Nikko Sterling Nighteater 8-32X44mm

[TheDodge]

The Nighteater is produced in 1" and 30mm tubes. I bought the 1" as it was discounted to £130.00

At the time I was shooting a 20 year old HW77k, the gun had seen service and the foresight was missing when I bought it. I decided to throw a very cheap x8 power Tasco scope on it to see how the accuracy was. It didn't take me long to realise that the HW was a very accurate gun and deserved a much better scope, hence the Nighteater.

The scope is 15" in length (without sunshade) and looks huge on any gun but atop the HW carbine it looked like something from NASA. Despite my many years of shooting airguns I had never delved into decent optics. The first quandry I faced was the parallax adjuster, I had no idea what it was and to be honest I thought I'd bought a "duff" scope because I couldn't focus it when I zoomed in.
After some playing about I sighted the gun on the bottom of my garden and looked at the blurred view, then slowly turning the parallax and "ping"!!! Perfect focus at x32 power! I could read the type on an old newspaper that I'd set as a target from 26.5 yards!

It took a little longer to realise that the measurements on the parallax adjuster were telling me the range of the object I was looking at.

The parallax adjuster would be my only gripe with the scope. The measurements show distances from 15 yards to infinity but the useable distances, for a hunting airgun, 15 to 30 yards are marked in about half an inch on the side of the adjuster which makes reading the ranges in between very difficult, a certain amount of estimation is required. A nice scope wheel wouldn't go amiss but Nikko Sterling have never made one for the 1" tube model.

At x32 power (properly focussed) the view at 50 yards is nice and crisp as is the view down to 15 yards, any less distance the parallax has to be set to infinity and the power lowered.
The parallax adjuster is sighted next to the windage and elevation turrets so can easily adjusted, in the field, without much movement at all so not giving your position away, I much prefer this set up to the parallax being adjusted at the front of the scope.
The zoom as much the same as any other scope, the zoom ring is just 1.5 inches from the focus ring at the eyepiece.

Mounted on the HW I was able to hit and obliterate a single letter on newspaper type, just the size of the pellet took the adjacent letters too.

I upgraded my gun to my first pcp, a Falcon FN19SB. Now the scope came into its own. I was able to zero at 50 yards and shoot a half inch six shot group.

The scope now rides my S16s (when target shooting). I found the scope to be too busy for hunting, by the time I aquired a target and set the zoom and parallax the quarry was long gone so I now use a x6x44mm hunting scope in the field.

The scope, coupled with the S16s, is brilliant. Hitting a drawing pin head at 50 yards is easy.

The power is so good I often take a look at the Moon's surface through it and I'm always in awe of the sight of never seen before craters (never seen by me anyway)

The scope is robust and set on a one piece mount I can remove and refit the scope with no changes in zero.

Obviously, the milldots are a terriffic tool for POA adjustment.

[HW80k]

Nikko Stirling seems to be one of those brands that make great scopes right the way through their range!!! Old or new they are always impressive.

[AndyWilsonHerts]

Hi **

Thanks for that review

Im looking for a Nikko 10-50x60 for a present for my son, so I appreciate what you've said about yours.

Cheers again

Andy

[Tadpole]

Thanks for sharing .................................................. .....