The 30mm one-piece aluminium main tube is burnished to a smooth finish with deep black anodising, punctuated only by a minimal central saddle for the dials and the fast focus collar on the ocular lens. Should you need it, the illuminated centre dot is easily engaged on the left side dial, although the broader arms of the outer reticle subconsciously lead your gaze to centre.

The capped turrets conceal tactile zeroing dials with position indicators, offering 1cm at 100m clicks to zero the rifle.Įven though I live in a world of high-end, high-magnification scopes, I rarely ever zoom for hunting, other than 6x or 8x during the stalk, when I’m ready for a shot with a broad field of view – unless I’m shooting driven game, for which I use a totally different optic anyway.įor a lightweight stalking rifle, I cannot think of a better optic for experiencing visual delight at dusk or dawn. However, with modest magnification, the image viewed will remain in good focus at shorter ranges for close woodland stalking yet on the hill or foxing in poor light, that precision allows for clinically decisive shot placement when choosing aimpoint on game. The scope is a fixed parallax at that range. Perhaps fixed zoom wouldn’t be your first choice for long-range game, but for woodland stalking, as it leads your eye into the distance, it’s always a helpful stress-free assistant for judging distance.Īnd this is combined with premium optical clarity, as well as the Schmidt & Bender Klassik 元 reticle’s centre-illuminated dot, which will still sit on target for zeroing at 100m without obscuring a 50mm red spot. One forgotten factor from the days of fixed zoom is the scope’s natural ability to immediately gauge the distance from the relative size of game that appeared in an image never changing in magnification, relative reticle size or subtension. Yet, to my eyes, there is nothing brighter on the market at 8x magnification. Schmidt & Bender don’t quote a transmission factor for their 8x56 Klassik, which I suspect is to avoid discouraging buyers from its own market-leading premium zoom scopes above 90-95% transmission. A non-zoom scope shows that capability, and the 8x56 specification has always been seen as the purest way to combine moderate magnification (for longer hunting shots on the hill) with a maximised 7mm exit pupil within one hunting scope.

The brightest optics are those with both the best glass and the fewest layers of glass for light to pass through before reaching your eye.

Schmidt bender serial numbers