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Rifle Scopes Kahles 3.5-18 SKMR3 initial impressions

The front cover for the old K312i and the rear cover for the K624i are what you need. I have them on my unit right now. I also got a killflash when I ordered the covers from EuroOptic

Awesome going to see if i can find those.
 
I believe Richard at CS Tactical was going to get Tennebrax covers in. Maybe he will chime in.
 
Went ahead and got the k312i objective and k624i/k312i ocular from area419

Here's a pic of the rig as it sits just to show the 318 off :D pretty excited about how it turned out.

IMG_0163.JPG
 
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The front cover for the old K312i and the rear cover for the K624i are what you need. I have them on my unit right now. I also got a killflash when I ordered the covers from EuroOptic
How easy is the killflash to remove with the Tenebraex kit? Is it interchangeable with other objectives the same size or specific to each unit?
 
It would look sweet on your rig :D
Stop that Richard, I will accept no more temptations from you! Besides, I already have the ZC420 on order with you, I've been trying to think of how I can cut and paste the ZCO onto one of my rigs, just for the time being :D
 
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How easy is the killflash to remove with the Tenebraex kit? Is it interchangeable with other objectives the same size or specific to each unit?

Just screws on like a sunshade, it’s threaded so you’d have to make sure whatever other scope you’re mounting it on has the same size objective and thread pitch.

It has the botched adapter ring molded into it, so you just snap the cap onto it if you want to switch back and forth between sunshade and killflash.
 
I got pre order on the k25 and already paid in full..i hope they will at least give the k624 bikini
It's my understanding that it will. I have a k525i on pre order too. The wait is killing me.
 
I'm like a kid in a candy store. Dang if that Kahles doesn't look sweet on your rig

Thanks Bill, i'm pretty stoked with it. Going shooting this saturday so i'll finally get to shoot it for the second time since the k318i has arrived.

Will that is one sweet rifle.Did the stock come fromCore.

Thankyou sir, it is. Love the Elite Highland, wish i could've gotten my PRS2 in it then the sticks would match both black barreled actions, elite highlander, TT Diamonds, one K318i, and one K525i. But i understand the position of having custom patterns.
 
Thanks Bill, i'm pretty stoked with it. Going shooting this saturday so i'll finally get to shoot it for the second time since the k318i has arrived.



Thankyou sir, it is. Love the Elite Highland, wish i could've gotten my PRS2 in it then the sticks would match both black barreled actions, elite highlander, TT Diamonds, one K318i, and one K525i. But i understand the position of having custom patterns.
You don't shooy with anti cant? Your set up is pretty identical as mine but i added accuracy 1st anti cant :)
 
Just screws on like a sunshade, it’s threaded so you’d have to make sure whatever other scope you’re mounting it on has the same size objective and thread pitch.

It has the botched adapter ring molded into it, so you just snap the cap onto it if you want to switch back and forth between sunshade and killflash.
It screws onto the front objective of the scope just like a sunshade? For some reason I thought it snapped on similar to how their caps work which would have made it more universal, but if it's specifically threaded for each scope that might be a hindrance. Thanks Mammoth
 
Had my rifle out today, and still impressed with this scope. Reticle is really nice, and return to zero and tracking seem spot on. You can’t go wrong with this scope. Only thing that sucks is no scope caps and the shit cover they give you is about worthless. Not that big of a deal, just seems for the price of the scope they could do better.
 
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Good read on the 318, Ive been tossing ideas back and forth on new optics for my nucleus, think ive decided on the 525 when it comes out. looks like i need to send a few messages and get on a pre sale list
 
Curious if anyone has any thoughts on the 318 vs. the upcoming 525? They're the same price (within $100), and the 525 is only 1.6 oz heavier, but 2.5“ longer. Why go for the 318 when they are the same price and almost the same weight, if you don't care about an ultrashort scope?
 
Curious if anyone has any thoughts on the 318 vs. the upcoming 525? They're the same price (within $100), and the 525 is only 1.6 oz heavier, but 2.5“ longer. Why go for the 318 when they are the same price and almost the same weight, if you don't care about an ultrashort scope?

The size, magnification and objective size are the main differences between the two plus there will also be more reticle choices and Left Side Windage for the K525i when they are released. It's hard to go wrong with either one :cool: Feel free to call us at 916-670-1103 for any other questions.
 
Okay, between this thread, and talking with Richard at CS Tactical, I have been officially been made crazy. I have a very nice combat scope (Minox ZP8 on my LM308MWS) shooting MOA groups when I do my part. Trouble is I can barely see the paper holes at 100yds and know my old eyes would benifit from more magnification. If you could only have one scope on my one do everything rifle (platform) what would you do?

Thanks,
Rasyad
 
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Okay, between this thread, and talking with Richard at CS Tactical, I have been officially been made crazy. I have a very nice combat scope (Minox ZP8 on my LM308MWS) shooting MOA groups when I do my part. Trouble is I can barely see the paper holes at 100yds and know my old eyes would benifit from more magnification. If you could only have one scope on my one do everything rifle (platform) what would you do?

