| The Good |
| The value on this scope is great. It’s clear, consistent and very tactical looking – all for about 400 bucks. |
| The Bad |
| The battery on our illuminated reticle died fairly quickly. Just to note, the green setting appears to burn a good bit more juice. On the plus side, the etched reticle is sharp without any illumination. |
| The Ugly |
| Our test would have been easier had the Sidewinder been equipped with a .5186246418338 click adjustment. See below for more on this point. We’ll get over it though. |
| Our Rating |
 Four Nuns! For the money, you can’t go wrong with this one. |
Hawke Optics Sidewinder Tactical Scope
Approximate Retail Price: $409.99
The Hawke Optics Sidewinder Tactical scope has all the cool goodies:
- Illuminated glass-etched reticle in red AND green with variable brightness controls for each
- 2″ side-wheel parallax adjustment
- 1/4 MOA tactical turrets. Besides looking exceptionally cool, they offer push/pull locking and easy zero adjustment
- 4″ removable sunshade which looks even more exceptionally cool than the tactical turrets
- Mil-Dot reticle
- Multi-Coated lenses
But can it shoot the cocks?
We intended to find out. More on that in a minute.
We met Brad and Steve from Hawke Sport Optics at this years POMA Conference and got a thorough tour of the Hawke lineup. After some discussion, we elected to run the Hawke Optics Sidewinder Tactical through a comprehensive My Gun Culture evaluation protocol. We’ve been looking for a great opportunity to use a big word like protocol for a while now, so this evaluation is already off to a pulchritudinous (yet another big word) start.
We selected the Sidewinder Tactical as a great match for our test rifle – a Savage 112 in .22-250 caliber. This rifle is an accuracy beast, easily shooting around the 1/2 MOA zone as long as one points it in the right direction.
The Walking Tour
Our evaluation model was the HK4034 10x fixed power with mil-dot reticle. Other models in the Tactical Series offer variable power in 4.5-14x, 6.5-20x and 8.5x25x. It’s a 30mm tube design with a 42mm objective lens so make sure you’ve got the proper rings and bases of adequate height.
We loved the attention to detail in the packaging. The Sidewinder Tactical came in a custom foam-lined hard case with a carry handle for safe transport. Packed in various foam cutouts were the scope itself, a 4″ sunshade, lens cleaning cloth, metal lens covers, a spare battery for the illuminated reticle, tools for turret adjustment, a removable large wheel for parallax adjustment, and owners manual. Inclusion of the little things is a big deal to us as it means the product is immediately usable – without extra trips to the store.
The included lens covers were also a nice touch. Made of metal and a screw-in design, they’re solid and secure. The only gripe we had with them is that the front one will not also mount on the included 4″ sun shade. If you intend to look cool at the range by leaving that on, you have to find a different front lens cover option.
The other stand out feature was the clarity. Loved it. Especially for the price. The sight picture was clear and crisp across the whole diameter of visible area. Speaking of optical characteristics, the eye relief is about 4″ and field of view at 100 yards is almost 12 feet on the fixed 10x model we tested. The ocular lens is easily focused and features a solid locking ring to prevent movement once you get it set just right.
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