Vixen 6-24×58 rifle scope

Purely from a quality standpoint, the best optical gear from Asia is superb and in my opinion the hunting optics being made in Japan are surpassed by only a few European companies. I insist on good optics, particularly where riflescopes are concerned. 

Vixen makes good optics and like many other makes is innovative and aggressive in maintaining strict quality control over its products. Importantly, its products are reasonably priced.

My test Vixen 6-24×58 is an impressive optic and is a big scope — it’s 357mm long and weighs 800 grams. It features a 4:1 magnification ratio from 6x to 24x. It has a fast-focus dioptre adjuster at the back of the ocular lens. 

Parallax can be adjusted via a side-focus knob, from 40 metres to infinity. 

The battery compartment for illumination of the second-plane reticle is on top of the ocular eyepiece. There are 11 brightness settings. Power is provided by a single Lithium CR2032 battery.

The test scope has a German #4 reticle but you can opt for versions with a mil-dot or a BDC10 reticle. 

The Vixen has fine ⅛ MOA adjustments for elevation and windage; each click is sharp and tactile. Once you have zeroed this scope, by loosening off a small screw in the top of the dial you can return the setting to zero.

Most unusual in this day and age, the Vixen has a two-piece main tube; the front section with an enlarged objective housing is inserted into the turret housing, which is made as an integral part of the rear tube section. 

The finish is a dull matte black.

Exit pupil is 9.6mm at 6x and 2.4mm at the top magnification.

Additionally, the Vixen features a consistent eye relief of 90-91mm. Constant eye relief is most desirable, especially on a hard-kicking rifle, On many scopes in this magnification range, eye relief can shorten by up to 25mm as power is increased. 

The Vixen has a field of view that shrinks from 5.4 to 1.4 metres at 100 metres. A lot of shooters think that a 58mm front glass would give us a much wider field of view, but objective diameter doesn’t determine field, nor is the 30mm tube diameter a key factor.

Using a specialised chart designed for examining the resolution of optical instruments, I found the image was excellent from the centre out to the edges with only a slight degradation noticed past 14x. 

Still, I was able to cleanly resolve down to the #4 block on the chart at 20x. During this testing, I noticed no curvature of field or spherical aberration.

Contrast was very good and no astigmatism was noted. No barrel distortion and no rolling distortion was present, but I did notice some pin-cushion distortion. 

In the evening I checked the Vixen’s low light performance. After cranking the magnification down to increase exit pupil diameter, the Vixen impressed me with its light transmission capabilities. I was able to detect and successfully engage targets that were barely visible to the naked eye. 

While the 6-24x is not optically equal to the top-of-the-line Vixen Artes Tactical scopes which have ED glass, it’s a good optic, especially for the cash.

The Vixen features precision broadband coatings to fully multi-coat each lens, thereby reducing lost light to a minimum.

Chromatic aberration, or fringing, is a problem that has plagued optical designers, particularly at higher magnifications. Chromatic aberration occurs in a scope when the objective lens bends white light towards the reticle. The white light then separates into different colours, each colour bending at a slightly different angle. As a result, all the colours don’t focus at the same point. 

This shows up as a bluish or yellowish edge on the image, particularly straight black-and-white edges. 

In the test scope, chromatic aberration is reduced by using multiple lens elements composed of different types of glass. The combination of low-dispersion positive lenses and high-dispersion negative lenses results in the red and blue colours recombining. 

Although cost-effective, this method adds weight and does nothing to bring the green light back into focus with the red and blue light. The best it can do is to minimise the focus separation between the green light and red/blue light, causing residual colour fringing in the image.

Nonetheless, the result of compound lenses and broadband multi-coating in this Vixen is a brighter, sharper image.

In order for the scope to be useful for long range shooting, its adjustments must be both reliable and repeatable. To properly a valuate the capabilities of the Vixen, I mounted it to a Sabatti Rover Scout. 

With a 100-yard zero established, I fired a test group to set a baseline for the rifle, optic and ammunition. With zero confirmed, I then ‘shot the square’ by firing a centre shot and then, in turn, dialling 16 or 32 clicks of elevation or windage to shift to the next aiming mark. 

The scope’s adjustments tracked accurately and repeatedly and returned to zero.

The Vixen 6-24x58mm is not a budget-priced scope, but it is considerably less expensive than some of the high-tech target scopes on the market. 

If you’re looking for a quality scope in this magnification range for your long-range hunting or varmint rig, the Vixen 6-24×58 is definitely one to consider.   

SPECIFICATIONS

• Manufacturer: Vixen Optics, Japan
• Magnification: 6-24x
• Objective lens: 58mm
• Main tube: 30mm
• Overall length: 357mm
• Weight: 800g
• Reticle: glass-etched German 4, illuminated
• Adjustments: 1/8 MOA clicks
• Eye relief: 90-91mm
• Exit pupil: 9.6-2.4mm
• Field of view: 5.4-1.4 metres at 100 metres

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