Arken optics EP5 5-25x56 The best value long range scope ?!
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- Опубліковано 23 лип 2024
- Chinese riflescopes shouldn't be this good..
Here I give the EP5 some preliminary testing with the idea that if its good enough ill fit it onto a new PRS / ARL rifle that I'm building over the winter.
It took a slightly unexpected turn and gave me an existential crisis.. Its now going to stay fitted on my AirArms xti50 for the foreseeable future. It performed well above my expectations and will now be on my main target rifle. its too good to be on my spare..
this is a Chinese made scope with Japanese ed glass.
Its far from perfect and i discuss some minor shortcomings but optically and mechanically it looks and feels superb. i guess long term we will see how well it performs and if any problems arise but to say I'm surprised is an understatement. - Спорт
Excellent vid as usual such honest reviews I don’t trust many UA-camrs on there review’s however you I do trust … I’m very interested in the arken zulus lrf any chance you might be able to get one of these on test!
Hi Andy, I really appreciate that thank you. I say things as I see them and always will. That's why I left in the bit at the end, having something of an existential crisis 😆
I'm not well versed in nv stuff, so I don't think I could really offer much useful experience of the Zulu. I do think it might be a useful bit of kit for some of the daytime shooting though. I'd love to be able to show you where I'm aiming in the wind and stuff.
If enough of you want to watch it, I'll see if I can borrow a demo one or something 🤔
@@tillysgunstocks 👍
You are aware that All and every APP is owned by the company that created it and can be switched off or changed at a whim by them i wouldn't touch it with a barge pole
Excellent video as always and so good and refreshing to have an honest review, thanks for doing it. Cheers, Woody
Good video mate,you have explained the scopes features and specs very well indeed. Arken contacted me and offered me this same scope for me to review on my .25 FX impact M3 FAC so im currently putting it to test, keep the videos coming mate.
Nice review video as usual, Tommy.
Your AirArms airgun is cool, i like that red stock, it's beautiful!❤
That's a cool review vid man done properly, I was sent a scope from Arken too except my review was yea its good that was it lol, great stuff
That’s a really good scope review, as always you go into a lot of useful detail. Am on the lookout for a scope and noticed the Arken brand but until now had little knowledge of them. Thanks
Morning nick, there's a smaller 30mm tubed version that I'm quite keen to try out now. It looks to be a much more all rounder and might well suit our needs well. But ofcourse I've not seen one yet to be sure.
These monster scopes are great but are not for everyone.
The guys did say they were looking into some models more aimed at air rifles though.
@@tillysgunstocks
Thanks for the heads up on the smaller one. Would possibly fit the bill. It’s going on a budget Regime .22 that I’ve just bought as a ‘knock around’ PCP, something that’ll take knocks without worrying about. It has a case and it’ll be a tight fit to have anything too large on it.
You’ve certainly given me confidence in the brand, cheers.
Great vid! I just got an arken myself and I love it goin on my new avenge x. Actually it checks some of the boxes you were looking for. Capped windage, parallax adjustable down to 10yards, and 10 clicks per mil. The EPL4 6-24X50. It's also lighter as well. I'm new to pcps and love your vids! Keep em coming!
Thank you, helps me with understanding how to zero my my scope. Bill
thank you for sharing this review Ihave been looking at this scope to put on my 308 ar build
I'm still very happy with it. I was using it this morning infact 😉
Ep5 on order as of a week and half ago 👀 great review!
Looks like a good capable scope, there are a lot out there now, but as you said you only really know if it is suitable for you until is is on top of a rifle in your hands. Just treated myself to an Athlon Argos BTR 6-24x50 with a few quid off for Black Friday. Same as the Arken, American company but manufactured in China. Thanks for the video, will be great to see how you get on with it in the future.
It's amazing mate how civilian scopes have advanced in the last 15 odd years. When I first started competing at a decent level we only really had the likes of the ex forces nightforce nxs compacts for hft if you wanted to get proper glass. Even back then they were hard enough to source... Nowdays we've got so much choice and something for every budget.
This Arken has made me re evaluate what we can get for the money. 😉
@@tillysgunstocks There is one place here in the U.S.A. that has been selling brand new Athlon Ares BTR 4.5-27x50 IR MIL for $565.00 u.s.d.
Personally I would jump on that long before I would spend close to the same money on an Arken.
Nice to see an unbiased vid as opposed to all the others that have some sort of angle.
I just received the Arken EPL4 FFP 4-16 x44 due to the dull weather ive not had the opportunity to look through it properly, but its impressive for sure and the build quality is great. As you say Chinese scopes just shouldn't be this good.
Have been waiting for OW to restock with the reticule i wanted for ages now, but as i only got my rifle back from The Rat Works last week its all turned out well :) .
