FALCON Menace IR 4.5-18x56 review

D

daragans

Member
Rating - 99.1%
105   1   0
Location
Calgary, Alberta
DISCLAIMER: This is a description of MY OWN SCOPE. You have all rights to do your own stupid mistakes.

Couple month ago I started looking for another scope for my Remington 700P in 308. There was great review article on Sniper Central website: http://www.snipercentral.com/menace45.htm.

For everything good what you want to know refer to their article. For everything else just keep reading…

There are two approaches of trying new scope. Get one used, what is cheaper, and blame previous owner that he screwed it up, or buy new one and blame yourself for buying it. I went with option #2. I ordered brand new IR in metric (milliradian) adjustments. I spent my time in military and for me it’s easy to calculate bullet drop adjustments when click value is equal 1cm at 100 m. After only 6 weeks it was in my post box. Box with scope was marked SIR451856 B-MP. Serial number is 0004(!). Checking manufacturer website didn’t clear what B-MP stands for. First surprise was that it had ¼ MOA turrets instead of metric. I can live with that. Second surprise was that ML-20 reticle became ML-16(?) with introduction of IR option. I can live with that too.

Finally it was mounted on Remington 700 Police, glass bedded, trigger adjusted to 2 pounds, Badger bolt handle extension, 20MOA rail, 30mm steel scope rings. And yes, I did use Locktite. And I do reload.

I live in Calgary and shoot at Mountain Marksman club range. 300m still under construction, so I was limited to 200m. To zero it was easy. First shot at target and then you just bring your reticle from point of aim to point of impact. Took couple more rounds for final adjustments. Next went Chrony to measure speed. Then all results went into ballistic software. I have 2 ballistic calculators in laptop and one in Pocket PC. All three ballistic calculators agreed on MOA adjustments with precision of +/- 0.1 MOA. Usually that is good enough to get home, print range/drop card and tape it to your rifle.

WRONG! Not with Falcon! Keep reading…

I still had few rounds left, dialed 200m adjustment according to ballistic calculator. All shots went higher. That didn’t ring my bell…
Then back to 100m I decided to try how repetitive scope is. Dialed 20MOA up and shot at target. I used 80x60 cm paper aiming at bottom mark. I guess bullet-ferry visited us and bullet disappeared without leaving dollar under cheek rest. No bullet mark on 80 cm line? At this distance it was suppose to be approximately 21 inch high. That didn’t ring my bell also... Dialed 20MOA down, impact point went back to zero.

Third surprise came when I decided to let barrel to cool off and put target turrets to zero marks for elevation and windage. After removing turrets screws I tried to pull them off. Good luck! I’m not a small guy but no way was I able to remove them easy. I huffed and puffed and finally they went off. Look ma no tools!

Surprise number four. You think it’s still zeroed at 100m? Right?

WRONG! Not with Falcon! Keep reading…

Without installing them back fired three more rounds. Zero? What zero? Four inches lower and seven inches to the right!!!!! By pulling with hand???? At 100m???

Re-zero again. Carefully put turrets back. Twice before it went to zero again.

Biggest surprise came when I was shooting at 375 meters at tree stamp. 15 rounds went 2 feet above point of aim. Prone with bipod. Nice crispy day, no wind, I was able to see bullet turbulence through scope. Pockets content is laser range finder (distance), anemometer (wind speed and temperature), GPS (elevation) and pocket PC for ballistics calculator. Next came ballistic chart pulled from rifle flying towards same tree stamp. This time it hit lower. Much lower… Low BC I guess. Didn’t have Allen wrench to try scope hit that stamp.

First thought was that I got scope in metric with ¼ MOA turrets. I took my chemistry class long time ago so I should be able to calculate tangent of square triangle. In metric world ¼ MOA at 100m is 7.25mm or 0.725 cm. Difference between metric adjustments (1cm per click) value and MOA only 0.275 cm per click. Value of difference for one click at that distance is 3.75 times 0.275 is 1.03 cm. I need 6.75 MOA adjustment for bullet drop @375m. This equals to 27 clicks (remember I have ¼ MOA turrets). Total difference at this distance is 27.84 cm. Where is the other 32 cm comes from???

Brings another question - Exactly how many foot-####-pounds-liters per square millimeter of one inch linear revolution click value this English-Chinese hybrid has?

I guess I can go back to gun range to find real click value and recalibrate adjustments accordingly.

