King Optics Canada Riflescopes

This past fall I had the pleasure of field testing a riflescope from a Canadian optics company. Yes, you heard me right, Canadian! I had seen the ads for King Optics in the periodical Access to Firearms and finally decided to check out their website. What I saw was interesting so I contacted them and spoke to Nicolas Makrides, the CEO of King Optics Canada Ltd. King Optics is based in Nova Scotia and their scopes are assembled right in Nova Scotia , Canada .

Nicolas agreed to send me a prototype of a new scope model for their Dangerous Game Series to review. This scope is not yet on the market and I would be the first one to use this model in the field. Now who wouldn't find that exciting!

Several weeks later a package arrived from King Optics and the scope I received was their EGR-IR4 1.5-6x42mm with a 30mm scope tube. It is equipped with a rubber armored quick focus ring on the eye piece and their illuminated dot EGR-IR4 reticle. The 30mm tube is a one piece unit made of high quality aircraft grade aluminum and the scope has a hard, scratch resistant black matte anodized finish

On the Dangerous Game Series the etched glass EGR-IR4 reticle is composed of three heavy posts, which reduce to a fine cross hair and a center illuminating dot. The reticle design on its own, without the illuminating reticle, is a good one as the heavy posts show up well, even in low light conditions. This European style reticle deserves a closer look by North American hunters.....with the added IR feature it proved to be outstanding.

All King Optics riflescopes are nitrogen filled and 100% waterproof and shockproof. The Dangerous Game Series scopes are also advertised as

being "designed and built for the most demanding conditions. It has been tested to withstand the recoil of all powerful magnum calibers and obtain maximum point of impact accuracy."

I intended to test these claims by putting the scope on the heaviest recoiling rifle I currently own, a custom .375 H&H built on an older Sako action. Yes there are heavier recoiling rifles, but this particular rifle has a synthetic stock and weighs in at about 6 ½ pounds....so the recoil is fairly hefty with stiff hunting loads and if this scope had any weaknesses I was pretty sure they would quickly become apparent on this rifle. My wife regularly shoots a .338 Winchester Magnum with 210 grain Nosler Partitions and she finds the recoil on my .375 to be "disturbing".

I mounted the scope with a set of Warne Quick Detach rings and bore sighted it, then headed out to the shooting bench with my favorite big bear loads, which are 300 grain Nolser Partitions ahead of a stout charge of W760. This old girl has been many a mile with me and is extremely accurate, so it was no big surprise for me when the first three rounds produced a respectable 1 ¼ inch group a little low and to the right of centre.

I used the very convenient finger adjustable windage and elevation knobs to shift the point of impact to center and then shot another three shot group. I then changed the point of impact a specific number of clicks a number of times and returned to zero. Changing targets, I then shot a continuous string, while adjusting the power setting up and down between shots. After 10 rounds I ended up with a group that measured 2.7 inches.

No problems were experienced with this scope despite dozens of heavy loads. The windage and elevation adjustments were positive and repeatable, and there was no noticeable change of point of impact between power settings.

In early September I spent several evenings bear hunting on our ranch. There were opportunities to shoot every evening, as large numbers of bears came in each night to the bait, but I held off as I was waiting for a really big chocolate colored boar that had been hanging around to show himself. This proved to be a perfect opportunity to evaluate the illuminating reticle on this scope with real live bears in low light conditions.

The evening light fades quickly in the dense forests of Manitoba . Well before the end of legal shooting light a black bear begins to blend in rather well with the forest floor when you are looking down from a tree stand twelve feet in the air and 40 yards away amongst a forest canopy of large spruce and aspen trees. I found the large 30mm tube on this scope definitely improved its light gathering ability over similar models with one inch tubes that I have used from other manufacturers.

The illuminating dot proved to be just the ticket under these poor lighting conditions. The rheostat is located on the left side of the scope tube next to the windage and elevation turrets. You simply turn the knob to activate the illuminating reticle, which has the option of red or green illumination and 5 intensity settings in each color which allow you to adjust the brightness of dot up or down as the conditions change. With the dot illuminated it was possible to place it precisely on the shoulder of a black bear that was becoming difficult to see with the naked eye.

On the third night the bear I was after came in to the bait with only minutes of legal shooting light remaining. I knew this particular bear would only be in the clearing for seconds as his usual method of operation was to enter the clearing, reach up and tear the beaver carcass wired to the tree seven feet off the ground and then beat a hasty retreat into the thick stuff. He had already out foxed a couple of hunters we had placed on this stand previously.

As I saw him enter the clearing I quickly turned the IR rheostat control on, and as he paused at the base of the tree I placed the green dot on his shoulder and squeezed the trigger. The 300 grain Nosler completely knocked the bear off of his feet and that was that. End of story. I can tell you that the illuminating dot made precise shot placement easy when it would have been a bit dicey and definitely slower preparing for that shot with regular crosshairs.

I believe the style and magnification range of this scope and its companion in the Dangerous Game Series, the EGR-IR4 1.25-4x26, are an ideal choice for the big bores. Rifles that are rarely used beyond 150 yards, but are routinely used at close range and require a scope with a wide field of view for quick target acquisition and excellent light gathering abilities for close range work in heavy cover or other low light conditions.

The optics are wonderfully clear and crisp with excellent resolution. The lenses are multi-coated and have a green film which ensures 99.5% light transmission and assures great image clarity and color contrast.

In addition to hunting and range work, this scope has now been subjected to temperatures ranging from 80 F to -42 F, and has been used in the pouring rain, sun and blowing snow...sometimes all in the same day. It has logged several hundred hours of pounding in boats during rough weather on lakes in northern Canada , hundreds of miles of bumpy trails on ATV's and a few days in a scabbard. To date, it has never malfunctioned, fogged or changed point of impact.

In addition to the Dangerous Game Series, King Optics Canada also offers the Highlander Series which includes a number of different variables, several of which are available with the illuminating dot. Of special interest is their long range model which offers a built in BDC and trajectory reticle that is good out to 700 yards. This is another model I hope to try in the near future.

King Optics Canada also produces binoculars and spotting scopes and their optics have a lifetime warranty. Recently King Optics Canada introduced a new line of high quality hunting wear that is designed and constructed for the rigors of hunting in Canada . For more information on their products contact:

King Optics Canada Ltd.

1-902-733-3244