Rifle Scopes loaner scope - Hawke Endurance or Simmons AETEC?

[jayd4wg]

for a hunting rifle, will never see a shot on deer further than 200 yards - both are 10x max without AO.

Hawke Endurance 3.5-10x50 $59.00
Simmons AETEC 2.5-10x44 $69

it's going on another .308 and the old man has ZERO budget for the new gun...I just want to get him in the woods. I offered to put a scope on his rifle just to get him out with me this fall. If he likes it, i'm sure his personality will have him tinkering in no time and upgrading everything. If so, the scope will come back to me and likely end up on my slug gun or on a .22 for the kids to plink with.

I'm still holding out for my rifle, probably going to end up with a loopy or mid grade nikon

 

[jayd4wg]

Re: loaner scope - Hawke Endurance or Simmons AETEC?

i know...neither of them is a $500 scope, but seriously, it's gonna be a throwaway, but I do NOT want to put total garbage on it. I don't want AO, and would even consider a straight 4 or 6 power if it could be had...he likes the idea of having a zoom though. an ok 3-9 would be ideal, but i found great prices on both of these two scopes and was hoping someone here would have a little exposure to either and be able to say "yeah, it held up to my xxxx hunting rifle..." etc.

thanks in advance

 

[Big_Daddy]

Re: loaner scope - Hawke Endurance or Simmons AETEC?

I have no experience with the Hawke and only limited for the AETEC. A friend had the AETEC on his "truck gun" for beating around in the field. I only shot with it a few times but it got the job done. Certainly not a scope I'd be putting on a high end gun but it did's it job. Haven't seen it (or him) in awhile to see how it's held up but for the money it seemed decent.

 

[Quarter Horse]

Re: loaner scope - Hawke Endurance or Simmons AETEC?

I'm not sure that admitting I use this stuff won't get me banned but here goes. I bought two Simmons Pro Hunters recently. I have a friend that is much more rifle knowledgeable than I am. He calls me for shotgun questions and I call him for rifle answers. He swears by the Simmons stuff, in particualar th Whitetail Hunter series.

The two I am using are 6.5x21 with target turrets and side focus. Both are mounted on .223s. They have been perfectly serviceable. One has been shot enough to verify repeatability and return to zero. At higher mag eye relief becomes very critical. So far so good and very reasonable.

 

[jayd4wg]

Re: loaner scope - Hawke Endurance or Simmons AETEC?

dare I say that on another forum it was suggested i fall back on the tasco 2.5-10x44 with AO? I'm not crazy about AO on a hunting gun, particularly a carbine to boot. speed on target with fewer knobs to fiddle with is the goal. my old man is not one to waste time with a bunch of gadgets. He'd sooner carry two different box end wrenches than fiddle with the knob on an adjustable.

 

[jayd4wg]

Re: loaner scope - Hawke Endurance or Simmons AETEC?

on the offline advice of a few members and some additional input from some folks at a local taxidermy/archery shop - i pulled the trigger on a Hawke Endurance 3.5-10x50 for 59 bucks. Not expecting a whole lot...we'll see when it gets here.

 

[dareposte]

Re: loaner scope - Hawke Endurance or Simmons AETEC?

Should be fine for hunting at a fixed zero setting. You didn't mention the caliber but I hope its not too big, in the distant past I had a lot of trouble out of a Hawke varmint scope on my 30-06 with not keeping zero. It was fine on my 22LR but I sold it anyway once I figured out how important good optics are to shooting.

Be prepared to adjust, tap tap tap on the turret with a screwdriver handle to help set the adjustment, shoot at LEAST two shots to see where the zero falls, then repeat.

