 Today I'm reviewing the Hawke Optics Vantage IR Rifle Scope. This is a rifle scope. It's a budget rifle scope But this particular one has a reticle design for 22 subsonic rounds So what I'm going to do today is I'm going to share my initial thoughts and feedback and we're going to test out How reliable that reticle is on this scope. All right, let's get into it So this scope is a budget scope. It cost me $350 New Zealand. It's $190 US dollars So it's it's definitely on the low-end scale, but it does come with some pretty neat features You have illumination 5 5 brightness settings for illuminated reticle and that comes in both red and green Illumination which is neat. You have quarter quarter MOA Windage and elevation turrets like I said a three to nine times zoom this that you can also get this particular reticle in a 4 to 12 which is only about 20 or 30 dollars more expensive And that's what I would have preferred But I couldn't get it here in New Zealand and then you can go right up to a 4 to 16 Which is about double the price. I didn't I don't like that for a 22 because I want to use this as more of a pest control rifle not purely target shooting and For the reticle for the drops to work on the reticle you have to be at full zoom And so 16 times if you're shooting say a hundred yards, you know, that's it's getting a bit crazy if the animal moves So yeah, the 4 to 12 was probably the best even that though You're probably pushing it three to nine is actually it's actually perfect now that now that I say it all out I've got this fitted on my Ruger 10 22 on a Magpul stock with a volk courts and trigger I use this for like I said for small game piss control bit of plinky and bit of target practice You know, it's my all-round sort of 22 rifle. I needed a new scope for another 22 And yeah, I saw the isn't I thought hey that could be a bit of fun I will shoot, you know anything from 10 yards through to 100 yards Maybe a bit more for for small again And I know ideally you would be using drop charts and adjusting and that's exactly what I do for my my Cinefire hunting rifles and if I'm getting serious with 22 target shooting for instance, but what I found is um When I'm shooting these pests, it's it's often by chance like oh, you know There's a there's a rabbit like and you don't have time to range dial adjust and all that and So in the past what I just do is I just hold over just think alright I think that's about 80 yards or 100 yards. I should be about here. It works okay But it's um, you know, I miss probably more than I get when it when I'm just rushing a shot like that Especially when you're you're having to guess both range and guess where you should be holding over So the thing I like about this scope is you still have to guess that range But um, at least your holdovers are sort of fixed in here because you got it all on screen or on the reticle Which is neat now. Um, one other thing I should mention. I know there's a lot of assumptions with it A scope like this and I know there'll be purists out there And you know guys that I read and follow and and take a lot of advice from and they're gonna be shaking their heads and discuss But um, again, it was a bit of fun It was not too expensive and for the reasons I just mentioned before I was like, hey if this works It will be pretty handy. So I know things like muzzle velocity for the round is going to be completely different at different elevations different locations temperatures different Barrels like I've got a little suppressor on here, you know, there's so many variables at play And even the rounds you use unless you're using match grade rifle ammunition, which is very very consistent performance there's so much variability involved and So don't take this as like a super serious scientific review or test or anything like this Hawk optics UK born company. They offer lifetime guarantee on their scopes You can get this in high velocity 22 reticles. So, you know for your regular 22 rounds, you can also get it for 17 HMR and 22 magnum. I think they also do reticles for 22 to 3 as well. I'm not too sure if they go above that on the center fire Range you've got a no fault lifetime warranty, which is great all calibrated But the reticles for a 22 subsonic. So, you know, I doubt you'd be using this on something else Fixed parallax is 75 yards, which is a bit of a bummer, especially if you're gonna use it for closer shots So that's something I'll test soon as well. And the winch just blown off my target. Now the ammunition that the reticles designed for They didn't give a particular or specific ammunition. Instead. They just say a 22 round firing A 22 round flying at 1057 feet per second. So I got a bunch of subsonic rounds here. I got some winchester subsonic round 40 grain that is Got a velocity of 1065 feet per second. So a little bit higher, but pretty close CCI standard, which is Very popular round and something that I use quite a bit. That one is very strong I use quite a bit and including in this round. It's very consistent and quite accurate That is 1070 feet per second and CCI standard velocity. I'm sorry CCI subsonic Now this is a hollow point round. So it's more of a hunting round This is 1050, which is the closest out of the three and only a few feet per second off Because I'm going to be using this for hunting like small game environment sort of shooting and Because this closely aligns with the reticle on here I'm going to go with this even though I know the standard velocity would be more accurate and more consistent from a Velocity point of view. All right, here we go 50 yards Shooting off a bench. Yes, and There's a bit of a breeze. I just want to control for as many variables as possible Shooting CCI subsonic All right, so let's get down to the 50 and see how they were shooting So this is 50 yards and Yeah, not too bad those three in the middle I swear to God they were my first three shots, but I forgot to film on the Spotting scope. Yeah, it's not too bad. That's it's pretty good group for a hunting round Quite impressed with that actually especially in these conditions But you know, that's not what the test is about today. The test