The Menace scope is significantly different than the Merlin and they are not actually the
same product, but they do appear to have the same tube shape. One thing you do notice
right off the bat is that the Menace packaging is not nearly as nice as the old Merlin, but
to me, that is not much of a deal, as the box gets either stored away or thrown away after
you mount the scope, rarely to be used again. So, save the money on the packaging and put
it into the scope, which is what it appears they did! The scope also only comes with the
single sunshade instead of the two that the Merlin had, but again, the 2 was overkill, and
even one is not required as the scope has the same integral 50mm Sunshade as the Merlin.
The scope also comes with a lens cloth and an Allen wrench for the turrets, but noticeably
absent again is any sort of instructions.
The scope itself is well made with a nice even matte anodized finish. The one piece
aluminum tube is nicely shaped and there is a fairly large fast focus adjustable eye piece
(diopter adjustment). The eye piece has a
nice rubber ring to help prevent injury if the shooter gets too close to the scope
when firing, but there appears to be ample eye relief to also help prevent that.
Like the Merlin it replaces, the lenses are sourced from Japan and are made to a specified
Falcon standard. The big difference is that this standard has been upgraded for the Menace,
which now has 92% light transmission vs. the 88% or so for the Merlin. The lenses are all
truly multi coated front and back. Like the Merlin, the tube
and the majority of the assembly are sourced from China and final assembly and quality
control happen at Falcon Optics in the United Kingdom. The overall quality has been upgraded
where it could be and the end result is a nice overall product.
The knobs are significantly different than the Merlin and are a completely different shape, with
a more tapered appearance. I like the look of the knobs better and functionality has not been
altered. There is less surface area for marking the turrets if custom markings are desired
by the operator, but that is rare, though Kenton Industries I'm sure could alter the shape slightly
to get more room if they decide to do their nice BDC knobs for this line of scopes. Some very nice
changes to the knobs include directional markings (which way is up) are visible from behind the
scope. This isn't something critical, but in stressful moments it is nice to have little
reminders. There are horizontal hash marks for the elevation knob to indicate how many revolutions
you have gone with the elevation knob. When down toward the bottom of the adjustment range all the hash marks
are covered, which is fine.
The windage knob also counts up in both directions which is a feature I like in
tactical scopes. There is 15 MOA per revolution for a total of a factory specified 120 MOA which is
plenty for a 308 to zero from 100 - 1000 without a tapered base. The knobs are also attached using
a single Allen screw on both the windage and elevation knob. The upgrade from a Phillips screw
to an Allen head screw is very appreciated and the scope does come with an Allen wrench to
fit those screws. To "slip" the rings you remove the screw, lift the knob up and then reattach it on
the "zero" mark. The knobs have a good audible click but a pretty soft tactile feel to the clicks,
though it is enough to feel if you are adjusting the knobs slowly. The adjustments are 1/4 MOA per
click in both elevation and windage.
The side focus, or parallax adjustment, is of the same design as the other knobs which is another
welcomed change over the Merlin. The focus knob itself is fairly stiff and hasn't as of yet loosened
up any and remains stiff. I suppose this is good to keep the knob where it was last adjusted, but it
is a still a bit hard to turn with just two fingers. That being said, the focus knob works as
designed and the scope adjusts to a nice clear picture. The markings on the knob go up to 1000 yards and
then to infinity.
The scope is available in both the mil-dot reticule with skeleton large stadia and their MP20 reticule
which is the same as the IOR MP8, which is a nice reticule design. This test scope came with the
mil-dot reticule as the MP20's were not quite ready. There is no documentation on the use of
mils or anything else, so familiarity of mil-dots is good to have, but of course, you do not
have to know mils in order to use the scope effectively. The reticule is a good design with all the
merits of the mil-dot design. The skeleton feature on the large stadia doesn't really do anything or
offer any benefit, and I would probably prefer solid stadia lines to help with picking up the
reticule in low light conditions or with complex dark backgrounds.
Each lens is fully multi coated front and back and optical performance appears to be good with
a bright and clear picture even in dusk/dawn conditions. It is very difficult to compare optics
in the modern era (you have heard me say that before), but perhaps it is just best to say I could
not find any obvious flaws in the optics that would show me inferior quality and the sight picture
was crisp and bright in all the shooting situations I have yet to try it in. It compares favorably
with nikons and midrange leupolds. The field of view is fairly wide, in fact 3 feet wider than the
Merlin at 100 yards, which was another nice upgrade to the optics.
At the range the scope performed very well with easy focusing on the various targets at
different ranges and in different light conditions. We took it out on an early morning with
overcast skies and the scope performed very well. The adjustments were also easy to use and read;
though the knobs probably don't have quite as good a gripping surface as the Merlin knobs, but it is
still very good even with my nomex gloves on during the early morning. The adjustments were precise
in all the shooting exercises we performed. Shooting the box showed excellent repeatable
adjustments and I could not find any real fault with the scope. It is a very solid offering
for a tactical scope in this price range. Though I will say I found fault with the cheap flip up
scope caps that come with the scope. They really are cheap, a Butler Creek, they are not. The rear
eye cover did not have enough spring force and when I fired it would flip down and tap my head
during recoil which was extremely annoying, so I removed it and tossed it. The one on the front worked
fine but the quality just isn't very good on them. They have no bearing on the quality of the scope,
but I would probably prefer not to have any caps than to have the cheap ones, as it may give the
wrong impression on a very nice scope.
In the Merlin review I mentioned that they were a decent competitor to the nice SWAF
Super Sniper scopes, I would say that the Menace is even a better competitor with the better
optics, overall build quality, nicer knob design and other modifications over the Merlin.
It is a very good scope
and provided the durability holds up, which I have no reason to doubt; these scopes are a very
good option for that $300-$400 tactical scope range.
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