I was looking for used scope first and I’m still getting replies from forum members. One was going to sell his scope because “shift conflicts with the range”

Looks like I’m not the only one having problem with scope.

Anyone to share his experience?

Thanks!

Sergey
 
I've only shot my 4-14x 44mm FFP model. Works great. I have a couple of the 4.5-18x 56mm IR with the ML-16 reticle and metric turrets (Yes they are all marked correctly).

Every scope manufacturer will have flaws. I have 5 Zeiss Conquest scopes and one of them had to be returned due to a spec in the scope housing which caused a blemish on the lens when you looked through it. $1000 scope yet there was a manufacturing error. It does happen.

I'd contact the dealer you bought the scope from.

Just messing around with the scope, they seem good. Similar reticle to my Nightforce especially with the illuminated reticle option. The parallax and magnification adjustments were decent too. Not as nice as the NF but still pretty good. The glass looks good on my 3 FFP models, my 1 1.5-5x IR model and my 3 4.5-18x 56mm models. Not as good as my Zeiss conquest or NF but still very good.

I'll be putting them on rifles. I don't expect there to be any problems. They seem at first look over to be good scopes with excellent features for the money. Plus I have confidence that if there is a problem it'll be looked after.

Sorry to hear about your issue. I'd get it replaced and give it another go.
 
k, see if CyberK will take it back or replace it with one to your liking. I own both Menace Models 4.5-18x56 and the 4-14x44FFP also in Metric and never had any issues. Again talk to Mike and see what he can do for you. :)
 
Let us know when you get the new one and how it works out. I'm definitely interested in the follow up.

By the way the one flaw that I have noticed is that it's hard to get zero when you take the knobs off. You're just slightly off when you put the knob back on. This seems to be common as others have also noticed this. Other than that the ones I have mounted have worked very well. Should have a few more mounted soon.
 
Epoxy7 said:
Let us know when you get the new one and how it works out. I'm definitely interested in the follow up.

By the way the one flaw that I have noticed is that it's hard to get zero when you take the knobs off. You're just slightly off when you put the knob back on. This seems to be common as others have also noticed this. Other than that the ones I have mounted have worked very well. Should have a few more mounted soon.
Click to expand...


Refer to my last post in this thread:

http://www.snipercentral.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=19102


I have the same problem, the scope is always 1/4 behind or ahead of the marking so I contacted Nick W @ Falcon and supposedly they will be releasing new turret caps to resolve this issue.

I will post the exact email on monday :)
 
I've used mine all summer, attended two F-class shoots and a few long range practices, the scope as been working perfectly at all yardages. Extremely repeatable, it always comes back to zero. I did notice when zeroing my turrets that the 0 line is just about half a click out, but that's no big deal for me. For the price I'm definitely happy.
 
Here is the email I said I would post:

Hi

Yes the new turret caps will solve this issue. Its just a case of how the turret cap is located on that internal spline, its not a precise enough method. I think the turret internal allows the cap to be located in about 30 different positions, its not enough as the system is 60 clicks per revolution.

We are going to start to introduce the new turrets on new models in the next couple of weeks.

By early 2009 we should have new turret cap sets to send out to our dealers so guys like yourself can retrofit them to existing models. They secure using 3 grub screws, the turret cap will rotate around that internal spline until the grub screws are tightened. We will be getting these out to our dealers free of charge.

Kind Regards

Nick W

Falcon Optics
 
Thanks, "mr. " ---------This day & age , it's impressive to hear of a company that will listen to their customers , & work at giving real Customer Service!--- That is actually Great News!, as I just paid for a pre-order from "Cyber K" . (Allen Gun Works)---------- Now even MORE glad I did!!!!
 
I spoke with Nick yesterday and once the new caps are released they will ship us some. Not all scope require them, but they will be available to any of our customers who feel theirs are a little "off".
 
Asked a few more questions about the new turret cap...here is a bit more details and a picture:

We cant be any more specific than early 09 at this stage. They wont need any drilling/tapping etc to retro-fit. There is a picture attached to this email that should address your concerns. We have got rid of the top mounted hold screw and there are no teeth on the inner of the turret cap. It wont interlock in like the existing caps do.

Best Wishes,

Claire D'Anna

Falcon Optics

Turret_Set_09.jpg





*For some reason I hope this new design isn't flimsy. I hope that the 3 grub screws just don't screw into the internal spline without any proper support.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom