Vintage Review – NIKON 4-12×40 AO Hunting Scope

Shiny toob…

@C_DOES : What general area are you located? My grandfather, an immigrant, was a machinist, too.

Nikon would hold up fine for hunting. It may not like the drop tests, but they were pretty sturdy back then.

Any interest in testing an older fixed power? I have a Zeiss Conquest MC 4×32 that I'm trying to sell that would be very simple to test, but might be of interest.

Heck yeah!

Nikon is a Japanese brand and they are made in japan. Now we only see March from japan which is the actual Japanese brand LOL

I still have a Nikon black fx 1000 . Splendid

I would not be nervous about relying on the Nikon for a nanosecond. Nikon made some of the best scopes available for several decades. Would I be more confident with an old Leupold M8 fixed 4x or a Weaver K4? Yes, but I would have a different answer for vintage variable power scopes from either one.

The through the scope footage looks like an old movie. You can really tell the difference between modern glass and vintage Japanese glass.

Posjedujem nikon monarch gold 2,5-10×50,gledao sam kroz dosta i swarovski optika i zeisa, mišljenja sam da se ne mora skrivati iza nikog.kvaliteta slike,robustnost,držanje nule,leće.ma sve,možda jedino ima deblju končanicu,ali to mi do etičke lovne daljine ne smeta, već sam par puta krenio da uzmem nešto novije, i nikako da ode od mene…bit će na mom lovnom karabinu dok god sve funkcionira,nejde nigdjeI own a Nikon monarch gold 2.5-10×50, I have looked through a lot of Swarovski optics and Zeiss, I think it doesn't have to hide behind anyone. image quality, robustness, zero hold, lenses. everything, maybe the only thing is that it has a thicker reticle , but that doesn't bother me as far as an ethical hunting distance, I've already set out a couple of times to get something newer, and there's no way it's going to leave me… it'll be on my hunting carbine as long as everything works, it's not going anywhere

I've had a few Nikon scopes over the years and they were all good. They always had good glass for the price, even compared to what's on the market now. I wish they still made them.

The nikon 1-4 walked so the sig msr could run

I've never seen a shinier scope in my life lol an ARD is a moot point with this scope

A long time ago when the NRA was a noble orginication I remember reading an article in American Hunter where they had done a survey. They reported that most hunters with a 3-9 scope set it at about 4x and never touched it again; as thier need was fast target aquisition and identification and hits just need to land on a 9 inch pie plate. That way of thinking has always made a lot of sense to me.

Vintage Japanese Tasco!!

The one vintage scope review I’d really want to see is the scope Oswald used

I've got an older Simmons Whitetail Classic Rifle Scope 6.5-20x 50mm. Made in the Philippines, and the glass is honestly really good. It's currently on a Ruger American Predator in 308. I picked it up for $50 on Facebook. Don't sleep on older glass people!

I have and love the older Nikon hunting scopes. However, for $400+, modern scopes (even the Chinese stuff) have far better coatings and perform noticeably better in low light/hazy conditions. The vast majority of game, is taken during the first few and last few minutes of legal shooting time. For that reason, at $400 on a serious hunting rig, I'd have to go with something modern.

Leupold Mk 4 LRT 3.5-10??

Would have been cool to see the Nikon vs the inexpensive Vortex Hog Hunter 3-12×56. Curios about any of the vintage European 56mm "night glass" scopes too…..

Would love to see more hunting style optics reviewed. I recently got a Schmidt & Bender Klassik with the German no. 4 reticle and am really impressed with it so far. Incredible light transmission on it. Prior to that scope, I had a swaro Z3

I wish nikon still made scopes. I have a 3-9x with a bdc, I bought for $150 and it punches well above its weight in terms of cost.

I was shooting long range with my vortex viper and strikeeagles. I grabbed my nikon 3×9 bdc something just for fun and the glass quality was shocking compared to these newer scopes. I couldn't believe the amount of mirage I could see with the nikon that the vortex s were missing.

Turret design and glass coatings are why older scopes can't compare.

That doesn’t look like a MK4HD?

I was bummed when Nikon stopped making scopes. I have a Nikon 3-12 M-Tactical and the glass is great. Which is what you expect from a camera company.