With a price of just £60, the Konus 4-12x40 Fighter is ideally positioned for shooters who baulk at the idea of paying more for their scope than their rifle. Nonetheless, it will meet the needs of most airgun hunters, hobby range shooters or back garden plinkers
The 4-12x40 Fighter is 344mm (13.5 inches) long and weighs 582g (20.5 ounces). Build quality is solid with good quality controls, and it comes with a set of Picatinny mounts and a bikini style lens cover.
Many shooters will want to mount a scope in the Fighter’s price point on a spring gun. Having used it on my Weihrauch HW77K for a few weeks, I’m happy to report it managed the recoil with no ill effects.
The Konus Fighter has a one-inch tube. Thanks to its multi-coated lenses, image quality in terms of colour and clarity, exceeds the price tag, especially given the range over which most people will use it. The field of view ranges between 3.35 – 9.4m (11 to 31 feet) at 12x and 4x respectively.
There are two reticle options: a simple ballistic version that has a half then three full mildot holdover markings, and a mildot version which comes with 9-11mm dovetail mounts. Some would call them basic but I prefer to think of them as uncluttered, and the kind of shooter for which the Fighter is intended is unlikely to worry about the need for exaggerated holdover.
Eye relief is just over 100mm but will vary according to the extent to which you adjust the dioptre. The collar rotates smoothly and as a glasses wearer I had no issues. The magnification collar operates precisely too, scrolling smoothly through the 4-12x magnification range.
Few scopes at this price point offer any kind of parallax adjustment so the objective lens mounted collar on the 4-12x Fighter is a real bonus. It rotates cleanly with markings indicating 10 yards to infinity, although on 4x it will focus on targets even closer.
The turrets are a screw cap design, and the dials underneath can be turned by hand with clean, precise clicks – each one representing ¼ MOA adjustment – offering a range of 60 MOA at 100m.
Mounted on a Daystate Alpha Wolf it didn’t look out of place on one of the most expensive rifles on the market. My ‘shooting the box’ test showed the controls worked as they should, with each group equidistantly spaced in all four directions. And when moved back to the original setting, the final group was spot on again.
Below: The Konus Fighter is a great value scope which should cover most aspects of basic airgun shooting
Hawke has been the dominant optics brand in the UK airgun market for many years, and it’s not hard to see why given the huge range that covers just about every specification, budget and shooting need.
The Airmax range in particular is beloved by airgunners and starts with the entry level 2-7x32 AO which sits alongside three other one inch tube models offering 3-9x40, 4-12x40 and 4-12x50 variants – all covered by a lifetime no fault warranty.
At just 269mm (10.6 inches) long and weighing 472g (16.6 ounces), the 2-7x32 AO is suitable for just about any rifle but ideal for underlever shooters who want an optic that is compact enough to avoid obstructing the loading port. And Hawke’s understanding of its market is demonstrated by the fact that the 60mm (2.4 inches) eye bell means there is plenty of space to attach a night vision add-on.
As you’d expect from Hawke, the finish is superb, and it would be easy to mistake the Airmax 2-7x32 for a much more expensive optic. The parallax collar on the objective lens is ridged to make it even easier to turn, and the rubber coated ‘Posi-Grip’ zoom collar is equally smooth and precise. It too features a series of raised ridges with an extra high one to indicate the selected magnification.
Plenty of dioptre adjustment brings the glass-etched AMX reticle into sharp focus, regardless of how good or bad your eyes are, with eye relief of around 90mm (3.5 inches). There are four mildot aimpoints in each direction with half mildot lines to facilitate precise holdover calculation. Our 2-7x32 test scope offers a field of view of 17.5 to 6.3m (52.5 to 18.9 feet) at 100m on minimum and maximum zoom.
Unscrewing the caps reveals clearly marked low profile windage and elevation turrets that move in positive ¼ MOA clicks with a total of 120 MOA up and down, left and right available.