 

[jayd4wg]

Re: loaner scope - Hawke Endurance or Simmons AETEC?

roger that. it's going on another 308. the owner of the tax/arch shop has one of the endurance 3-9x40's on his 308 and has had zero trouble. he knew the sale was not going to him and he spoke very candidly about scopes. Most of their scopes sold are for crossbows which beat the living hell out of rifle scopes because of the type of vibrations exerted on the scope. Most "rifle" scopes fail to function after a short while attached to an xbow. that said, he told me of all his rifle scope offerings, the hawks represent less than 1% of all their returns, while bushnell, leupold, both account for 10-15%, and a couple other well known brands (pretty expensive ones to boot) have a higher than expected return rate as well. I'd call it a "non-biased" opinion and will conduct a THOROUGH review of the scope when I get it.

 

[dareposte]

Re: loaner scope - Hawke Endurance or Simmons AETEC?

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: JasonB</div><div class="ubbcode-body">the hawks represent less than 1% of all their returns, while bushnell, leupold, both account for 10-15%, and a couple other well known brands (pretty expensive ones to boot) have a higher than expected return rate as well. </div></div>

That could be misleading, if the guy sold 10 hawks and got one back, sold 100 leupolds and got 5 back, then the leupolds would account for 83% of his returns and the hawk for 16%, despite the fact that 10% of Hawkes sold were returned and only 5% of Leupolds were returned.

Hawke is a somewhat respected brand in Europe, and though it wouldn't be my first choice for a fixed-zero hunting rifle, you could do worse. I looked back at my E-mails about my Varmint II and the problem I had with it was the knobs "maxxed out" the elevation but still spun another full two turns just not moving the cross hairs. This happened at the high end and the low end. I sent it back and got a replacement, their warranty service was fine and they were very accomodating, but I sold the new unopened box on E-bay to get what I could out of it since I knew it wouldn't meet my needs. It was not skipping zero on me like I said earlier, that was a Vortex crossfire that I also sent back.

I took the long road to learn that optics aren't cheap and you should buy a good one. But I finally made it.

 

[dareposte]

Re: loaner scope - Hawke Endurance or Simmons AETEC?

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: JasonB</div><div class="ubbcode-body">
I'm still holding out for my rifle, probably going to end up with a loopy or mid grade nikon
</div></div>

Not a fan of the Leupolds, in my opinion they've been surpassed by other brands in performance and value in the past 12 years of sitting on their heels and riding their reputation. Its not that they're bad per say, but for the money you can get more scope and better performance these days out of a Nikon, Sightron, Bushnell Elite, SuperSniper, even my .22's Mueller APT is more repeatable and clearer than the closest priced Leupold.

 

[jayd4wg]

Re: loaner scope - Hawke Endurance or Simmons AETEC?

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: dareposte</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: JasonB</div><div class="ubbcode-body">the hawks represent less than 1% of all their returns, while bushnell, leupold, both account for 10-15%, and a couple other well known brands (pretty expensive ones to boot) have a higher than expected return rate as well. </div></div>

That could be misleading...
</div></div>

Agreed, and I addressed that statement with him. Asked for raw numbers. He said last year he sold over 500 rifle scopes. had 2 hawkes come back. had 30+loopys and 21 bushnells. I said OKay...how many hawkes did you sell? 120-ish. close enough for me. 20 percent of total sales, and less than 1% of returns. Still...the jury is out. we'll see what happens when it gets here. I'd have rather gotten the MAP-8 reticle and printed up a range card for the scope cover but i'd rather keep it simple for pops. a regular duplex reticle, sighted for zero at 200 keeps him point blank for 250 yards. further than any shot he will ever be presented with in my neck of the woods.

 

[jayd4wg]

Re: loaner scope - Hawke Endurance or Simmons AETEC?

Hawke Endurance 3.5-10x50 arrived today. So far, impressed. It don't take much...but the glass looks very clean comparing to neighbors 3200. Will post pics by weekend when I get to take it to the range. damn thing has alot of elevation and windage travel. 1/4 MOA clicks, and there was 200 up, 400 back down to stop and 200 back to center. same with windage. 50MOA of elevation above center point...can't wait to see how much off center the mounts have it hitting. I really need to get diff't mounts though. I'm a full .3" off the barrel with my current mounts. I have the high leupold rifleman rings on it now and the mediums are .258" lower. this will be VERY close to the bore and just clears the BC caps.