Thanks,
Rasyad

You're not the only one I make crazy haha o_O Feel free to call me again when you need more assistance, after our discussion I think the K318i makes more sense for what you're trying to achieve.
 
I have to agree the 318i is about as good as an ultra short can get as far as design. Glass is always going to be subjective but for its size it has almost none of the draw backs of a traditional ultra short. A minor amount of CA comparable to the mark 5 5-25. Eyebox is more comfortable than any scope I’ve owned thus far. It’s very forgiving. Low light performance also way up there despite being an ultra short. The only real concern might be weight cause it is 33oz or so. But that would be the only draw back IMHO. Other than that it’s perfect for that platform.
 
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Took my 318i, amg, and s&b 3-27 out today. I definitely love the fit, finish, form factor, and styling of the kahles the best. My kahles arrived yesterday and the illumination unfortunately doesn’t work and the windage marking doesn’t line up squarely with the turret. Elevation turret lines up perfect.
If kahles had a repair center here that could fix these issues I would definitely give it more points. That’s the thing I love about vortex, nf, Sig, etc. I’ll get it back a lot faster.
I’m using a Spuhr and because there’s so little room, when adjusting parallax, my fingers constantly run into the mount.
Glass wise the kahles is equal in clarity and resolution, but the CA is there.
I agree that it is based on cheek position.
Bad cheek weld you see more, good cheek weld you hardly see any.
I think for the size, this scope is really impressive.
I think it’s slightly brighter than my AMG, but it’s really close.
Parallax is pickier than the other 2, however I’ve found the parallax on the 3-27 and amg to be among the most forgiving.
Debating on whether to send the scope to kahles to fix or back to the dealer for a refund. This is one of the few times I’m not a fan of a foreign scope. If I didn’t have another scope I probably wouldn’t get it back until deer season is over.
Overall I wish it had arrived to me in perfect working order, but I really like it. I prefer the ebr7b to the skm3 because I don’t like the solid stadia for holdovers. I prefer dots. It’s a great multipurpose optic for an AR or bolt gun, as well as a good scope for hunting I would say.
 
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That is one of my fears of going with kahles but the SKMR3 ultimately sold me. Hopefully i never have that problem. I wonder if the retailer would swap you?
 
That is one of my fears of going with kahles but the SKMR3 ultimately sold me. Hopefully i never have that problem. I wonder if the retailer would swap you?

I’ll ask if they can swap me, however just the overall experience that that’s how it arrived to me is a little unsettling. It either slipped through qc at that, or got damaged in transit. If it got damaged in transit I sorta want to question the overall durability. I know it’s a sample of 1 and is not indicative of the whole line, just the initial disappointment that takes me there I guess.
 
I’ll ask if they can swap me, however just the overall experience that that’s how it arrived to me is a little unsettling. It either slipped through qc at that, or got damaged in transit. If it got damaged in transit I sorta want to question the overall durability. I know it’s a sample of 1 and is not indicative of the whole line, just the initial disappointment that takes me there I guess.

I hear ya. I always felt like i heard stories here and there of 624s that had issues but i never saw it first hand. Also figured that, at least in the last couple of years they were one of the most popular scopes on the PRS circuit so they were selling like hotcakes. Least if memory serves it was the 624i and Gen II razor at most used scopes and often the most i saw. Either way that sucks though and it would make me uneasy as well.
 
I hear ya. I always felt like i heard stories here and there of 624s that had issues but i never saw it first hand. Also figured that, at least in the last couple of years they were one of the most popular scopes on the PRS circuit so they were selling like hotcakes. Least if memory serves it was the 624i and Gen II razor at most used scopes and often the most i saw. Either way that sucks though and it would make me uneasy as well.

I’m leaning toward having kahles fix it, if nothing else so I can report on the cs and turn around time first hand. Take one for the team sort of thing I guess, since I still have my amg for this season. And honestly the amg just keeps impressing me especially for the money you can find them now. Best bang for the buck to me.
I assume the experience with kahles will be very similar to my Premier that is at TT getting serviced right now as well, great cs, just a long turn around time.
 
I was recently comparing my S&B 3-20 and NF 4-16 - I'd love to get behind the K318i to see how it stacks up. Kahles certainly have the reticle sorted


