I just purchased the Covenant 7 in 5x35x56 with 34mm tube in mildot with the tac10 reticle. I mounted it on a Howa HCR in .300 Win Mag. Like you I was looking for a scope in the $500 range and I was considering the Nikon FX1000 6x24x50 and the cheaper Vortex Diamondback Tactical 6x24x50. I had looked at the Nikon before and was really impressed with the glass. I am fortunate enough to own a couple of very high end scopes so I have a pretty good idea of what "good" glass is. Believe it or not the Covenant 7's glass, even at 35x power is fantastic. My only criticism is at the very edge of the glass at full magnification the image is a little fuzzy but with the 56mm objective and 34mm tube the sight picture was very bright and sharp. After zeroing I performed a tracking test at it was dead on. At 1000 yards I've been averaging .77 moa with a best group size of .569 moa and worst 1.213 moa. I've fired about 100 rounds of hand loaded .300 Win Mag with no issues. Zero has held and I did another tracking test after 80 rounds with no problems at all. I like the Tac 10 reticle. It's nearly the same as the Tac8 and Strelok and a few other ballistics apps have this scope in their database. The reticle is FFP glass etched with very fine lines. The only drawback is at lower magnification the reticle is pretty small and using holdover points isn't easy. One of my high end scopes has the Horus Tremor 3 reticle which I love and the Tac 10 is similar although simpler. Hope this helps.
I bought mine at Bass Pro Shop and they assured me the warranty would be honored. I appreciate the heads up though. So far it's been a fantastic scope!
I've probably put 200 or so 190 grain Berger Juggernaut rounds through it and around 300 or so 208 grain ELD Match rounds. I was planning to buy another one so I recently did a 100 yard tracking test to see if that had been affected by the fairly heavy recoil. The scope tracked perfectly and has never lost it's zero. So I went ahead and bought another Covenant 7 in the 5x35x56 model with 34mm tube. This one went on a .224 Valkyrie that I just built. When I took it to the range I ran out of "down" adjustment before I quite had my zero. I bought expensive steel Burris rings so I didn't think that was the problem. I moved the scope to a different rifle, tried different rings and nothing worked. I took the scope back to Bass Pro Shops last week and they apologised and handed me another one with a new receipt. This one zeroed, tracked and performed flawlessly. These scopes are as good as my Vortex Viper in glass clarity and tracking. The Vortex has nicer turrets but otherwise the covenant matches the quality and performance of scopes costing 4 times as much!
They call the reticle the Tac 10 reticle. I use the paid version of the Strelok app and this reticle is in their database. It's on the manual that comes with the scope. If anyone needs it I can take a pic and post it.
I just emailed their corporate office for clarification on this issue and will post their reply when I receive it.
I recently had a chance to compare the Athlon Helps BTR 8x34x56 side by side with the covenant 7 5x35x56 and I was very surprised! I've been hearing a lot of good things about Athlon so I expected the $800 Athlon to be substantially better than the $400 covenant but it was the exact opposite! Glass clarity, brightness, field of view etc at full power the covenant won hands down. The only thing better on the Athlon were the turrets. The covenant turrets were big with good positive clicks but the Athlon had locking rings and better feel but that's a minor thing compared to glass clarity, brightness and field of view. Another big difference was the Athlon had large black ring between the edge of the magnified image and the internal body of the scope. I moved back and forth and made sure I was in the eye relief sweet spot, I adjusted the ocular lens and paralax but that black ring never went away. On the covenant the field of view was huge and the image went right to the edge. I was planning to buy an Athlon but went with the covenant instead after this experience. Maybe it was just that Athlon scope, I know a lot of people like them.
The Midas TAC has more elevation adjustment. The 6-24x50 has 85 MOA vs the covenant having 70 MOA. The new 5-25x56 Midas TAC has 110 MOA.
The glass clarity even at full power is what sold me on these scopes. I had an opportunity to compare my covenant 7 5x35x56 side by side with a Athlon Helos BTR 8x34x56 and the glass clarity was at the very least as good and IMO it was a little better but the big difference was the brightness and field of view. My Covenant 7 was substantially brighter with a much larger field of view at 30x. The Athlon had better turrets and definitely a better warranty but at twice the price! I really am happy with my Covenant scopes!
No definitely not a Discovery scope. I bought a Discovery not long ago and the only thing I will use it for is to sweeten a trade deal so I can get rid of it. I have a Simmons tactical from Academy that's far better and half the price.
Hi mike,
Thank you for that very informative response. I looked up the covenant 5 6x24x50 and it says 300 so not on sale atm.
My understanding is that they will replace for 90 days instore and after that you will have to mail it in. I did read the policy and it does specify normal wear and tear are not covered so that makes it an iffy proposition.
Ah, my mistake. I knew the Covenant 7 scopes were on sale and just made an assumption.
Well I know this is kind of dishonest but if I bought one and a year later the store wouldn't make a defect right then I would buy a new one, put the defective unit in a box and return it the next day.
same here I just pulled the trigger and ordered it also. You have any idea of the height of the 34mm rings for an ar15?
I would look at something like the Aero Precision 34mm one piece for an AR. If you use regular rings you may need a rail extender.
I don't disagree and what I proposed was just a thought not something I've done. My point is I bought my scope from BPS (pic included) and it clearly states lifetime warranty. There were no disclaimers or signs, the sales counter guy didn't say anything about the warranty and I didn't know about the issue until after spending $870 on 2 scopes. Fortunately both scopes are working flawlessly so I've not been faced with the problem but if BPS won't make the effort to post a sign or put a sticker on the box covering the lifetime warranty statement then I feel selling the scope "as is" is at the least false advertising and at worst outright fraud. So if someone should do what I proposed earlier under these circumstances it would IMO be in a "gray" moral area.
No of course not. The stock on the T/C Compass is terrible, it's a standard profile barrel so I had to space my shots out and pay close attention to the barrel temp. I've only had the rig less than a year so who's to say how it will hold up. My point is as recently as 10 years ago it would have been very difficult to achieve groups like that with a rifle and scope with a price tag of $600-$650 which would have been the rough equivalent adjusting for inflation. Particularly in the scope department. The interest in long range precision shooting has made the financial entry point into the sport much more attainable for the casual shooter.
