Description
Rifle Scope Product Details
Thompson Center 8662 Hawken Hunter Scope
With a growing trend to scope muzzleloaders, Thompson center, one of the oldest and most respected names in muzzleloaders offers this complete line of high quality scopes. Thompson Center’s Hawken Series of scopes provides an array of magnifications for Eastern and Western hunters. Features include fully coated optics, ability to withstand Magnum recoil, offer a wide field of view and are covered under a factory limited lifetime warranty.
Rifle Scope Product Features
Product Type: Sporting Goods
Item Package Length: 42.164 (Cm)
Item Package Width: 7.874 (Cm)
Item Package Height: 7.366 (Cm)
About the Thompson Center Manufacturer
Thompson Center is a premium maker for rifle scopes, optics, mounts, and other add-ons used for guns like rifles and long guns. They create and make their mounts, scopes, and related products using materials which are long lasting and resilient. This includes the Thompson Center 8662 Hawken Hunter Scope by Thompson Center. For additional shooting products, visit their website.
Optic Info
Rifle scopes enable you to exactly aim a rifle at various targets by aligning your eye with the target over a range. They do this through magnification using a series of lenses inside the scope. The scope’s positioning can be adapted to account for many natural factors like wind and elevation decreases to make up for bullet drop.
The scope’s purpose is to help the shooter understand precisely where the bullet will hit based upon the sight picture you are seeing with the scope as you line up the scope’s crosshair or reticle with the intended target. A lot of contemporary rifle scopes and optics have around eleven parts which are located inside and on the exterior of the scope. These parts consist of the rifle scope’s body, lenses, modification turrets, objective focus rings, and other parts. Learn about the eleven parts of rifle optics.
About Rifle Glass Styles
Rifle scopes can be either “first focal plane” or “second focal plane” style of scopes. The form of focal plane an optic has determines where the reticle or crosshair is located in regard to the optic’s zoom. It literally suggests the reticle is behind or in front of the magnification lens of the optic. Deciding on the best style of rifle glass is based on what sort of shooting or hunting you intend on doing.
About First Focal Plane Optics
Focal plane scopes (FFP) include the reticle in front of the zoom lens. These types of scopes are beneficial for:
- Quick acquisition, far away types of shooting
- Shooting circumstances where calculations are marginal
- Experienced shooters who recognize their target “hold over” and “lead” correlations for their firearms
- Shooters who don’t mind the reticle is enlarged and uses up more visual eyesight space than a SFP reticle
Info About Second Focal Plane Scopes
Second focal plane scopes (SFP) include the reticle to the rear of the magnifying lens. This causes the reticle to stay at the same overall size in connection with the volume of magnification being used. The result is that the reticle measurements change based upon the zoom chosen to shoot over longer ranges considering that the reticle measurements present different increments which can vary with the magnification. In the FFP example with the SFP glass, the 5x “zoom” one hundred yard tick reticle measurement would be 1/5th of the non “zoom” tick measurement. These particular kinds of scopes work for:
- Far away kinds of shooting where shooters have additional time to make ballistic calculations
- Shooting where most of the shots happen within shorter ranges and spaces
- Shooters who like a clearer optic picture with less area used up by the larger size FFP reticle
About Optic Zoom
The level of scope zoom you need on your optic depends upon the style of shooting you plan to do. Practically every type of rifle glass gives some level of magnification. The volume of magnification a scope delivers is determined by the size, density, and curves of the lenses within the rifle scope. The magnification level of the scope is the “power” of the scope. This denotes what the shooter is looking at through the scope is magnified times the power element of what can normally be seen by human eyes.
Fixed Single Power Lens Glass Details
A single power rifle scope uses a magnification number designator like 4×32. This indicates the zoom power of the scope is 4x power and the objective lens is 32mm. The zoom of this kind of optic can not fluctuate considering that it is a set power scope.
Adjustable Power Lens Optic Info
Variable power rifle scopes can be changed between magnification levels. These types of scopes will note the magnification degree in a format such as 2-10×32. These numbers indicate the magnification of the scope can be set between 2x and 10x power. This always includes the power levels in-between 2 and 10. The power shift is accomplished by working with the power ring part of the scope near the back of the scope by the eye bell piece.
The Power and Range Correlation of Optics
Here are some suggested scope powers and the distances where they may be effectively used. Consider that higher power scopes will not be as effective as lower magnification level optics because excessive zoom can be a bad thing. The same applies to extended distances where the shooter needs to have sufficient power to see where to best aim the rifle at the target.
