New Kahles K328i
- Thread starter gamewarden
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I find this scope easier to mount on a split rail than previous scopes where I couldn’t get the scope rearward enough for comfortable eye relief. Just depends on LOP and how upright or forward leaning your position on the rifle is.
Thanks, the upper range of the scope seems about perfect. Comparing a few of my scopes yesterday I felt like this would be a jack of all trades scope, and the same weight as my ZCO 4-20.
I haven't checked, but do Spuhr have 34 mm "block" mounts?
I had to use that solution (but 30 mm) on another gun and it worked great - except the rifle was shit (Benelli MR1).
I have a few optics laying around, and yesterday we went down to my lake and sat in the sun to just enjoy some time off and look through them properly.
I wanted to be 100% neutral in this, and all ended up with my friend typing this up in Swedish, and I ran it through ChatGPT for a translate. To my surprise it did a full "review" all by itself, and I checked for accuracy and it did it properly.
The main point here for the Kahles K328i is that I have one, and I absolutely love the zoom range and the image clarity is just silly. It's a love affair and I'm not selling, it's pretty perfect on my LWRCI REPR Mk II Elite (although I'm now running a Pulsar XL60 on it against the pigs).
However, and to my surprise, the Schmidt & Bender 6-36x56 (EU version) was even better. I laughed out loud, and I tried it a few times over. I know 3.5-28x and 6-36x don't really correlate, but as the main range is around 12-15x it's still compareable.
I'll double post in the S&B 6-36x as well.
Here's my friend's conclusion. He left with my S&B 6-36x and compared it to some other scopes as well.
Background is he runs ZCO420 and ZCO527, but looking for alternatives.
Scopes tested:
Schmidt & Bender (S&B):
Kahles:
ZCO:
I wanted to be 100% neutral in this, and all ended up with my friend typing this up in Swedish, and I ran it through ChatGPT for a translate. To my surprise it did a full "review" all by itself, and I checked for accuracy and it did it properly.
The main point here for the Kahles K328i is that I have one, and I absolutely love the zoom range and the image clarity is just silly. It's a love affair and I'm not selling, it's pretty perfect on my LWRCI REPR Mk II Elite (although I'm now running a Pulsar XL60 on it against the pigs).
However, and to my surprise, the Schmidt & Bender 6-36x56 (EU version) was even better. I laughed out loud, and I tried it a few times over. I know 3.5-28x and 6-36x don't really correlate, but as the main range is around 12-15x it's still compareable.
I'll double post in the S&B 6-36x as well.
Here's my friend's conclusion. He left with my S&B 6-36x and compared it to some other scopes as well.
Background is he runs ZCO420 and ZCO527, but looking for alternatives.
Scopes tested:
- S&B: 10–60 / 6–36 (two versions with different reticles, P5FL, TRID) / 1–8x CC Shortdot / 3–27x56 PM II
- Kahles: 540 / 328
- Element: Theos 6–36
- ZCO: 840 / 420 / 527
Schmidt & Bender (S&B):
- Natural colors, almost slightly washed out. Very realistic rendering.
- Very good field of view. Better than ZCO up to around 15x magnification. From 15x and above, the difference wasn’t as noticeable.
- Very good depth perception in the image. In other words, objects at different distances were clearly distinguishable. This is an important detail in competition, for example during a troop line with targets placed at varying ranges.
- Details remain sharp even at low magnifications. It almost gives the illusion that targets are closer than they actually are.
- Very little to no scope shadow (scope ring). Edge-to-edge clarity is fantastic.
- Good parallax. I could set it to infinity and no matter what distance I looked at, the image remained sharp.
- Other: Built like a tank. Tactile turret clicks with no play.
Kahles:
- Colors and contrast “pop”. Everything feels enhanced through the glass.
- Amazing field of view – the best of all the scopes tested.
- I had some issues with the parallax. It felt like I had to fine-tune it for each specific target. This could be a problem in a competition scenario where time is tight, and you're switching targets at different distances.
- The Kahles 328 is my favorite of their two new models. Compact, with a fantastic zoom range and consistent clarity throughout all magnifications. Excellent edge-to-edge clarity. I’d love to spend more time with this one.
- The Kahles 540 gave me a “flat” image. I didn’t get a sense of depth from the image. I found myself constantly fine-tuning the parallax. The edge-to-edge clarity didn’t compare to the 328. I’m not an expert, and this is just a sample of one, but the 540 was my least favorite of all the scopes.
- Other: I don’t like that the parallax adjustment is located underneath the elevation turret, but that’s a matter of taste and probably just a habit I can unlearn.
ZCO:
- The 840 clearly shows its Kahles heritage. Colors and contrast pop across the entire magnification range.
- The 420 / 527 / 840 all had a narrower field of view and a tighter eyebox compared to S&B and Kahles.
- Fantastic glass and image sharpness.
- Generous parallax adjustment – it felt like it wasn’t too sensitive to different distances.
- Amazing sharpness and clarity in the glass. For the price, it’s a home run.
