I posted these comments over on the 3 Gun nation side, however I thought people might find them easier here. I also noted the other thread on the Kahles K16i is already archived.

Here are my experiences from the past year and 3-4K rounds:

FIRST IMPRESSIONS LAST YEARr:

I  saw the Kahles K16i 1-6x24 scope for the first time at the GPEC law enforcement expo in Leipzig last fall.

Handled it again at the SHOT Show and talked to the Kahles staff.

Through co-operation with the Finnish importer, I now have one in my hands.



To give you a little bit of background where my comments are coming from, I have been on the Finnish Open class national Practical rifle team since 2009, alternate member for this season.

Have used various other small power variable scopes in my work also, as we manufacture sound suppressors I shoot quite few thousand rounds in testing every year.

This first range trip was just zeroing and just feeling out the scope on the range for the first time. Shooting drills and speed more oriented to my practise regimen will follow later this week.

This particular scope has the G4B reticle, which in my opinion is the best of the available options for Practical / 3-gun shooting




The reticle and the dot are in the second focal plane. The dot size is very small ( 2cm at 100 meters / 6x zoom )

Therefore the dot does not cover for example a 20 cm / 8 inch plate at 300 meters.

The optical quality, clarity and brightness are excellent, however I am no optician

The extension lever on the magnification is ok, but I might modify it to be longer.

The adjustments are 1/2 MOA at 100 meters and are under caps.




As mentioned, I did not really focus on shooting speed this time, but this was produced at 100 meters ( prone / bipod ) by pulling the trigger as soon as the dot settled in from recoil:



At 300 meters I was checking the dope as I had not shot this particular load at that distance, but this is what the first 5 shot group looked like:




Overall the scope left me with a really good first impression, the only thing I can quickly think is that I would like to see a locking BDC turret.

As I have been competing with a S&B Short Dot LE for the past few seasons, really easy to adjust the turret and to check the zero with one glance.

However this is a very small gripe for me.

I believe this scope will give the Z6i 1-6x a run for its money.

LATER USE 2013:

June 2013, just shot the Danish Open rifle match in Copenhagen, made a couple of mistakes and that cost me the medal this time and dropped to 5th.

The match overall had 13 stages from 5 meters out to 300 meters, with the 300 m stage having targets between those distances.

I did utilize the T1 on certain stages and shooting positions where the scope had to be on higher magnification to immediately engage further targets.

I am very confident in this scope overall.

LATER 2013, 2014:

More experiences with the scope.

Was leading the Nordic Rifle Match last summer, up til the second to last staqe, where I unfortunately had a DQ.

The scope proved to be excellent overall in use over there again.

This season we have had two national level rifle matches here in Finland.

Placed 3rd in both matches.

In the previous match had a bad malfunction on a long stage, costing serious points + a couple of own brain farts.

So cost me the fight for 1st/2nd place.

Another national level match in the military island of Santahamina in Helsinki, I shot a clean match with no penalties and the match had pretty much all the current top Finnish rifle shooters, apart from Raine Peltokoski.

Stages were primarly off hand to 20-50 meters and 150-300 meter stages, not that much up close and fast, as it was in the previous match.

Very tight match with the top 3 being with 8 match points / 1,5%

Video from the match:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPSJdW_AWeo[/youtube]

Still, no complaints about the scope, technical or otherwise.

I've been looking at picking one of these up but they are still a bit expensive for what they are. Maybe someday.

I guess that being from the same company the Khales will give Swarvo a run for their money.   Appreciate the review.  If I wasn't running a Z6i 1-6 w/BRT I'd buy one.

It's Kahles.  Probably just a typo.  Pronounced like "call us."

Swarovski bought Kahles and then jacked up the prices to protect market share.  Many, myself among them, believe that the glass source is identical, that the grinding and polishing of the lenses by Kahles is a bit better, and that the Kahles scopes are actually more ruggedly constructed.