Lens Finishing for Optics
All contemporary rifle scope and optic lenses are coated. There are various types and qualities of glass finishings. When shopping for high end rifle scope setups, Lens covering can be a very important element of defining the rifle’s capability. The lenses are among the most significant components of the glass as they are what your eye looks through while sighting a rifle in on the target. The finishing on the lenses safeguards the lens exterior and assists with anti glare from excess daylight and color discernibility.
About Lens Coatings – HD Versus ED
Some optic suppliers also use “HD” or high-def lens coverings that apply various processes, rare earth compounds, polarizations, and aspects to draw out separate colors and viewable target definition through the lens. This HD finish is normally used with increased density lens glass which decreases light’s capability to refract by means of the lens glass. Some scope manufacturers use “HD” to describe “ED” meaning extra-low dispersion glass. ED handles how colors are represented on the chromatic spectrum and the chromatic deviance or aberration which is similarly called color distortion or fringing. Chromatic aberration is often obvious around objects with hard edges and shapes as light hits the object from various angles.
Single Scope Lens Finishing Versus Multi-Coating
Different optic lenses can also have different finishes applied to them. All lenses typically have at least some kind of treatment or finishing applied to them before they are used in a rifle scope or optic. This is since the lens isn’t just a raw piece of glass. It is part of the carefully tuned optic. It needs to have a finish applied to it so that it will be optimally functional in numerous types of environments, degrees of light (full VS shaded), and other shooting conditions.
Single coated lenses have a treatment applied to them which is usually a protective and improving multi-purpose treatment. This lens treatment can safeguard the lens from scratches while decreasing glare and other less helpful things experienced in the shooting environment while sighting in with the scope. The quality of a single layered lens depends on the scope producer and the amount you spent on it. Both are indicators of the lens quality.
Some scope producers also make it a point to define if their optic lenses are layered or “multi” covered. This means the lens has several treatments applied to the surfaces of the glass. If a lens receives several treatments, it can establish that a maker is taking multiple actions to combat various environmental aspects like an anti-glare coating, a scratch resistant anti-abrasion covering, followed by a hydrophilic covering. This also doesn’t always suggest the multi-coated lens will perform better than a single coated lens. Being “better” hinges on the maker’s lens treatment solutions and the quality of glass used in creating the rifle optic.
Hydrophobic Finishing for Rifle Optics
Water on a lens doesn’t help with preserving a clear sight picture through a scope at all. Many top of the line and high-end scope companies will coat their lenses with a hydrophobic or hydrophilic finishing.
Rifle Glass Installation Choices
Installing solutions for scopes are available in a few choices. There are the basic scope rings which are individually installed to the scope and one-piece mounts which cradle the scope. These various kinds of mounts also typically are made in quick release versions which use manual levers which permit rifle shooters to rapidly install and remove the optics.
Hex Key Rifle Glass Ring Mounts
Standard, clamp style mounting scope rings use hex head screws to mount to the flattop design Picatinny scope mount rails on the tops of rifles. These kinds of scope mounts use double independent rings to support the optic, and are normally made from 7075 T6 billet aluminum or similar materials which are developed for long distance accuracy shooting. This kind of scope mount is excellent for rifles which need to have a durable, unfailing mount which will not move despite how much the scope is moved or abuse the rifle takes. These are the design of mounts you should have for a dedicated optics setup on a reach out and touch someone scouting or hard target interdiction long gun which will pretty much never need to be altered or adjusted. Blue 242 Loctite threadlocker can also be used on the screws to stop the hex screw threads from backing out after they are mounted safely in place. An example of these rings are the 30mm type made by Vortex Optics. The set normally costs around $200 USD
Quick-Release Cantilever Optic Ring Mounts
These types of quick-release rifle scope mounts can be used to rapidly attach and detach a scope from a rifle before reattaching it to a different rifle. Multiple scopes can also be swapped out if they all use a similar style mount. These types of mounts are handy for rifles which are carried a lot, to remove the optic from the rifle for protecting the scope, or for scopes which are used in between multiple rifles.
Sealing and Gas Purging for Glass Tubes
Moisture inside your rifle scope can mess up a day of shooting and your pricey optic by causing fogging and creating residue inside of the scope tube. Many scopes prevent moisture from going into the scope tube with a system of sealing O-rings which are waterproof.
Gas Purged Rifle Scope Tubes
Another component of avoiding the buildup of wetness within the rifle optic tube is filling the tube with a gas like nitrogen. Because this area is currently occupied by the gas, the scope is less impacted by condition alterations and pressure variations from the external environment which could possibly permit water vapor to permeate in around the seals to fill the void which would otherwise exist. These are good qualities of a good rifle scope to look for.