is to see how good this scope is When we push it up to further distances, so I'm going to go down to the hundred yard now I will put this target up and then Have a shot with that and then we'll move over to the 200 yard gong. All right So now we're up to 100 yard Just zoom in on here I'm going to be aiming for the bottom ring not the main center ring with the big black bullseye The one slightly below there Might help if I put around through there Last one was a bit of a fly But hey, if you look at that It's not too bad. All right, here we are 100 yards flip around So one two three four five aiming for this Spot here so Little bit low. I mean we're nearly an inch low there. Um, these two. All right This one I think was that fly at the end. I'm not too sure, but there was definitely one fly in there I'm the last shot at me. I mean pretty good. I mean if that was What have we got there? This is a hundred yards. So If you take that one out Take that bottom shot out One and a half inch grouping for a 22 and high wind With hollow point rounds not too bad, but again, that's not what I keep getting distracted here The main thing is how reliable that reticle is and I have to say that that's pretty good Pretty good. All right, so I've actually went and set up a little spinning plate at 150 yards So I'm going to have a crack at that wasn't on the original plan So we'll have a crack at that the wind still pretty strong here So a few shots at that and then we'll move over to the 200 to let's see how this goes All right, put that on screen a little bit high. There's just off to the side It's a hit quite low Well, I mean low on the plate Another hit just off to the side though Elevation is all pretty good. The ones I'm missing is pretty close It's only a I think it's a three inch gong Maybe maybe yeah, I think it's a three inch gong that I'm aiming for the big one But as you can see from that wind It's not helping but the good thing is elevations pretty good and that's what I'm really looking for here one shot one hit miss two from three miss miss It's about a 50% strike what rate but the ones I'm missing are Look like elevation is good. It's just they're just coming off to the side and wins playing a big role Contributing factor in there just missed All right, so here we are out to 200 now that breeze is picking up and it's flying right across Which is a bomber previously I was aiming down this line and the wind was coming towards me So it's I know that's going to throw me off big time the main thing I want to see though is the drop the elevation where it's hitting That's what the radicals accounting for obviously the bullet drop so We'll try shoot when there's a bit of a gap in the winds, but It's gonna be interesting. The only other thing is With all the other shots from 53 to 175. There's a nice little cross here on the radical for 200 You actually get a point now. I'm assuming it's the tip of the point But it could be Yeah, we'll be interesting. Let's let's see how we go. There's a slight pause in the wind now, sir bang bang It's always a nice sound. I don't know where it was hitting there bang bang It's pretty good We'll go over and see exactly where these rounds are hitting So now what I'm doing is I'm just playing around to see where this Cross here is meant to be On the gong and I think the point is hitting quite low So we're gonna move up a little bit So as you can see, I mean, there's a few shots get around there You can't really read too much into the grouping here because I was adjusting my Aim, you know for the wind and obviously different height elevation and stuff as well So I mean hey, yeah, we're hitting it obviously if it's a rabbit out at that distance Chances it's gonna give the chances are it's gonna get away But I mean remember though, this is a 200 yard shot with a 20 to a subsonic 22 using hollow point hunting Ammunition, it's not match ammunition. It's not a match grade gun or anything like that And that breeze coming through the gully there was quite strong. So Yeah, I mean hey, the main thing I wanted to look at was how reliable those drops are I Have to pack up because it's getting far too cold and the wind and the wind is just picking up as well. I can say Pretty reliably though that 50 if you're zeroed in at 50 you 100 and thus probably a 75 125 are going to be bang on maybe even 150 when you get out to that 175 200 yard mark Then obviously there's there's a bit more variability at play But those are big shots for a rimfire, you know subsonic round like I've just mentioned overall What I think of the scope. I mean hey, I did used to have a Nikko still in on here And there was a lower cost budget Lower cost scope as well. I think the lens was better on the Nikko still in the nest This isn't it's nothing amazing, especially um, you know comparing it to some of the high-end scopes I have but you know for a couple hundred bucks It's not it's not into the world. It is nice that you've got that illumination feature though as well My the scopes didn't have that you know on this on this rifle. I did look at some Trees only 10 15 yards away to see if that parallax was an issue and it wasn't obviously I had to dial back the zoom But that was okay. So that's good to know What way Will I keep using the scope? I think I will I mean because I wanted something where I can just pick it up and be like hey There's a you know, there's a rabbit at 75 yards or thereabouts and fire away Um, I can use it at night time low light with the illumination and I know that yeah Those those markings on the scope are pretty good sure if I'm pushing it out to 200 yards Maybe not, but hey, that's gonna be a tricky shot anyway. So um, we'll leave it there I hope you've enjoyed this video. It's a little bit different for me But hey, this is something I wanted to do. So I thought I'll let's get it get the cameras out and record it Be sure to check out my other videos I do lots of other reviews if you want to see more of these types of videos Let me know if you have used this scope or something similar in the Hawk product range Be sure to leave your comments below as well. And yeah, otherwise, we'll see you next time