Phill Price discovers a remarkable new sighting system 1e been searching for years for my perfect scope and I never miss the opportunity to ask scape makers if they have anything new that might suit my needs Tye used scopes from MITC Optics in he past and they've heen telling me for two years now to hold ‘9n a my dream scope is nearly ready. I've waited and waited and jase when P' forgotten about this dream scape of ming, a box arived ‘on my desk containing an MTC Viper Connect, So, this sit then, but ‘would it really tick all the boxes on my wih li The frst thing I and every other prospective buyer will have to adjust to is « new way of thinking about fle optics and unusual looks, Every rifle scape in productian today has its ots in firearms scopes where recoil iv a fact of lf, and eye relief, the distance between the ‘cular lens assembly and your eye or perhaps more importantly your ‘eyebrow, isa necessity A heavy secoling rifle will drive the scope hard into your skin and draw blood if eye reli is insufficient, but on recoilles rifles this is completely unimportant. But there s an optical price to pay for this distance and that is in a narrowing of che field of “ew and also the depth of field MITC trialled a prismatic scope same yea eye relief and in many respects was an excellent optic but were ‘unhappy with the performance in some areas, So they decided to ign ther own more conventional model and go out en a Hmb t0 make something truly better that any other aingun scope before. AS you an See from the pictures, the Connect sits much further back on the action than standard scopes and I suspect that many shooters will find this hard to accept to begin with as people don't like things that look ‘odd, but you need to use one to realise looks aren't neatly as important as performance Cer rs 0 which also had no Se eRe ad Mounting the Connect so far has been done by-using two very, strong conventional mounts in front of the adjuster saddle and has proven to be reliable with no reports of loss of zero. However, Sportsmatch Mounts have just delivered a prototype mount lodiested to this scope which can be seen in the pictures. It's likely that some improvements will be incorporated in this before (ull production commences, but they tell me that its close to being Bnalised so any changes will be small T chose to fit the Connect to my Days and Uhoped that the rearward positionin ‘compromise the balance and handling, feel only the most subtle change in hands despite the highly unconventional scope position Positioning the scope fore and aft was easy to adjust and I took MTC's advice and set it from prone at maxinaum magnification This is the most critical place as you are far more able to adjust your head in the standing and sitting positions The next challenge you face is getting used to the eyepiece touching your face. Night vision users will of course be right at home as will people like me who regularly use binoculars, as the contact with your face will be familier [e's a difficult thing to explain in words but when you touch your eyebrow against the scope you feel stabilised and no longer dependant on the cheek piece to maintain alignment with the scope and the effect is really noticeable and postive | tried mounting the rifle as fast as I could and bumped my eyebrow a couple of times uncil I got the feeling The scope is supplied with 2 concertina eye cup which liminates peripheral light from entering your eye and also MIKA iS for testing Connect wouldn't as surprised howe way the rifle felt in my od ee 2010 ARGUN WORLD 39prevents any reflections on the rear lens but as I wear glases | was ‘more comfortable without it. The eye bell has a fast-twist cup to offer adjustment to suit spectacle wearers and those with healthy eyes alike. This is just ike many of the hetter binoculars "The windage end elevation adjusters ere low profile yet have Sugcr friendly turrets removing the need for a coin or screwdriver to turn them. Directly behind that saddle is a second one that accommodates the battery compartment, the brightness adjuster for the reticle and a rubber covered on/off switch, This is an improvement over many scopes as once the brightness is set you can simply switch it on at the pre selected level. Adjustment for reticle clarity is provided by a discreet, rubberovered fatt-focus adjuster which Ifound easy to get just night, especially with the illumination switched on. At the front, the innovation continues with a permanently attached flip-up lens cover and inbuilt lens hood. The specification is 3-12 x 32 which is versatile and highly unusual in these days of bigger and bigger objective lenses I've long been a believer that the ‘quality and coating ofthe lenses is more important than size alone and this scope happily proves the theory. The company that MTC chose to manufacture the Connect for them also makes scopes for many other brands, and when they asked for a sample ofthe lenses that would be used in the Connect, the scope that was sent came from a certain very famous brand that I cannot mention, Suffice to 40 ARGUN WORLD 2010 eT as mounted on the left side of peeoriicree to say it's a brand that costs a very great deal more that the Connect. ‘To get a feel for just how well the Connect would work i low light conditions I took the best performing scopes I own and sat looking through each in turn to see how they coped as the sun went down. Its rivals were a Japanese made Simmons Whitetail Classic 4-14 x 40, a Millet 4-16 x 50 and a Lightstream 4-16 x 44 alll of which cost @ lot more than the Connect and have proven themselves to be among the best in their class. I looked into the sandy areas at small features such as nots in fences and pebbles on, the ground, over and over, asthe night slowly fel The first to fail wes the huge Mile, while the Lightstream and Simmons ran neck and neck with the Connect. The two conveational scopes produced similar images while the Connect’s image seemed just as good, yet somehaw different. Don't ask me what was different, it war just different, As the light fell further still, | where the non- illuminated reticles could no longer be seen against dark objacts but were still visible against lighter backgrounds, [switched on the illuminated reticle on the Connect and was pleased to soe that the range of adjustment went very low and that only the sll centre cross is lit. This allows your ‘eye to absorb all the incoming light without being overwhelmed by an overly bright reticle, Fest class The Connect is available with either the ever popular SCB reticle or the newer AMD type which was fitted to my test scope aLR sd eet peer cee cert This isan interesting variant of the military mil-dot modified to work with airgun trajectories and also works well with rimfire furrdges ‘The vertical arm hat a sequence of crs and cro marks: alloying both precise holdover and. bracketing. of Kmockdown targets for fangefinding. Tm sure that ie wil be masive success withthe hunter fe target crowd I's extremely Fine allowing superprecse aiming which might have. proven dificult ose in fow light Fit wast «forthe ifinination. find it less confsing than some of the Christmas tee type reticle, offering ts catered Inge, Apa, clever design cover all the bases Tying understand the diference in image quality, I copped my hand around the ocular lenses of the conventional scopes to mnimie the effect of the Connect touching yout face and saw an improvement in their image quality too This i the answer ‘0 ny «question thst by eliminating peripheral light your eye can foes on che output from the scope more effectively. This performance i remarkable for two resons, Firstly, che Connect was competing with scopes costing twice as much and secondly, it had the smallest objective Tens, supporting my Srgument for quality oversize. This small lens makes the scope small, lighter and rhe to be mounted lower to the bare than scopes vith big biectives Infact, the whole scope is eruy compact fing only 270mm long and weighing 590g" Final. production models may vary from this pre-production prototype ‘While testing the low lige performance the huge field of view became apparen nd MTC’ claim that's double the ize of other scapes vs easy to se Infact, constantly felt the urge to drop the tagnienton on the ether scope feed i. Twas desperately disappointed that there wasnttime to get out and do some shooting withthe Connect and 1 report back in a ture edition with my field test results as I feel that I've only touched the tip ofthe teberg this month, So wharcan I 3, other than that MTC were right to ask me to wait, Wel, docs tick sl the boxes on my wish fst? Compact dimensions, vatable power multeaim point reticle with illumination, side wheel paaloy fdjustznen, Bist class glass and low adjustment turete Ys i does so perhaps my search ip over at lat cat wait to gt itinto the field rar pero ae StoegerAIRGUNS Adjustal im Ret djustable rear sight w black [GIMIK) Ets) aguasaNGe ae Re Corr emia an eat} 2070 AIRGUN WORLD. 41