DTA Kahles 624i review

[jungle_re]

This is part one of my review. I make apologies for the style of this it will be quite different to the perspective of most glass reviews.

About me. I have been shooting sporting rifles (centre fire and rf) since the age of 14, a cross over use of several different military firearms from a previous career. I currently mainly sporting shoot and small ore target and gallery rifle slowly taking steps into centre fire target shooting. I have very little experience of fullbore target shooting other than a few roundhouse shoots and distant memories of military shooting. This therefore is a novice giving his findings on the scope and it's use for long range/tactical? Shooting. I'm lucky enough currently to be able to afford the gear I like and blunt enough to give an honest opinion even on things I've spent a lot of cash on.

The scope was bought with my own money from Ewan the man behind the UK importing of DTA gear. Hats off the service was great and was impressed in the dealing and delivery turnaround. Off to a good start. I am waiting for several rifle builds to be completed, I had decided on the Kahles sometime ago for a stiller, acis tactical type 300 win mag build. Non of the existing rets really floated my boat and when DTA finalised theirs I was instantly intrigued. Watching videos and reading magazines I'd grown an appreciation for the Christmas tree Horus type rets but just found them too busy and the illumination cluttered certainly a far cry from the sporting 50/50 or no4 rets I'd been used to. The DTA seemed to combine many of the advantages but in a much more simple design and better thought out illumination so I took the plunge.

The rifle this is for is not completed so in order to play with it I mounted it on the trusty 6.5x55 tikka stalking rifle in a spuhr mount. Installation as a normal scope only what was noticeable over other recent glass was the generous eye relief, it wasn't fussy at all. To the extent that within the movement of the mount non of the positions failed to give a full picture so I settled on where it looked best on the rifle!

Got to the range late and had little light to try and zero, also as a detail was in process I couldn't put a target down. Well good opportunity to test the ret. it was at 200m at some broken clay pieces. Couldn't believe how easy it was, one shot add the clicks from the ret second shot broken bits of clays! Happy days another 5 rounds confirming braking more bits of clays really just for fun! Didn't expect it to be that easy.

Next day off to cornwallace on previous experience to be under ammod, take the piss and share a few wets before he shooting. During the course of the day shooting I really got into using the ret for adjustment. After last time in which I didn't hit anything past 400yrds with a mixture of adjustments mad from my own observation and some help from rich I managed hits out to near 1200yrds! During use a few things became very apparent over the zeiss hd5 of the same mag range before. The glass was a thousand times better! Late on when the light was getting less and less I could still see the splash clearly and the target crisply enabling me to adjust myself and more importantly to our score spot for Rich. How much this accounted for our score I don't know, Rich is a very good shot but I hope it certainly helped a bit. It was mega easy to read out instantly the mil adjustments off target. The dots of the ret seem just to disappear when your not focusing on them very easy just to ignore yet easy to use when needed far more so than I'd expected. One area that was a slight let down was the parallax, love the turret but it was stiffer than squadie in a brothel, to the extent that a complete position brake was required and a bloody stiff grip. Not very good for quick tactical shooting or getting it correct while looking through the eye peice so had to rely on the set marks. Another point is the spuhr mount points are. Dry low and these still slightly got in the way of the top turret parallax you'd have to be careful with mounting systems for decent clearance. I'm hoping that with use it will slacken off a lot, so time devoted to watching tv and twisting it several thousand time though I'd rather not have to do this and it be slick from the start.

Conclusion so far.
Excellent reticle to match mil turrets, as a novice to this type of shooting and sight it was incredibly quick to get to grips with and very easy to use in operation. Far more than I ever imagined. The glass was exceptional and really showed towards the end of the round house shoot when others were struggling. I'd have expected the parallax to be as slick as the turrets in operation I'm sure it will loosen up but for the money I'd expect it to be like it from purchase which was a disappointment. Service from Ewan was excellent. So far I'm happy with my choice but further testing in it chosen platform to come.

Phase 2 will be when it's on the rifle it's intended for and I've spent a good few shoot/comps with it.

[ergid]

so the glass on your new scope is better than on the Zeiss

[jungle_re]

so the glass on your new scope is better than on the Zeiss

Better than the ziess hd5 by a country mile. Think buris to swaro difference. It's difficult more me to compare to other high end scopes I've owned as they have been different mag ranges and I've not got them anymore to directly compare like the ziess. To my memory and eyes it doesn't give up anything to any other glass I've owned and that includes swaro.

 

These are my findings your may differ.

[Deserttech Europe]

Thanks for the comments, i am glad to have helped.

 

regards

 

ewen

[Deserttech Europe]

Here is a detailed breakdown of the reticule for those interested.

 

regards

 

Ewen