9D3BA577-C106-40FC-A00F-5AD1449CF8B7.jpeg
 
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I’m leaning toward having kahles fix it, if nothing else so I can report on the cs and turn around time first hand. Take one for the team sort of thing I guess, since I still have my amg for this season. And honestly the amg just keeps impressing me especially for the money you can find them now. Best bang for the buck to me.
I assume the experience with kahles will be very similar to my Premier that is at TT getting serviced right now as well, great cs, just a long turn around time.
Sorry you may have to take one for the team but I am very curious about Kahles CS. I also have Minox which requires warranty to be shipped back to Germany and have wondered how long that would take. My only experience with CS so far has been Vortex and Schmidt & Bender and both were fantastic and fast (week turnaround times). I just checked my K318i and everything seems fine on it, but to be honest I am not impressed with their "Twist guard" on the windage, at first I thought mine didn't have it until I realized it was the little outside plate that spins freely, I'm not so certain that walking that through rough brush, etc. is going to stop the windage from getting knocked out of alignment, but maybe so? Anyway, I am super impressed with the K318i overall and think it could only possibly be trumped by the new ZCO ZC420 for ultra shorts, hopefully I'll find out soon enough. One last thought on Kahles' new scopes, we have now heard about a couple QA issues and I wonder if they pushed them to market a wee bit too fast. I know some folks are frustrated with ZCO for the wait, but if we see some Kahles K525i Gen II's next year or so like they did with the K624i's (which went through 3 generations) that would kinda stink.
 
I was recently comparing my S&B 3-20 and NF 4-16 - I'd love to get behind the K318i to see how it stacks up. Kahles certainly have the reticle sorted


View attachment 6955967
BP, I think you'll be very impressed with the Kahles K318i. Once the ZCO ZC420 makes it to market I intend to do a review... The Schmidt 3-20 is amazing because it offers a huge magnification range, but the K318i is smaller and keeps right up optically. This image shows how much shorter the K318i is compared to the S&B 3-20...

Ultra_Shorts_002.jpg
 
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Sorry you may have to take one for the team but I am very curious about Kahles CS. I also have Minox which requires warranty to be shipped back to Germany and have wondered how long that would take.

I just shipped my Minox ZP5 off to be repaired. Called Blaser and they quoted 7-9 week turn around. They've been really pleasant and easy to deal with so far. It would be nice if the turn around was faster, but it doesn't bother me too much because I expected this would be the case when I bought the scope.
 
I just shipped my Minox ZP5 off to be repaired. Called Blaser and they quoted 7-9 week turn around. They've been really pleasant and easy to deal with so far. It would be nice if the turn around was faster, but it doesn't bother me too much because I expected this would be the case when I bought the scope.
Ouch - 7-9 weeks, that is a bit of a stretch. Was hoping it’d be closer to 3-4 weeks.
 
Took my 318i, amg, and s&b 3-27 out today. I definitely love the fit, finish, form factor, and styling of the kahles the best. My kahles arrived yesterday and the illumination unfortunately doesn’t work and the windage marking doesn’t line up squarely with the turret. Elevation turret lines up perfect.
If kahles had a repair center here that could fix these issues I would definitely give it more points. That’s the thing I love about vortex, nf, Sig, etc. I’ll get it back a lot faster.
I’m using a Spuhr and because there’s so little room, when adjusting parallax, my fingers constantly run into the mount.
Glass wise the kahles is equal in clarity and resolution, but the CA is there.
I agree that it is based on cheek position.
Bad cheek weld you see more, good cheek weld you hardly see any.
I think for the size, this scope is really impressive.
I think it’s slightly brighter than my AMG, but it’s really close.
Parallax is pickier than the other 2, however I’ve found the parallax on the 3-27 and amg to be among the most forgiving.
Debating on whether to send the scope to kahles to fix or back to the dealer for a refund. This is one of the few times I’m not a fan of a foreign scope. If I didn’t have another scope I probably wouldn’t get it back until deer season is over.
Overall I wish it had arrived to me in perfect working order, but I really like it. I prefer the ebr7b to the skm3 because I don’t like the solid stadia for holdovers. I prefer dots. It’s a great multipurpose optic for an AR or bolt gun, as well as a good scope for hunting I would say.

Not that you're an idiot but I can see how it could be overlooked, with regards to the windage marks not lining up, have you tried to reset the turret? They may just have not lined them up exactly when they tightened the screws on zero. Also, with the illumination, mine didn't come with the battery installed and the cap was tighter than shit. So if you didn't put a battery in the scope, it's not going to work. If they forgot to throw a battery pack in the box or you missed it in the box, I can see how you would assume it's in the scope already. Just something to check. Hopefully that's all the issues you have and they aren't actually something wrong.
 
Ouch - 7-9 weeks, that is a bit of a stretch. Was hoping it’d be closer to 3-4 weeks.

Yeah, it was definitely longer than I had hoped, but it's my backup scope so it doesn't affect me as much. I'm not sure if that's the standard time frame or if they're just experiencing a higher work load right now. Hopefully it's an overestimation and it gets back earlier.
 
Not that you're an idiot but I can see how it could be overlooked, with regards to the windage marks not lining up, have you tried to reset the turret? They may just have not lined them up exactly when they tightened the screws on zero. Also, with the illumination, mine didn't come with the battery installed and the cap was tighter than shit. So if you didn't put a battery in the scope, it's not going to work. If they forgot to throw a battery pack in the box or you missed it in the box, I can see how you would assume it's in the scope already. Just something to check. Hopefully that's all the issues you have and they aren't actually something wrong.

Yea I tried 3 different batteries and all 3 work in my amg and my s&b 3-27 but unfortunately not in my 318i.