Would really would of preferred a reticule that was fully illuminated but hey guess you cant have everything !
Another great video, keep em coming:
Arken do have a very good reputation for excellent value scopes. Glass is cheap nowadays, even cheapish scopes have good glass these days. I'd rather the money went into the mechanics. For my needs as a semi-serious FT shooter I'm not too bothered if it has perfect edge to edge sharpness but a very good sweet spot in the middle for good focus (accurate focus=less parallax error). Big lenses are more expensive too so I'll stick with smaller ones until I win the lottery :). I shoot day only so wouldn't benefit from the bigger lenses anyway, my pupils will be too small.
Good tracking is important if you're a dialing person, I just use the dots these days and leave the scope alone.
I'm presently using a Wulf Lightening on my S400 and seems so much more than the £130 I paid. How about testing one?
The Arken EPL-4 6-24x50 FFP and the EPL-4 4-16x44 FFP both have a 10 yard parallax and the MOA version has 20 MOA per full rotation of the turrets.
I bought a Arken shj thing, reticle canted returned it. Then a ep5, reticle canted, returned it. . Thank you Amazon. Overall, my gun club seems to be liking them. Or at least buying them. I'll stick with my vortex and pay up for the lifetime warranty. I made a stupid mistake using mid height rings when I should have used high. Broke the Vortex Strike Eagle and admitted it to Vortex. They sent me a new one even though I was the bone head.
"taking a punt" on a £450 scope? not unless ive tried two or three in that price bracket before i make my mind up which im buying.another great video mate.
I have EPL 4 6x24x50.
Got 2 actually.
Love both.
Mine focuses down to 10 yards. I use mine with 17 hm2 rummie.
Fixing to put one on an Avenger 177 air rifle.
Back light super.
Better than $1500 element nexus. Got 2 of those 2.
Thst’s the truth.
Emmm I think you should look at the Discovery Optics ed-prs gen ii 5-25x56 ffp. 😉 Rumour has it, it may be quite similar at nearly half the price, with the addition of the throw lever you suggested and a few other extras included 🤫 I have one.
I don't think I've seen the gen 2. I've already got what must be the MK1 version already, I'll look and check... The one I've got is very impressive especially for the modest price,only downside is, its massive!
The Arken is currently around 450, which is definitely great value 😉
Tommy, like you I had looked at these previously and ruled out because of the difference in price via UK distribution mark up. They do seem very highly rated amongst the .22lr Fraternity. It's a pity the manufacturer is losing out on a market because of the extra distribution cost over here.
Hi Dave, they are back in stock at opw again. The prices are where they ought to be now but the rediculous quoted RRPs are just laughable, especially as the RRP on the Arken direct site is much lower.
This is a very impressive bit of kit for that money, id put it optically, somewhere around the vortex viper pst11 range. I've not had it long enough to comment on long term durability,but I will be revisiting it every so often with updates how its holding up.
It's definitely going to be useful for some of the upcoming PRS/ARL based air stuff. All I need to do now is work out a way of limiting /adding a zero stop to other end of the travel so I can't go past 100m.
I Think there's only two or three Factory's in China that make Scopes , some of the top brands in the world ,are made in them factory's , I find them to be Great Scope's 💯 , Great Video 💯 Thanks for Sharing 💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥
I shoot HFT. So we do not have the luxury of adjusting our scopes. We are very often shooting into dark areas of woodland, so a fully illuminated reticle is vital. I imagine it would be an excellent FT scope though,
unless they are Shooting at close range targets. 25yds would be a too long. So probably the scope is designed with range hunting in mind.
Fully agree.
And it begs the question why on earth did Optisan not illuminate the CP scopes.
Or it could just be marketing, and the illuminated scopes will come next.
It’s the sole reason I haven’t got one.
The Arken EP5 here in the U.S.A. for about the last 6 months has been priced at $397.00 U.S.D.
Arken has though has been making it known they would be doing price increases on their scopes after the Black Friday sales period.
Here in the states there are two camps as far as Arken goes,
1. Chinese Junk, run away
2. Great budget optic for the dollars.
General consensus is the EP5 is best when the magnification is kept to about 18 or below and above that the further you go towards max magnification the darker/milkier the glass gets.
Quite a few people have reported quality control issues with scopes they have received but Arken does stand behind the warranty and replaces the defective optic with no issues.
Not sure how that will work for people or the time frame if warranty replacement is required being on the other side of the big water.
