Thread: T-Eagle IMAX HD 2-16x44 Review

Great comments Chris.

Originally Posted by ChrisW

IMO, without someone supporting it here in NZ and offering some kind of after sales service/warranty support from NZ, its just a $400+ gamble.

That is correct. It is a gamble. But in my opinion it is no more of a gamble than buying any secondhand product that is outside of warranty ( or have non-transferable warranty). I have bought many such things that were a "gamble". Most them turned out great, very few turned out crap. I would like to think most of it was down to research and being careful with what I buy.

The purpose of this pass around scope is exactly for that purpose: so there can be some research done and shared, and people can play with it before buying.

There is another point I would like to make. Out of all things (guns, scopes, cameras, lenses, electronics, home appliances, cars etc) that I have bought brand new in my adult life, very few have required any warranty action. Off the top of my head I can only think of one, that is out of hundreds of things that I have bought. Thom Hogan wrote about this point (saving vs post-sale service) quite excellently in this article. it is related to cameras but the idea applies to all purchases. You only have to read the first 40% of that article.

Originally Posted by ChrisW

Several of them need to be punished on a .338 or something and proven reliable to be worth $400 +, regardless of the clarity. I mean who wants a heavy 30mm tube scope that's not dialable on a rimfire?

This I am not sure I can agree. If you are into .338 shooting at 500m to 1k, I am sure you would be looking at a $1500+ scope that goes from at least 6x to maybe 25x. Possibly with a 34mm tube. Why shoot a $10k rifle with each shot costing 5 bucks, only using a 400 dollar scope? It is a bit like driving a Ferrari California on budget sports tyres that are meant for Toyota FT86.

Originally Posted by ChrisW

One thing you seem to have left out is how much elevation adjustment it has...

The official spec says it has >50 MOA. You are right that I have not tested it. I probably should and probably will. The test I had run went 86 clicks up and 86 clicks down, that is 192 clicks combined, or 48 MOA. For the majority who may be interested in this scope - I am talking hunters with 308 shooting less than 500m, or ARs shooting less than 300m, or 22LRs shooting less than 100m, This is plenty sufficient.

Originally Posted by ChrisW

...not that I would think of this as any kind of "dialing" scope, without a zero stop, indexible turrets and lots of adjustment per turn its dead in the water in that respect.

This I am not sure I agree. A lot of mid-ranged scopes made in the 90s to mid-2000s are "dialing" scopes, and they did not have modern features like zero stop. Even today zero-stop is a high end feature. Even modern day mid-ranged scopes like VX5HD do not have zero stop.

Originally Posted by ChrisW

A 30mm tube scope without those features is not going to do very well either.. generally one would get a larger tube scope for increased internal adjustment - but there is no point in having increased internal adjustment without the "dialing" features.

Appreciate the review, and my comments may seem harsh, but in all honesty that's the reality of the game.

You comments are appreciated, not harsh at all. Other people may well have the same concerns as you so it is always useful to discuss them. In relation to 30mm tube, I am not a scope designer by any means but I would think that in order to make a 2-16x scope with OK amount of adjustment, you would need a lot of mechanics, which in turn needs a lot of space inside the scope, and thus need 30mm tube. T-eagle actually recently made a new 1-10 scope, it has a 34mm tube.

Even if a scope is not so "dialable", having 30mm tube and decent amount of adjustment is still a good thing. You may well zero your rifle at 300m but rarely dial.