Topic: The Best Budget LPVOs, Tested and Reviewed (Read 37 times)
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Though this scope is clearly intended for hog hunting—the reticle’s name leaves no doubt about that, and the running boar on the windage turret cap confirms it—this is actually a very useful low-power scope for turkey hunting, rimfire plinking, and even crossbows.
I’ve had this scope mounted on a Browning BAR chambered-in hog-killing .308 Win., for years, and I’ve taken dozens of Texas pigs with the rig. But the scope has much wider utility, thanks to a non-illuminated reticle that splits the difference between offering close-enough precision aiming points and point-and-shoot rapid deployment.
The second-plane Pig-Plex reticle features a 4 MOA center circle for quick target acquisition on moving targets. If you have time and purpose, you can use the reticles’ twin BDC hashes for holds out to 12.6 MOA, and if you’re holding for wind or for running targets, there are windage hashes out 4.5 MOA on either side of the center cross. It should be noted that the second-plane reticle’s subtensions work only at the scope’s highest power.
The reticle’s holdover points are designed for use with a 200- or 300-yard zero, in which case they provide approximate holds out to 600 yards. If you use a 100-yard zero (more likely in a scope with this configuration), then the holds are good out to 500 yards.
We wish this scope had illumination, in order to expand its utility into after-hours situations, whether hog hunting or personal defense, that is a rising expectation of the LPVO platform. But even without an illuminated reticle, the Pig-Plex offers plenty of versatility.
Bushnell rightly calls this a “brush-gun” scope, and that’s a hard designation to argue. It works well for quick deployment in situations with limited visibility, whether that’s because of the obscuring branches of the jungle or the diminished light of evening. We reco*mend this scope as a do-it-all shotgun optic, at home on a slug gun or a turkey shotgun. And it would be just as useful on a straight-wall cartridge carbine.
If the Bushnell had an illuminated reticle, we might even reco*mend the scope for a personal-defense AR. But without illumination, and with a reticle that has solid but limited utility, it’s really positioned as a fast-deploying, close-enough reticle that will guide a slug or a slurry of turkey shot to its target with plenty of eye relief, field-of-view, and durability.
Our testers still can’t understand how Arken is able to bring so much performance and feature-rich build to market for such an affordable price. For under $400, you get a big and solid 34mm tube and a versatile first-plane reticle that, at lower magnifications, engages close targets quickly, but at higher magnifications provides precision aiming points for distant targets.
We applauded this reticle when it showed up on EOTech’s first LPVO Vudu, and we’ve seen it employed in higher-priced scopes over the past few years. Arken calls their version the KL-Box; the outer circle features quadrilateral horns that help frame close targets. But the inverted horseshoe is a fast and close-enough aiming point for mid-distance targets at middling magnifications. At full magnification, 7 or 8X, the bullet drop references are adequate for those longer-distance targets. With its numeric references—the elevation steps out to 8, which presumably translates to 80 MOA—the expectation is that shooters start with a 200- or even 300-yard zero, unrealistic for a low-power optic. Instead, most shooters will zero this scope at 100 yards, which puts those holdovers out to 500 or 600 yards. That a very good range of utility.
We gave Arken a few demerits over their inability to get this appealing scope to market. The brand has been advertising its availability for months, but precious few shooters have them strapped to rifles.
We know. At nearly $1,000, this stretches the definition of a “budget” LPVO. But we included this excellent scope in the roundup as evidence that that price gets you premium glass, a durable build, and the wide versatility of the LPVO platform, while simultaneously proving the limitations for some very specific shooting situations. The second-plane hash reticle has references on the vertical and horizontal stadia, which experienced shooters can use for rimfire plinking, for quick short-range drills, and for slow-fire shooting at distance. We tested an MOA version of this scope; it’s also available in MRAD.
But because the reticle has no holdoff references for wind adjustments at distance, and because its MOA references are useful at the highest power, this doesn’t bring much to the long-range precision game. That’s okay, because it’s intended to be a fast, simple scope that brings the best 1-power game of all our submissions and has the smoothest, most pleasing controls of the test.
The center-dot illumination is key to the Toric’s appeal. At the highest intensity, the dot (it looks to be about .5 MOA in diameter) offers a bright aiming point that draws your eye to the target. It’s especially quick and intuitive at 1-power, anchoring a huge, bright image that almost appears like you’re not looking through a scope, at all. The Tract’s controls are noteworthy. From the power-changing dial to the turrets and illumination adjustment, all moving parts have the same mellifluous precision.
The Toric scored right in the middle of the pack in terms of low-light performance and optical resolution. For a second-plane design, the reticle received decent marks, though testers questioned the milling hashes. The stadia has marks at 4, 8, and 10 MOA, with 40 MOA of elevation holds. The team thought a more intuitive demarcation would be to have either 5 or 2.5 MOA hashes in order to conform to a base-10 alignment. The other aiming-system quibble we had was the tiny, hard-to-read indexing on the low-profile turrets.
The Tract handled our precision and dynamic target transition drills with grace and talent. But the scope really came into its own during our close-range big-bore work. At 1X to 3X, the scope co*es to the eye in a snap and the daylight-bright illumination finds the target like a guided laser. This rapid target acquisition talent, co*bined with a solid build and simple operation makes the Tract our choice for a dangerous-game rifle, when shots are expected to be both point-blank and at moderate distances.
This scope is very close to being a superstar, and we include the nearly $800 optic in this roundup because it brings so many precision-shooting attributes to the category. The 1-10-power magnification range is extremely useful for a wide range of shooting situations. The MIL-based first-plane reticle is very nice, with three tapered posts that lead the eye to a central aiming point. The architecture aids fast target acquisition at lower magnifications, and a tree-style precision reticle with small and large aiming dots guides bullets at higher magnifications.
Riton calls the reticle their 30T, and shooters can use it to hold 11 MILS of elevation and 11 MILS of windage on either side of a .2 MIL center dot inside a segmented circle, both illuminated. If you don’t care to hold, you can dial with nicely configured low-profile turrets.
But our test is designed to tease out shortco*ings—much to the chagrin of the optics industry—and we found enough in the 5 TACTIX that we felt this scope isn’t quite ready for either its $800 price tag or its potential. Fundamentally, the eyebox is extremely finicky. Every tester co*plained that they had a hard time finding the image or keeping their eye aligned, and the problem increases with magnification. That deficiency was especially noticeable on our instinctive shooting drills, in which scopes are deployed on a big-bore rifle to replicate a charging buffalo. It was hard to find the exit pupil in this scope, even at lower powers.
The glass is equally underwhelming. The Riton tied with the Sightmark for the bottom of our low-light rankings, and was only marginally better at resolving details. The otherwise excellent illumination throws enough internal glare at higher intensities that our testers started using less illumination than they wanted simply to tame that non-image-forming light (yes, we call that NIFL). We also detected fisheye distortion at very low powers and edge distortion at almost every magnification.
Testers gravitated to a sweet spot with this scope. It’s from about 3X, when the illuminated posts and center circle work together to lead the eye to the target, up to about 8X, when the detailed aiming points are nicely visible but the posts serve as capable brackets. Given the robust versatility of this scope, and its ambition to be a do-it-all LPVO, we’re betting you’ll see a lot more from this brand.
Read Next: Best Long Range Rifle Scopes
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