Kahles K 1050 Scope

A RIFLEMAN’S OPTICS

- John Haviland

Kahles has made all manner of hunting scopes over its more than 120-year history. However, those hunting scopes made in Austria are no longer imported into the U.S. Its sister company, Swarovski, has taken that market while Kahles has turned its focus to competition and target scopes for the American market to fill open niches in Swarovski’s lineup of scopes.

Kahles has entered the magnification race of competition shooting with its K 1050 10-50x 56mm scope. The original version of the scope was used on air rifles for field target shooting in the United Kingdom. “We beefed up the inside of the scope,” said Tom Hogan of Kahles, “and introduced it as a super-precision scope mainly for F-class and benchrest shooting.”

The 1050 fits fine for those sedentary target shooting sports. The scope is large with a weight of 31.4 ounces, length of 16.9 inches and 30mm main tube. The 56mm objective lens is none too large to provide a wide enough exit pupil with the scope turned to its higher magnifications.

The scope has 5.3 feet of elevation adjustment. That is plenty to turn up the elevation turret to shoot well past 1,200 yards. Windage adjustment is 3.6 feet. The parallax adjustment wheel is under the elevation turret. This is handy as you raise your eye slightly from behind the scope, and the wheel is right there. The dial turns to focus the scope down to 8 meters.

I mounted the Kahles on a Cooper Model 22 .243 Winchester. For a load I shot Hornady 105-grain A-MAX bullets with a muzzle velocity of 2,814 fps using 42.0 grains of Power Pro 4000-MR powder.

With the scope zeroed at 100 yards, I loosened two screws that held the elevation dial cap and turned the dial to lineup the “0” on the dial with the indicator mark on the tube. The dial still went four clicks below this zero set, in case I wanted to shoot a closer distance.