Rifle Scopes The Arken Optics Thread (merged)
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I looked at them when I stumbled on them on EBay of all places.
I just didn’t think the cantilever AR mount was attractive but it seemed functional and was 1/2 off at like $30.
I have a set of the new mounts ordered along with 6-24x50. Should be here next week. I already have 4-14x44 and really like it, I am excited to see the 6-24.
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Holy moly, I like it! But I'm afraid that might spook game if you want to dial in the field.
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LolHoly moly,I like it! But I'm afraid that might spook game if you want to dial in the field.
They definitely got the tactile clicks figured out.
So my 4-16x50 just showed up. The mag ring is snug, but not overly tight. I could see throwing a lever on it, especially with frozen fingers on a hunt. The Elevation and Windage turrets are super tactile. There's no chance of missing a click when setting! I'm a fan of fine reticles, and think this will be alright, but I could definitely go for one just a touch thicker. The reticle is busy, but I don't pay attention to the parts I don't need, so the range thing above the crosshairs don't bug me. The glass is fantastic, especially for a sub $1k scope. I'm happy I went with this over the refurb Viper PST I was going to get (I don't use illum ret, so that was just extra to me). The parallax knob is snug at first turn, but buttery smooth. I can't wait to get this mounted onto my CTR!!
I received my EP 6-24x50 and I hate the reticle, it’s too thin. I really like the reticle on the SH4 4-14x44, so I ordered one of those. To be honest it’s been hard for me to come to grips with everyone thoughts on these scopes. The reason for this is my cheapest scope I have is an IOR, so all of the reviews talk a good game, but come no where near what I expect of a scope. Now I may be expecting way to much of these scopes. However, everyone‘s reviews have given me a false idea of what these scope are, they are good for the amount of money spent on them and that’s it.
Looks like MK Machining already makes a throw lever and parallax knob for the EP4. Here's a link. And if anyone is wondering, here's the Butler Creek caps that fit the EP4 series. https://mkmachining.com/product/arken-throw-levers/
I just finished mounting mine. I have the 4-14x44 SH4 that I purchased for my .300WM on the recommendation of a friend. The image is very bright and outlines are crisp. The focus and image are excellent through all magnifications. The turrets are very positive in their clicks, no mush at all. So far it's at least on par with my PST2. Eyebox is very forgiving.
So far the only thing I have found that's iffy is the tight parallax knob that's been mentioned in a few places. IF anyone has found a fix for that, I'd appreciate it. A bit annoying, but def not a show stopper.
I'll report backon how it tracks and how it holds up under the recoil of the 300 win...
So far the only thing I have found that's iffy is the tight parallax knob that's been mentioned in a few places. IF anyone has found a fix for that, I'd appreciate it. A bit annoying, but def not a show stopper.
I'll report backon how it tracks and how it holds up under the recoil of the 300 win...
Hit up Tyler at MK Machining. They have one for the Athlon and I love it. Really makes a huge difference in fine tuning.
Here ya go! You need a throw lever while you're at it....
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Pro Series Parallax Adjustment Wheel
Upgrade your optic with one of our Pro Series Parallax Adjustment Wheel, speeding up parallax adjustment without breaking the bank. Our parallax adjustment wheels are proudly printed in the USA from durable custom made Nylon polymer, They install in a minute or less, and come with a lifetime...
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That lever shown fits the SH 4-14?Here ya go! You need a throw lever while you're at it....
Pro Series Parallax Adjustment Wheel
Upgrade your optic with one of our Pro Series Parallax Adjustment Wheel, speeding up parallax adjustment without breaking the bank. Our parallax adjustment wheels are proudly printed in the USA from durable custom made Nylon polymer, They install in a minute or less, and come with a lifetime...
ok, running parallax up and down a few times has loosened up the knob a decent amount...
I went out at dusk to check on brightness under poor light conditions and this thing meets my leupy 3i LRP as far as clarity and light transmission (both at minimum mag, 4x for arken and the leup at 8.5x, but the Leup is a 50mm obj vs 44 for Arken)...