- Forgiving parallax.
- Had the most scope shadow (scope ring) of all the scopes I tested.
- When we looked at a radio mast at 2 km, the detail clarity was good, but it felt far away, like the image was at the end of a long tube.
- ZCO and S&B felt like the image was much closer, and there wasn’t much visual difference between the magnification levels.
- Kahles was not included in this specific test.
I received my Kahles K328i DLR about a week ago and noticed the red illumination on the lower right hand side, when zoomed out at 3,5x. Wanted to see if it is supposed to be like this. It seemes a bit odd for a scope in this price class.
I wiped the glass and torqued according to specifications etc.
Also, I suspect the scope might not keep the zero.
I wiped the glass and torqued according to specifications etc.
Also, I suspect the scope might not keep the zero.
Mine is like that too. It really bothers me but I tell myself it’s only because the FOV is so wide. I called Kahles and they confirmed it’s just part of the design. Still skeptical, I went to my local shop and looked at what they had and it was in there too. Not a huge deal at the end of the day but it definitely isn’t ideal.
Your illuminated reticle is just an LED in the side of the interior on the optic. Optical design may have a lot of though put into it, but illumination is just a rheostat and a light bulb. "Build quality" for the illumination is probably just fine.
So they said that the illumination bleeding into other areas of the field of view was part of the design? That’s nuts and would be extremely distracting. Is this happening to your scope at all illumination settings or only at the brightest settings?
I ask because I am just a few months away from choosing between a 5-27 and a 328i.
All brightness settings, it is the same intensity as the reticle illumination but may be even more noticeable because it’s in dead space. The redeeming aspect is that it is outside the FOV once you hit 4x mag or so. If this is a design compromise to accommodate the additional FOV, I don’t hate it…just wish there was something else that could be done to get rid of it.
I have an early K525i with the SKMR 3 . Mine is literally perfect in it's illumination from dim to max. No bleed . No artifacts. I agree , at this price it should be perfect.
I've seen illumination artifacts before but this appears to be pretty significant, does the K540i suffer the same fate at 5x?
It seems to be the same issue with the K540, if you look at the pictures in the link below:
TFB Review: Kahles K540i Riflescope - The 40x Game Changer?
This is a review of the brand new Kahles K540i DLR premium riflescope.The K540i is designed for precision shooting at extreme ranges, boasting an impressive 5-40x magnification range.TFB is the only international publication chosen to review this riflescope before its official release.Kahles...
www.thefirearmblog.com
most likely caused by the "optical beam deflection means" of the 328 & 540, which the K525i lacks & therefore has a much smaller FOV
if so, pick one
massive FOV with reflection at low power
standard FOV with no reflection
Mine has that as well.
And so does the K840i.
I guess it's part of the solution for the illumination.
And so does the K840i.
I guess it's part of the solution for the illumination.
I took those images, and can confirm.It seems to be the same issue with the K540, if you look at the pictures in the link below:
TFB Review: Kahles K540i Riflescope - The 40x Game Changer?
This is a review of the brand new Kahles K540i DLR premium riflescope.The K540i is designed for precision shooting at extreme ranges, boasting an impressive 5-40x magnification range.TFB is the only international publication chosen to review this riflescope before its official release.Kahles...
Good to know. Assume this is during normal daylight, what about when light gets low in that 30 minute windows before/after sun rises or falls when illumination may play a bigger factor? Like others have mentioned, it is likely more an annoyance than something that is going to affect your ability to hit the target, but I get it, some of us can't get past the annoying aspects of certain scopes, for me, I'd rather have the ultra-wide FOV, but that's me...
I have not seen it in the last light but the effect in general is worse the higher the illumination is set. So maybe not as annoying at dusk when you need a low light setting anyway? But then again you could just increase zoom a bit and the effect beyond the FOV. I'll ask my buddy to try it.
For my use case, I would only use the illumination in low light when hunting and on minimum magnification, so the settings would be on the lower side anyway, so that’s encouraging to hear. The search for the perfect crossover scope is a first world problem, I know.
A quick update — after some solid effort from the shop I bought the optic from, Kahles sent me a new one within a few days. However, they sent the wrong reticle — it was an SKMR+ instead of an SKMR4+.
When testing the new scope, I noticed that the illumination bleed was much less visible compared to the previous one. Also, with the SKMR+ reticle, the bleed disappeared from the image at a lower magnification — it was only visible around 3.5–4x zoom.
Still, it’s obviously super annoying that such an expensive scope still has any bleeding at all. Not sure if it’s due to the reticle type or if this particular unit just happens to be better.
When testing the new scope, I noticed that the illumination bleed was much less visible compared to the previous one. Also, with the SKMR+ reticle, the bleed disappeared from the image at a lower magnification — it was only visible around 3.5–4x zoom.
Still, it’s obviously super annoying that such an expensive scope still has any bleeding at all. Not sure if it’s due to the reticle type or if this particular unit just happens to be better.