I wasn't impressed with the earlier EP5s I checked out couple years ago and last year's I honestly thought their glass kind of sucked past 20x. Fast forward to yesterday I received several new EP5's and EPL4's since I couldn't pass up Black Friday sale before prices go up and holey HELL they are clear all the way to their maximum 25x magnification (BOTH EP5s I just received). I had to grab my Athlon Midas Tac and Ares BTR Gen 2 to compare all of them side by side at their maximum magnifications. They were pretty much neck and neck believe it or not and the EP5s had noticeably much huger FOV and friendlier eyebox. I don't think I'm going to be buying any more Athlons from now on. These newest EP5's are pretty darn close to my Athlon Cronus BTR UHD and Tract Toric ELR too and really noticeably huger wider FOV. I think they must have stepped up with their glass quality recently because it's seriously night and day clearer than all of the older EP5s I previously checked out. When I called BS to the shills saying their EP5s were just as good as their Vortex Razor Gen 2 I kind of now believe it. I wouldn't say the EP5 is just as good as the Razor Gen 2 but it's really not too far behind based on the 2 I just received.
If you got a new EP5 that's not clear all the way to 25x then send it in under warranty to exchange it for a good one.
After first hand experiencing these 2 EP5s I have really second thoughts about buying more 4.5-27x and 4.5-29x and 5-30x scopes that cost significantly more than the EP5 especially after noticing how huge the FOV is compared to the more expensive scopes. It was also pretty much neck and neck with my Tract Toric ELR in regards to chromatic aberration on high magnification under high contrast conditions.
I still prefer my Vortex Razor Gen 3 6-36x56 though and feel it's worth spending the extra money for. Talk about crystal clear and REALLY HUGE FOV.
you could try the foam over the eyepiece that came in the box
I've got some chopped up eye cups here that should do the job nicely. It's too cold right now for my peaked cap 🥶
Would be nice if they made one that is perfect for FT good review
I did think the same myself, but I reckon the market will be too specialised and jumping into a new market will take a fair bit of trial and error. The x50 is tough to beat on all levels for ft. It ranges superbly and very consistently so has the ft market well and truly cornered. I'm always up for new kit coming to market but I don't see it happening myself.
I put one of these on my savage desert tactical in 6.5 PRC. I can easily hit the 1000 yard 12 inch targets. The thing about this scope is, they could easily sell it for more. You get way more scope for what they are charging.
Hi mate, what sort of hold over/drop do you get out at 1000yds?
With the low power .177 . Im dealing with around 30" of drop at 100yds 🤣 and all the windage in existence...
@@tillysgunstocks Its a little over 200 inches of drop at 1000 yards.
Can’t find any UK dealers with stock, they must be good
I’m the unlucky owner of an Arken scope that has a fault 6 months after purchase and I’m being told that it has to go back to china to be repaired. Optics Warehouse are the original retailer but they are also Arken UK. And the amazing warranty that the USA Arken sights come with that’s fully transferable and lifetime no quibble repair or replace is not the case in the UK. For spending over £550 on a scope and for it to have a fault after 6 months isn’t great but the support in the UK would leave me to say avoid these Arken scopes at all costs if you are in the UK. The after sales support is terrible and repairs will take weeks/months if having to go back to china for a what seems to be a simple illumination switch repair.
Hi mate that is a bummer. Could you let us all know how it plays out on here please.
Arken global are on here, let's see if it speeds things up a bit eh 😉
@@tillysgunstocks will do. It’s a nice scope but there are many more nice scope out there that give a much better warranty if you live in the UK. To think a company as big as Arken don’t have any support in the UK other than Optics Warehouse who tell you to send it back to China…. Anyway… off it goes for however long it takes. No impressed at all. Hope you have better luck.
I hope you get a satisfactory outcome mate and please be sure to keep this updated.ive only had my one a short while and thus far is great but I'm sure plenty of people,me included will want to know how any warranty work is handled in the UK.
The price is into Leupolds territory- so it’s a no brainer Leupold are vastly superior glass and build quality, along with being much lighter.
There’s bad reviews from the USA on these too.
There's a UA-cam video about fixing the illumination switch.
Arken do list a 34mm throw lever as a $34 accessory, on their U.S. website….aluminium and branded .
I’m a bit wary of Arken, I tried importing one a few years ago and it was a resounding no, and zero interest from arken in making it happen. Then as you say some importers got hold of them and kicked the backside out of prices. The true test will be on how the warranty is handled by arken for UK buyers. I had a free lifetime warranty claim on another more established US based scope brand and it was a nightmare, if Optics Warehouse had not been so patient as piggy in the middle I would have gave up.
I agree mate. This one was sent from the UK, I checked the sender's postcode and its not from our usual retailers so they must have a bunch here for warranty purposes.
Should anything go pear shaped with this one I'll be sure to document it and how it plays out 😉
U.S. Government has very, very restrictive rules as far as shipping or exporting optics out of this country overseas.