I was focusing in on objects that were just a blur of shadows and colors to the naked eye at 100 yards and could see clear outlines and distinguish depths to the point I was able to count the logs in pile I'd dumped after bucking up a small tree that was 120 yards off my porch through the scope.
We'll see how it zeros and holds, but up to now, I'm impressed with the value per dollar spent.
Thanks to Tyler for the links. Can you confirm the throw will work for the SH-4?
I went out at dusk to check on brightness under poor light conditions and this thing meets my leupy 3i LRP as far as clarity and light transmission (both at minimum mag, 4x for arken and the leup at 8.5x, but the Leup is a 50mm obj vs 44 for Arken)...
I was focusing in on objects that were just a blur of shadows and colors to the naked eye at 100 yards and could see clear outlines and distinguish depths to the point I was able to count the logs in pile I'd dumped after bucking up a small tree that was 120 yards off my porch through the scope.
We'll see how it zeros and holds, but up to now, I'm impressed with the value per dollar spent.
Thanks to Tyler for the links. Can you confirm the throw will work for the SH-4?
Mine was pretty tight when I took it out of the box. I just worked it back and forth some and it loosened right up. The magnification ring is still stiff though. I will be getting a throw lever from Tyler.
I feel you there... I was able to get the reticle nuts on to the way I like it within about a turn and a half, but getting it started was a bit of a bitch and I HATE forcing anything on an optic...
That said, I kind of look at it as an asset now. At least once the caps go on it won't have a tendency to turn and take my focus with it...
Sadly it appears videos uploaded to imgur don't have sound......but check this lil video out. 20lbs of AR500 barely turns the mag ring on this one we got in the shop.
Glass is nice, thin reticle though. Turrets are nice. Mag ring is SO STIFF I had to make a demo, excuse my ghetto rope experiment.
Glass is nice, thin reticle though. Turrets are nice. Mag ring is SO STIFF I had to make a demo, excuse my ghetto rope experiment.
Mine is nothing like that. Even the first time I turned it, it was never that stiff
Today, I spent some time behind the EP-4 4-16x50 - about 4 hours to be exact. Here is the verdict: I like it a lot, it has one big area for improvement and a couple small areas but it is truly a very fine optic. Ok, here we go.
1. The center of the reticle IS USABLE DOWN TO
6x as long as you have daylight - not necessarily sunlight, but daylight. I was wrong about that when I posted my initial assessment yesterday. I base this assessment on starting at 16x and engaging a paper target at 50 yards with a few rounds. I reduced magnification by 1x and repeated, shooting into the same group. I did this all the way down to 4x I was able to stay in the group down to 6x. After that, I was unable to see the center reticle and the hits showed it. I repeated this test at 200 meters on high power chickens. I was able to see the center dot and place hits down to 6x. I was able to place hits indexing off the thicker lines and using the center open space all the way down to 4x.
2. The glass is unbelievably good. It compared on par with my friends PST GEN 1, which we were shooting on his Anschutz 64MPR. I had the Arken Optics on my custom T1x.
3. The turrets on the EP-4 are superior to those on the PST Gen 1. More tactile, more audible, larger, much better zero stop.
Repeatability. I zeroed at 50 yards. I then dialed up to 60 mtrs, 77 mtrs, 100 mtrs and recorded the come ups. These are the NRA Smallbore Silhouette distances. Next I recorded the come up to 200 mtrs. I the. Proceeded to engage targets at all these distances randomly for 2 hours, dialing all elevation changes. The scope was spot on for every elevation change. I probably dialed elevation changes 50-60 times.
4. The ranging feature is a loser and is taking up valuable real estate that should house a MILing stadia line. Compact laser rangefinders makes this type feature quaint at best. Nobody is going to use this feature in this scope. The few operators out there who need it WILL NOT be using this optic. The downside of not having an upper stadia line is that when you shoot high or over, you have no MILing feature to allow you to measure the error and dial in correction. This is a significant loss of functionality, more so than not having a fast way to shoot a human being. ? Arken, please put a regular MILing stadia line in the top half of the reticle.
