Hawke Sidewinder ED - opinions?

[CameronWilson]

Has anybody had a chance to play around with Hawke's Sidewinder ED?

 

£849 seems a bit steep given that it's a SFP scope with mismatched MRAD reticle and MOA turrets? But what's the glass like? How much of the mag range is actually usable?

 

Cam.

[VarmLR]

Yes. I didn't like it. Didn't like the turrets, the mis-matched ret, the relatively poor quality (the one I tried, had a turret issue traced to a bodge job on the shimming) and the optics imho were ok but only so-so and at full mag not too clever. Much better available for the money, including the Sightron S111, S-Tac, Nightforce SHV, Vortex PST and discounted (now superceded) Bushnell DMR (FFP/Milrad ret and turrets). I'd take any of those over any Hawke every day of the week at around the £800 mark if for LR target shooting. In fact, comparing my own DMR with some glass up to around £1400, I haven't found anything to better it in build or optically. You're into top quality glass at £1500 to £3000 to really better the DMR family of scopes or the Signtrons. It's worth noting that the DMR replacement uses identical tubes, optics and basic turrets but has been revised to include zero-stop and IR as standard, but with a considerable price hike (I believe that they're now selling at between £1200 and £1400 in the EU) so the discounted ones still available here are soemthing of a bargain and can be used at full mag without tunnelling or whiting out.