not enough to cause a problem, but enough to wear the bluing on the bolt and mark the scope...

Regards,

Pete

Brochure says the eye relief is 3.1 inches if my memory is correct. Since it was mounted on lone of the short demo stocks for scopes it wasn't easy to really ascertain how far away one's eyes could be. A good point though is that it is very forgiving in terms of alignment, you don't have to be lined up like a laser to get a full field view.

Wink,
Is it a TRUE 1 power or is there a little distortion when you look with BOTH eyes open. A true 1 power variable would be really cool for hunting in thick brush especially if you could turn it up to 4 when you came to a road or field.

Perry

I can't confirm if it is a scientifically measured 1 power, but when looking through it there seems to be no distortion whatsoever, like a true one power. I notice that some manufacturers show their scopes as 1.1 power, perhaps to be honest. But in this case it seemed like a true one power to me.

Most U.S. shooter haven't discovered Meopta yet . If they ever do then their sales will go thru the roof . Have swapped my allegiance from Leupold to Meopta .
Quality is comparable with big name European scopes at a fraction of the price IMHO .

quote:

Originally posted by Wink:
Unfortunately, I hate the idea of an illuminated dot for African hunting (if it's electric it will probably break)

Sorry Wink, but I have to disagree with you here.

Although I have no experiance with Meopta scopes, basically all other European made, quality illuminated scopes, function just like a regular scope when the illumination is turned off (or if the batteries and/or electonics die).

And lets say for the sake of argument that the electronics get screwed up somehow, although this is unlikely. The reticle itself is no differant than a regular one, so it's not like you'll have to stop shooting or anything!

A S&B German #7 Flashdot:


That functions just like a regular #7 when the dot is turned off:


And as todays illuminated scope technology allows batteries to last a very long time, you will most likely never experiance that they "die" as long as you put in a fresh battery once a year or so. As an interesting example, a friend of mine had his Aimpoint turned on nonstop for over half a year in A.stan without the battery dying! And as most normal hunting scopes turn the illumination off after a certain number of hours (to conserve power if you forget to turn it off yourself), batteries will last quite a long time.

I have two scopes with illumination, a Zeiss Varipoint 2.5-10x50, and a Schmidt&Bender Zenith 1.1-4x24 Flashdot. And I seriously doubt I'll buy a non illuminated version again!

quote:

Most U.S. shooter haven't discovered Meopta yet .

Very true, I have a pair of their 7x42's and what a binocular and pleasure they are to use.

Erik,

The image below is the reticule for the 1-4x22RD..



I would tend to agree with Wink in that it would be almost useless if there was a problem with the electronics...

I'm not sure why Meopta went with this type of illuminated reticule as other scopes they produce have illuminated reticules similar to the S&B ones you posted above...far better designs IMHO...

Regards,

Pete

Pete,

I would agree with you when it comes to that particular reticle, although my post was regarding illuminated reticles in general.

Isn't the 1-4x22 Meopta available with a more tradtional illuminated reticle???

How durable is that scope? Is failure a realistic concern?

Perry

Erik,

Not from what I could see on the Meopta site (http://www.meopta.cz)..they do a couple of different 1-4x22 scopes, one in the 3000 range and the other in the Meostar r1...what the difference is between the two ranges i don't..Both ranges are available in various "normal" reticules, but only the Meostar R1 1-4x22 RD appears to have an illuminated reticule, which is the one I posted above known as the "K Dot"...

I realised what you were saying about modern illuminated reticules in general and agree, but the K dot reticule would appear to the exception..

Regards,

Pete

The one I looked at was a Meostar, which means it has an aluminum tube. I don't know if the older steel tubes are still available. The problem with the illuminated dot on the Meostar 1-4, in my opinion, is that when it is turned off you can't see the very faint cross hairs worth a damn even in good light, no way you could see them on a dark colored buffalo. I'm going to check around for some steel tubed versions with the n° 1 reticle as I still think they are fine scopes for the money.

I bought one today and it is a TRUE "1" power. I got the one without the lit reticle just for worst case senerio. It appears crystal clear and seems like a good peice of glass.

Perry

perry, now that you've got one, I would be very interested in your real world experiences with this scope: mounting difficulties, true eye relief at different scope powers, does it hold zero well, what rifle/caliber you mounted the scope on, etc. We need your product report!

I plan on shooting it tomorrow on a AR 15. The eye relief seems good. On 1 power it seems to have some haze around the edges of the scope but only on 1. With that said the field of view is such that it is hardly even a factor. Construction seems to be good and solid. The dealer told me it was designed for dangerous game rifles, hense the reason for the true 1 power, so I dont imagine I will have any recoil induced issues. I have it mounted in a LaRue tactical mount that can be removed and replaced with out losing the zero. The reason for purchasing this scope was to mount it on my 16" AR for stalking around in thick cover. The rifle has a short barrel and a colapsable stock, perfect for tight places. I shoot Barnes TSX bullets in it and one behind the ear kills any size hog. The true 1 power will allow me up close and personal stuff and the variable 4 is great when I stalk up on a field or pond. I am leaving here at 5am to give this set up a test. I'll be getting back to you. If all goes well I might be getting another one for a light weight 257 Roberts come deer season.

Perry

p.s. I did notice the finish seemed to mare easily when mounting. I was more interested in the eye relief and adjustments at the time. I'll give it another look in the morning to see if they are just discolorations from finger prints are true maring. If it is a good functioner I can live with a sub par finish.

FIELD REPORT

I have to say I am very pleased with this scope. The true 1 power is very easily handling. I put about 60 rounds through my rifle this morning with this scope on 1 and all my shots were hits. I was double tapping cactus from 15-75 yards with no optical distorting at all. The only thing I noticed was that due to the coated optics you had a different color shade through your primary eye but onlt very slight. This was not any big deal and I dont think it made any difference at all. The eye relief on the rifle is great. It seems very generous. I tried shouldering the rifle at different angles and then moving to different targets up to 90 degrees away and never "lost" a target or its surroundings. At the variable powers it functioned flawlessly. It is very clear and remains focused and eye relief never changed. I did have one interesting thing happen in the beginning. My groups were about 3 inches. This gun and ammo combination is sub moa so I got a little worried. I tighted up the mounts and checked everything. I even switched out optics to make sure the gun was good to go. I put the Meopta back on and shot a 3 inch three shot group again. Then it just tighten up, sub moa. Four or five more strings all sub mao. I dont know if being new the reticle was not settled or something but it started shooting tight little groups. I pulled the scope, tapped it a couple of times, put it back on and still sub moa. All in all I am pleased with my purchase. I will say the finish does mare easily when mounting and I foresee it showing age with handling and being "buffed" in a case. Also the little Meopta logo on the side just fell off but my thought is I can live with that if that is my biggest problem. If this scope were 450.00 instead of 550.00 I dont think you could find them.

Perry

Damn, I guess I need to buy one now.