5. Cloudy-weather visibility of the reticle is fine. We started at 9:00 a.m. and it was so foggy that they threatened to close down the range. You could not see targets at 100 yards. As the day progressed, visibility improved until we had direct, cloudless sunlight in the afternoon. The reticle was clear, crisp, and usable against a variety of backgrounds. In daylight the reticle is usable. It is not for lowlight - dusk or dawn.
6. Due to the mild wind conditions and the fact that I dialed everything, I did not use the Xmas tree portion of the reticle. However, I did use some of the windage MILing marks to measure shot error and dial in correction. The MIL values were accurate.
7. The center reticle needs slightly thicker dots. That would help the shooter use the reticle down to 4x and also help with tracking the very fine center dot on many backgrounds. The center dot should be larger than, not smaller than the other dots in the center. I repeatedly missed shots because my eye was drawn to the larger dot on top of the center dot. The problem gets worse as you reduce magnification. I suspect the center was designed around the 6-24x model, and not the 4x of the 4-16.
The glass is well above the price point. The eyebox is generous and I suffered no eye fatigue after four hours on the glass.
SUGGESTIONS: thicken the center. Replace the ranging feature with a top vertical stadia that mimicked the lower stadia without the xmas tree.
All said, I like it and will buy another once they offer an improved reticle.
1. The center of the reticle IS USABLE DOWN TO
6x as long as you have daylight - not necessarily sunlight, but daylight. I was wrong about that when I posted my initial assessment yesterday. I base this assessment on starting at 16x and engaging a paper target at 50 yards with a few rounds. I reduced magnification by 1x and repeated, shooting into the same group. I did this all the way down to 4x I was able to stay in the group down to 6x. After that, I was unable to see the center reticle and the hits showed it. I repeated this test at 200 meters on high power chickens. I was able to see the center dot and place hits down to 6x. I was able to place hits indexing off the thicker lines and using the center open space all the way down to 4x.
2. The glass is unbelievably good. It compared on par with my friends PST GEN 1, which we were shooting on his Anschutz 64MPR. I had the Arken Optics on my custom T1x.
3. The turrets on the EP-4 are superior to those on the PST Gen 1. More tactile, more audible, larger, much better zero stop.
Repeatability. I zeroed at 50 yards. I then dialed up to 60 mtrs, 77 mtrs, 100 mtrs and recorded the come ups. These are the NRA Smallbore Silhouette distances. Next I recorded the come up to 200 mtrs. I the. Proceeded to engage targets at all these distances randomly for 2 hours, dialing all elevation changes. The scope was spot on for every elevation change. I probably dialed elevation changes 50-60 times.
4. The ranging feature is a loser and is taking up valuable real estate that should house a MILing stadia line. Compact laser rangefinders makes this type feature quaint at best. Nobody is going to use this feature in this scope. The few operators out there who need it WILL NOT be using this optic. The downside of not having an upper stadia line is that when you shoot high or over, you have no MILing feature to allow you to measure the error and dial in correction. This is a significant loss of functionality, more so than not having a fast way to shoot a human being. ? Arken, please put a regular MILing stadia line in the top half of the reticle.
5. Cloudy-weather visibility of the reticle is fine. We started at 9:00 a.m. and it was so foggy that they threatened to close down the range. You could not see targets at 100 yards. As the day progressed, visibility improved until we had direct, cloudless sunlight in the afternoon. The reticle was clear, crisp, and usable against a variety of backgrounds. In daylight the reticle is usable. It is not for lowlight - dusk or dawn.
6. Due to the mild wind conditions and the fact that I dialed everything, I did not use the Xmas tree portion of the reticle. However, I did use some of the windage MILing marks to measure shot error and dial in correction. The MIL values were accurate.
7. The center reticle needs slightly thicker dots. That would help the shooter use the reticle down to 4x and also help with tracking the very fine center dot on many backgrounds. The center dot should be larger than, not smaller than the other dots in the center. I repeatedly missed shots because my eye was drawn to the larger dot on top of the center dot. The problem gets worse as you reduce magnification. I suspect the center was designed around the 6-24x model, and not the 4x of the 4-16.
