Flying colours
Pecar scope range well worth a look, says Ben Unten
The team responsible for Pecar Optics has decades of industry experience and in addition to constantly researching and developing new products, they back their sales with a 10-year warranty on all optics. Pecar offer three grades of riflescopes in the White Carbon (aimed at the everyday shooter), Blue Carbon (affordable full-featured scopes) and Black Carbon with professional-grade precision optics.
White Carbon
Australian Shooter was sent a 3-9x40mm scope for review which was shipped in a protective cloth wrap and supplied with a cleaning cloth, clear and yellow-tinted objective and ocular caps respectively as well as a neat little double-ended cleaning pen/brush. The scope is 310mm long, weighs roughly 440g and has a 25.4mm (1”) nitrogen-filled tube. Lenses are multi-coated and the scope is parallax free at 91m (100yds).
Windage and elevation adjustments are slotted and each positive click is nominally 6.35mm at 91m (¼” at 100yds), fine crosshairs meet in the centre then there are 4x mil-dots out to each post. From tip-to-tip of each post, both vertical and horizontal subtends 762mm at 91 yds (30” at 100yds) which makes for a fast and easy way to help calculate holdover and lead when shooting, as well as a coarse method of range-finding using an animal of known dimensions.
Field of view is 3.2m-9.6m at 91m (10.5ft-31.6ft at 100yds). Clarity is excellent for a budget-priced scope and it passed the ‘10-click box test’ easily. This is where a group is fired then the scope adjusted 10 clicks up and another group shot, adjusted 10 clicks left and another group, 10 clicks down and finally 10 clicks right. If the scope is accurate the final group should overlay the first group. RRP: $199.99.
Blue Carbon
Representing the Blue Carbon option is a 3-9x44mm scope with mil-dot reticle. This also came with a cloth wrap, clear and tinted scope covers and Pecar Optics cleaning brush and additionally a neoprene sock for added protection in the field and during transport. This is a beefier offering approximately 355mm long with the ocular ring focused for my eyes and weighing about 480g. The objective is 44mm, ocular roughly 33mm and the tube 30mm and is listed as being waterproof, fog-proof and sports multi-coated lenses.
But the big step-up here is this one’s parallax free courtesy of an adjustable focus-length ring located around the objective bell. You may wonder why the listed ranges go from roughly 10m out to infinity and that’s because this scope is listed as being suitable for use with air rifles. If you’re anything like me, thought you knew better and mounted a scope not suited to air rifles on a slug gun, you’ve likely discovered that as the recoil forces are in the opposite direction to a gunpowder-propelled projectile, the scope falls apart – very quickly.
Eye relief is listed as 76-100mm depending on your magnification and the power ring to adjust magnification is highly knurled, which allows for much easier adjustment in wet or humid conditions. Windage and elevation changes are done via a raised rib, allowing for toolless adjustment after the turret caps have been unscrewed.
The Blue Carbon is a considerable development in terms of features with its larger objective bell, parallax correction and easy-to-adjust magnification. I particularly like the neoprene sock as, during wet weather, it allows for a clear and dry field of view when it’s first removed. This scope also passed the box test and I experienced no issues during use. RRP: $349.
Black Carbon
The Black Carbon scope is 3-12x56mm with a one-piece 30mm tube and German #4 reticle. This one weighs 400gm and is 345mm long when the ocular focus is adjusted for my eyes. The power ring features a single raised rib which gives it a sleeker profile but still allows for ease of adjustment.
It’s listed as waterproof and fog-proof and comes with a fitting/cleaning mat, lens pen, neoprene scope cover and lens cloth along with target turrets and a battery, as it has an illuminated reticle. Eye relief is listed as 89mm and this scope features fully multi-coated lenses with 88 per cent light transmission. The illuminated reticle offers excellent brightness for both day and night shooting and the advantages of the larger 56mm bell are apparent as soon as you bring the rifle to your shoulder.
The Black Carbon is listed as being parallax free at 91m with field of view of 13-3.3m (43-10.7”) at that range. This one comes with a 10-year warranty and also sailed through the box test with excellent clarity and no problems during testing. RRP: $745.
The versatility of the Pecar range is there’s a scope to suit most requirements and most budgets and I recommend visiting www.protactical.com.au for more info and a full dealer listing.