Falcon Menace 7.5x50 CSS

[Brithunter]

Hi All,

        Well saw this one on e-bay and as I had never used a Mil Dot reticle before I bid on it and to my surprise won it. It's been used on an Air Rifle before and came fitted with a set of high see through mounts a 2" sun shade and flip up lens caps. It arrived this morning in the post so naturally I unwrapped it to take a look.

         First impressions it's it's large and bulky  It weghs 2lbs  with the alloy air rifle mounts, sun shade and caps that came on it. I know it has a 30mm tube but I am not sure it has to be that bulky  the dials are huge being nearly 1 1/2" in diameter an of course it has the fashionable Side Focus  and I am really not sure a fixed 7.5x Mag scope needs that. I have a 7x50A Meopta that performs wonderfully without needing S/F paralax adjustment. Just looking through it the lenses over the fields it seems good and clear but right at the edges it loses definition a bit.

   Now the bugs  when this was assembled it seems that the operator was very clumsy as if you turn the scope at a slight angle so the reticle is visable and turns a sort of gold colour and the view blacks out you can see three finger prints going across the lens that the reticle is etched onto. When looking through it normally it looks like some over spray on that same lens too. You have to look closely but it's there and it shouldn't be.

    The Falcon website is useless and just shows a picture of a scope and list of their varibles. The scope has no paperwork with it so doing a web search I found a reputable dealer and phoned them explained the problem and they gave me Falcons phone number. I have e-mailed the vendor and wait a response  . In Canada it seems these have a 10 year warenty but not in the UK plus they have dropped the 7.5x50 model  not everyone wants a huge varible  I know I don't. Falcon I am sorry to say have not been particualrly helpful they claim to fix it would cost more than it's worth which shows just how cheaply they must be getting the componants  so their normal way of dealing with such issues is to replace the scope with a new one and charge the price difference at a prefferential rate to appease, or so they hope , the customer.

   As I was waiting for the scope to arrive before settling on what mounts to use I cannot test it on a rifle as yet and maybe should not do so until at least a reply is recieved from the vendor but my experieince so far with Falcon optics would not make me want to buy one of their products again especially comparing the price as for a bit more I could buy a fixed mag Meopta. It was intended to go on my Parker-Hale 1200V heavy barreled 6mm Rem rifle that has Weaver bases on it ................... Oh well back to the drawing board  I will have to persivere with the 6-18x40AO Simmons Competition scope it has on it now and deal with it's critical eye positioning.

Will keep you all informed on developments.

[diggler1833]

Sorry to hear about your luck, unfortunately more reviews lately have been sounding like yours.

You are right about the side focus, no parallax adjustment is really needed on a 7.5x optic unless you are shooting really close.

They seem to be such bulky scopes to appeal to the tacticool market IMO.

Have you played with the adjustments yet?  Another problem area with Falcons from what I've heard/read.

[Brithunter]

Hmmm there is some backlash in the side focus dial it seems. It would also seem that this is an early one as the serial number is #0052. As it has the narrow dovetail air rifle mounts on it I have not changed them nor got mounts as yet to fit it to a rifle. The seller is looking out the paperwork so we can perhaps proceed through warrenty and see what Falcon says.


I'll admit I am not impressed so far with Falcon Optics them selves and yes your right it's aimed fairly and squarely at the "tacticool" crowd  it's even marked on the eye bell :-

Counter Sniper Scope 

 Ss I said I thought of putting it on this rifle:-




In the photos is has a 6x42 but is currently wearing a Simmons 6-18x40AO Competition Air gun scope with 1/8" adjustments. However the eyebox is small and critical so I was hoping for something a little more forgiving.

Once we know what is happening, whether it's going back to the seller, or to Falcon Optics or even the scope Doctor we can then decide if to mount it and really test it or not.

[diggler1833]

Nice rifle.

Am anxious to see how it does on a non-biased box/repeatabliity test.

[Brithunter]

Hmmm we will see how it goes  I will get a pair of suitable Weaver type 30mm rings then I can swop the scopes. The 6mm was a troublesome rifle but I believe we have cracked it now. Last Sunday it put Four Hornady 95 Grn SST bullets through one ragged hole and one I pulled through not getting the eye relief/position correct  . By leaving the Simmons set up in it's rings I can swop the scopes and re-check using the Simmons if the test shots need verifying.

I have a couple of other rifles that have Q/R mounts but the only other one that is one my licence for shooting at the moment has Apel Roll Off Mounts and a set of 30mm Roll Off Apel rings are around $240 US which is funnily about the price I paid for the rifle AND the Falcon scope   . Ok it's taken a few hundred rounds in load development including a re-bed. Part of the initial problem was the scope I first put on it was faulty ........................ brand new and faulty took a while to suss out as I thought it was just the rifle being new to me    . The replacement also proved faulty it was then I put that 6x42 on it to try and at that time changed the mounting system to the Weaver alloy bases. I then brought this Simmons used of flea-bay and got down to proper loaded development.

Hmmm just checked and I only have 12 of the SST's left so will need a new box oh and a tub of powder  .