Review of Continental 2-16x44 SFP Tactical scope ED (SCOM-T39)

Review from https://www.facebook.com/groups/vectoropticscope/permalink/2281544342197156/?rdid=12ZxyITYqLCx49ju&share_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fshare%2Fp%2Fxo94zUSpBch9Yhsv%2F

After my last review on the Vector Optics Constantine 1-8 FFP, I now want to share my experiences with the Vector Optics Continental 2-16x44 SFP Tactical scope ED.

About a year ago, I received the then new scope and have tested in on various rifles and in different roles ever since. After these experiences and going through some intense hunting days (and nights), I now feel able to share my experiences with it.

Full disclaimer here: Vector Optics did send me the scope free of charge to take pictures of it as well as to write a review about it. I have been a longtime fan of the products of Vector Optics and have been using them long before this collaboration started.

For ease of use and easier reference, I’ll break this review down in several chapters:

Appearance

Turrets

Reticle

Glass

Philosophy of use

Appearance:

The scope comes in the typical Vector Optics box, well and securely wrapped, which also serves in the dual purpose of a gear box for miscellaneous tools and screws.

The scope itself has a length of 34cm, but with with the small 44mm objective lens, it looks rather slim and not as bulky as most 3-18 or higher magnification scopes.

The standard 30mm tube-diameter also helps with that look (as well as shed some weight, but more to that later). Fit and finish are flawless and all markings are easy to read.

Turrets:

The turrets are open in the tactical style, which means you can directly dial the turrets

without having to remove the caps like on a hunting turret (in which version this scope is is also available).

While the windage turret has a locking function (by lifting the turret up to dial and then pressing it back in to lock it) the elevation turret doesn’t have that feature and that, for me at least, is the only downside of the scope. The clicks on this scope are lighter and less tactile than on the other Continental scopes and the elevation turret turns quite lightly, so that I put some tape on it to avoid turning it accidentally while carrying the rifle slung across my back while hunting.

Before I did that, I carried the scope on multiple stalking hunts and while hunting, the turret never dialed unintentionally. It was only when thrown into and removed out of the gun bag, that it turned maybe a click or two. No big deal to check the rifle when you take it out of the bag, but with both turrets locking, you had one issue less to worry about.

Other than that, the turrets worked fine and tracked well. In contrast to the other Continental scopes the zero-stop function works through three small hex-keys, which worked fine as well, although I personally prefer the zero-set function of the other Continental scopes. The zero-stop itself though worked just fine and returns to zero with no problems.

Reticle:

The reticle is in the 2nd focal plane, which makes this scope quite unique in its class and very well fitted for its role as a tactical, all around hunting scope - that’s at least where I see it shine, but more to that in the philsophy of use section.

The reticle finds a sweet spot of being very useful and visible at 2x magnification all the way through 16x, where you can use it to do some very precise work to hit stuff pretty far away.

I personally never hold for wind when hunting - in fact, I almost never even dial windage out to the distances where I hunt, which is about a maximum of 400m on roe deer (to be fair, I don’t shoot in windy conditions). For these distances, even up from 200 meters, the 16x magnification really helps in spotting game as well as putting it on the ground. 12x magnification might be enough in open fields, but where I hunt, it’s a lot of brushes and sometimes you only have a little window of sight to spot and shoot game and its in these circumstances where higher magnification always pays off. If you’re shooting white steel at even longer distances, 12x will be fine - but hunting is often a completely different story.

On the other end of the magnification range, at 2x, the scope has a very nice and wide field of view of generous 21m, which gives you a good oversight and makes quick target acquisition easy. It’s wide enough to be used in driven hunts as well - maybe just not in the most narrow settings where you really need that 1x or red dot view.

The reticle itself is a Christmas-tree reticle, which is, for the windage section of the reticle, on the rather thin side, which I like, since it doesn’t get in the way of spotting game at distance like some other reticles do. The center dot is floating, which is what I personally prefer when hunting at longer ranges. Usually scopes in this magnification range and beyond tend to be first focal plane optics, but I quite like the 2nd focal plane scopes for hunting, since you rarely get the chance to spot and correct your own misses when shooting at game - one of the big selling points in FFP optics in the PRS game. In hunting, most of the time you get one opportunity and that’s about it. Make it or break it.

Illumination

Illumination works well and is quite bright at the highest level, though I wouldn’t call it daylight bright. Settings run from 1-6 and have a off-setting between the adjustments, so you can leave it between two settings and if need arises, quickly turn on the illumination. When activated, the whole reticle gets illuminated, not just the center dot. Illumination gets charged with the common CR2032 battery, from which you can just put two spares in every rifle or hunting backpack that you own and be done with it.

Glass

The quality of the glass is very nice - period.

For the 600€ street price you get very good glass with high contrast and resolution of details. Is it a Kahles or a Svarovski - no. But again, as already mentioned in the review of the Constantine 1-8 - this glass is punching way above its price tag when it comes to image and glass quality. You would need to pay a considerable amount more to reach that optical quality with more established brands, where you often pay for marketing and the brand-name.

Philosophy of use:

The Continental 2-16 has become one of my favourite all around hunting scopes and as such, it ticks a lot of boxes. From driven hunts to long range hunting, it covers most situations a hunter will face in the field. The slim overall design also makes it quite lightweight - ideal on long stalks, where a tactical but bulky 5-25 scopes really drains on your energy reserves. I had it mounted on my AR10 where it served its duty in the DMR type role and now works on my main .308 hunting rig, which I regularily take out to 300-400m. To me, besides the 3-18 range of scopes, the much less widely available 2-16 range of scopes is quite the best compromise when it comes to hunting, especially with a second focal plane optic like this one, which you can use at 2x as well.