The glass is well above the price point. The eyebox is generous and I suffered no eye fatigue after four hours on the glass.
SUGGESTIONS: thicken the center. Replace the ranging feature with a top vertical stadia that mimicked the lower stadia without the xmas tree.
All said, I like it and will buy another once they offer an improved reticle.
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I think this is my hold up. They could own the sub $1k market with a few improvements to the reticle.
I hold under in probably half the matches I shoot with rimfire. I don’t dial. I use my reticle for everything since it’s so much faster. If I’m shooting between say 25 yards and 300 yards with 6 dope changes I will dial to one of the middle distances and just right my hold over/under on my dope card. That is a pretty common practice in rimfire since a lot of time there isn’t enough on your reticle to hold over for all your targets.
Never knew how matches work. That would be fun to get into it. I'm sure it gets expensive too.
Also as to the reticle, being extremely thin as most have stated makes use at lower power difficult without illumination.
Has anyone verified how much total elevation is available in the 4-16 and 6-24?
A simple tree with hold under instead of the shoulder ranging and slightly thicker center reticle and around 30 mils total elevation would make a splash.
I do understand the current reticle and why it was chosen. It sells to a different demographic than most here.
Has anyone verified how much total elevation is available in the 4-16 and 6-24?
A simple tree with hold under instead of the shoulder ranging and slightly thicker center reticle and around 30 mils total elevation would make a splash.
I do understand the current reticle and why it was chosen. It sells to a different demographic than most here.
Well I just couldn't get past the reticle on the EP line. So, I have one for sale in the for here if anyone is interested-
If they change the reticle to something I like I will purchase another one, until then I will just wait.
If they change the reticle to something I like I will purchase another one, until then I will just wait.
The specs have it with as follows:
EP4 4-16x50 model 32 mils in the vert and 10 mils in horiz
EP4 6-24x50 28 mils vert and 10 in the horiz
SH4 4-14x44 22 mils vert and 19 mils horiz
Real world might be off a mil or so...
We are going to offer versions past Feb in a simpler MIL reticle of the SH4 model.
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That‘s great news. When the new reticles are released I will probably buy 2 more.
Any way to get the reticle in the current production EP4 updated once that's released?
Great news, but a SH4 reticle with a Christmas tree on it the would be the ultimate combo on the EP’s
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I agree and will pass it along.. not sure the status of the next batch...
Got my 6-24 today.
initial impressions:
1. Glass is bright and clear. Later will follow up after taking it out.
2. Nothing is too tight. Turrets and focus are turned with just two fingers. Magnification is slightly tighter but still two fingers with a bit more force. If anyone wants a video I can take one.
3. My right eye is ok (-0.50) so I can see reticle ok at 6x. The center 1 mil is harder due to the dotted line. But it is almost like a 2 moa x 2 moa “box”.
4. No idea about the number and lines on the top half of the reticle yet, need to read some manual.
Add one more:
5. Total elevation is just 30 mil (or 29.9).
initial impressions:
1. Glass is bright and clear. Later will follow up after taking it out.
2. Nothing is too tight. Turrets and focus are turned with just two fingers. Magnification is slightly tighter but still two fingers with a bit more force. If anyone wants a video I can take one.
3. My right eye is ok (-0.50) so I can see reticle ok at 6x. The center 1 mil is harder due to the dotted line. But it is almost like a 2 moa x 2 moa “box”.
4. No idea about the number and lines on the top half of the reticle yet, need to read some manual.
Add one more:
5. Total elevation is just 30 mil (or 29.9).
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This is an explanation of how to use it.. ,more info in my FB group...Arken Optics USA Info..... basically us use the height to top of the head from dead center to lay it from foot to head and the head should tell you close the range.... based on what numbered chevron it is close too.. the same way works with the shoulder width... 19.5"wide and 5'10" tall.... shoot me PM if you need more help info
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I assume he is simply spinning from full down to full up so mount isn’t a factor in recording total elevation adjustment available.
Thanks @randalloc
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