Rifle Scopes Kahles reticle problem?! Please help!

ssg08

Private
Full Member
Minuteman
Mar 14, 2013
32
0
I just mounted my brand new Kahles 624i. Zeroed in at the range, no problems. Great clarity and tracking in daylight

When I tested the illumination at night I found that beside the reticle illuminating there were small lines illuminated as well. Hair like fibers that I am not able to see in daylight. It really annoys me. This can't be normal...

Can someone explain, did it happen to anyone?


Here is a picture.

photo(5).jpg
 
I pulled mine out and I am sure nobody will like the answer, especially someone who has it, but

you have it turned up way too high.

The whole reticle is illuminated and the rheostat will rotate around quite a bit, as you go too far the light will spill off any imperfection in the etch. The faintest scratch will glow...

Look at the center section in your image it is way too bright and blown out. The idea is to illuminate it just enough as to not obscure the target.

It's a bit of a draw back to:

1. Illuminating the entire reticle
2. Allowing the rheostat to go too bright.

I find if you lower it, so the top of the status bar on the knob is still showing it is perfect. If you start sending the status bar around and underneath you are going too bright. I have lines showing up as the status bar appears on the other side of the knob, the center is then heavily blown out.

If you shoot at all at night you'll realize less is better, most of the time under typical situations you don't need it on but the tiniest amount. The main reticle not the cross in the center should almost look flat red to be right and not bright red. These aren't NV so you don't use it against a completely black out night, you need some type of light around the target and if you use it with a clip on NV device, you need it much lower, the status bar will not exit your view.

I can see where most would consider seeing any lines in the etching as a bad thing, but that is part of the trade off, the light is emitted out and will catch everything. Its why most reticles only light the center and not the entire area. Stuff you can never see without illumination will be reflected on the brightest of settings. Just taking the reticle out of the packaging to install can add a line.

So put it in context, how often are you realistically gonna use the illumination, (do you have access to range that operates at night) how bright do you want it, (i find less than halfway is more than enough) what power do you think you'll be shooting at night, certainly not 24x, and how big & far is the target gonna be ?
 
hunting boar at night with an s&b zenith 3-12x50, couple of times a year (usually during full moon, from about 9pm to 2am in spring/autumn, during summer the entire night), for a few days each time -> i use the very lowest setting of the illumination, and tend to stick to about 6x. do i need it brighter? no. do i need it even less bright then the lowest setting? no. it's just fine for what i need it for.

what i don't like about the illumination with both kahles and swarovski - the illumination is a visible spot in the center. it looks like flyshit on the dot. checked it with the z6i from swaro and the kahles. i then compared it with the s&b ... and bought the s&b.
 
Thanks everyone!

I don't want to send the scope back because it is not an issue in the conditions I use the scope in.

And as Lowlight said, it is something that tends to happen with fully illuminated reticles...

It didn't happen with a Nightforce NXS MLR reticle I own (to be fair the brightness on the NF is lower and not externally adjustable)

Kahles customer service is top notch they have offered me to send the scope back.
But honestly I don't feel like waiting...
 
Last edited:
Lowlight is spot on. What you are seeing appears to me to be very fine sctraches in the glass reticle. Since the reticle is just a piece of glass and not a lens with coatings that may resist scratches this can happen during the final cleaning process of the reticle. Do as LL says as I can tell you that illumination is more than powerful enough at lower levels and using that high of an illumination at night or dusk will wash away your target as the light source is closer to your eye than the target is.
Thanks,
Paul