You get a lens cloth and set of bikini caps to protect the 16-layer coated lenses but no mounts. On the range, I had the scope zeroed in less than a magazine and the shooting the box test showed no dramas with the turret adjustments positioning groups equidistantly up, down, left and right and then back to zero.
Below: The Hawke Airmax 2-7x32 AO is a great value compact scope with features including adjustable parallax
Richter Optik serves the budget scope market well and currently offers nine sights across three different ranges – Crystal, Dynamic and Exact – via its UK distributor, John Rothery Wholesale.
The model on test is the 3-9x50 AOE, the lowest spec of three scopes in the top of the range Exact line up with 4-16x and 6-24x offerings above it. Keenly priced at less than £60, it represents tremendous value with features that will satisfy most airgunners’ needs, especially as Richter says it is shock and vibration resistant to work on spring powered air rifles. If you’re still concerned, the two-year guarantee will help ease your mind.
Measuring 332mm (13 inches) and weighing 622g (22 ounces), it comes with a pair of push on scope caps, a set of 9-11mm dovetail scope rings and a CR2032 battery to power the red illuminated reticle (IR) function which offers 11 levels of illumination. The battery is inserted into a small turret on the eye bell. Although this makes the IR function easy to locate and operate, it doesn’t leave much room for a rear attachment like an IR add-on or scope camera.
The controls move with smooth precision and there’s plenty of ocular adjustment via the collar at the back of the eye bell. Zoom through the 3-9x magnification is fuss free and the parallax collar up front turns smoothly to adjust for targets as close as 10 yards.
Light transmission through the 25mm aluminium tube is boosted by the large 50mm objective lens that is coated in an anti-reflective compound. Slightly thicker lines on the central part of the reticle makes aiming easier and there are three mildot aimpoints left, right and up, with a fourth one below to aid holdover.
The low-profile turrets are accessed by unscrewing the caps and although you can use your finger, turning the dials is easier with a coin or screwdriver. The clicks are positive and each one represents a ¼ MOA of adjustment – that’s a quarter of an inch at 100 yards. Eight rotations for elevation and nearly seven for windage with 60 clicks per turn ensures plenty of adjustment.
It took just a few minutes to zero at 25 metres and adjusting the turrets for the shoot the box test returned groups in exactly the right places.
Below: The Richter Optik Exact scope is a budget airgun scope with useful extras including an illuminated reticle
There’s something liberating about shooting tin cans with a budget air rifle; it’s the essence of airgun shooting and what got many of us started.
Open sights are usually adequate for backyard tin shooting, but the urge to exploit every drop of potential accuracy inevitably emerges – and that’s when the search for a decent cheap scope begins. The Richter Optik Crystal range is aimed squarely at providing this sector of the market with scopes that are more than good enough to get you started. In fact, they go beyond satisfying the needs of the garden plinker.
There are three 4x magnification scopes in the Crystal line up offering objective lens options of 20, 32 and 40mm. Retailing at less than £30, you don’t even need to splash out for a set of mounts as a pair of 9-11mm dovetail rings are included, as is a set of push on flip up scope covers.
The 25mm tube is made from aluminium, which is not always the case with budget scopes, and Richter Optik’s claim about shock and vibration resistance, as well as ISO9001:2000 build quality, suggest compatibility with spring piston rifles. In any case, these scopes are backed by the company’s two-year guarantee.
Unscrewing the turret caps reveals dials for which adjustment is best done with a coin or screwdriver. Each click equates to a ¼ mildot adjustment with just over seven full rotations for both elevation and windage.
As is to be expected, there is little in the way of features. There is no parallax adjustment and though set up with airgunners in mind, I did find the image a little blurry compared with more expensive models, though still perfectly usable.
I was able to make use of the somewhat limited dioptre adjustment to bring the mildot reticle into focus, though the 4x magnification (and my dodgy eyes) compromised the groups I was able to return. That said, the turrets responded well to the shooting the box test.
Below: The cheapest airgun scope in this test, the Richter Optik Crystal 4x40 will take your backyard plinking to the next level
This review was first published on 13th May 2025