It may not be they do not want to sell overseas but are restricted in being able to do so.
That is an air rifle? LOL!! You have a 5-25 on an air rifle? I only have a 1-6 on my AR
LMFAO Thanks man, I needed that laugh. It has been a long day.
If you want a real laugh then, have a look at the full on field target scopes like the march majesta. That's 80mag 😂 commonplace is 50mag in field target.
Low power,light weight projectiles and tiny targets..having the extra mag is very useful 😉
How isn't it clear at 25 yards, surely adjusting the parallax should resolve this?
In the vid I'm shooting just inside of25yds. The depth of field is pretty short so its blurred at max magnification. Winding the mag down to around 10x and it's nice and clear.😉
@@tillysgunstocks That's a big no for me though.
I previously checked out several of them roughly two years ago and again last year and wasn't impressed and noticed they weren't clear past 20x magnification.
This recent Black Friday Cyber Monday sale was too good to pass up so I decided to buy a couple of EP5's and EPL4's and if they sucked I'd just return them for a refund.
This isn't going to happen because I was pleasantly surprised the EP5's are actually clear all the way to 25x magnification and seem a lot clearer than the older ones I checked out couple of years ago and again last year. They seem to have noticeably clearer glass in the new ones. If they are all like the new ones I just received I can highly recommend buying them. I paid for them with my own hard earned money and feel they were really worth the sale prices I paid. I highly doubt there's any better quality scopes available anywhere near the prices of the Arken EP5. They're not that far behind the Athlon Cronus BTR UHD's and Tract Toric ELR I have that cost more than 3x - 4x the price of the EP5. I do not believe they are worth 3x - 4x the price difference.
I still prefer the Nightforce NX8 4-32x50 and black Vortex Razor Gen 3 6-36x56 and feel they are worth buying and are actually worth the extra cost over the Arken EP5.
I used to really love Athlon until I compared the EP5 and EPL4s to my Athlon Midas Tacs and Ares BTR Gen 2s and Cronus BTR UHDs.
The sight picture looking through the Arkens are more pleasant to my own eyes regardless of their much cheaper prices. FOV in the EP5 looks a lot wider.
I can't comment on their reliability yet until I use them for the long term but initial impression is they exceed my expectations especially for their relatively lower cost.
The EPL4 isn't quite as clear as the EP5 but more than adequate for most shooting conditions and seem clearer than all other big name brands they compete with including many that cost double their price.
I sure hope Arken remains in business for the long haul and keep their prices affordably low.
Honestly I'm sort of a scope snob and am really impressed with the new EP5 but wasn't impressed with their older ones.
Over the last 18 months I've been dipping in and out of a few FB owners groups to see what the owners thought and how they are holding up. There definitely appears to have been some upgrades around a year or so ago,glass wise.
This is my first one so have no other experience of the other models or the older versions,but iam very pleased with how it performs so far.
I'd put it, optically up with the vortex viper pst11 range with ease. And if I'm honest I can't really see it as any worse than my older leupold MK4 target custom shop builds from a few years ago.
Pretty surprised at that really. I hope it is reliable as the glass is very nice.luckily it won't live it's life out on large recoil rifles so should hold up just fine 😉
I’ve given up on Arken . however, that’s another discussion for somewhere else.
Would swear it's a discovery scope in arken label
Which model do you think its most similar too?
I also prefer a fully illuminated reticle. I've written to Arken about this and other manufacturers. I wish they all provided multiple reticle option like Element Scopes do.
I don't like most of the Element Optics scopes due to far below average glass for the prices they charge. I do like the Theos I bought though but have experienced questionable warranty and their lack of customer service really bothers me. I have a very expensive defective Element Theos scope.
@@commonsense5709 Can't say I've ever noticed any issues with the glass, not that I've ever owned a top of the range scope costing around £2,000 to compare the with. So what is the defect with the Theos?
@@MrRockstar1968 Illumination button is not reliable.
Exterior finish is really not durable.
@@MrRockstar1968 The Element Optics Helix is absolutely trash in regards to way below average glass quality with a ridiculously tight eyebox. The Arken EPL4 absolutely smokes them in every possible way imaginable and are much cheaper too. The Titans are not as good compared to the much cheaper and far superior Arken EP5s that sell for half of what the Titans go for. Even the dirt cheap Discovery PRS is better than the Titan. The Vortex Strike Eagle 3-18x44 is also superior to the Titan 3-18x and much lighter weight and with a no BS no questions asked lifetime warranty. The thing about the Chinese Element Optics scopes is watch out for their turrets, they may seize up on you one day shortly after you experience turrets get extremely difficult and very hard to turn and Element Optics may tell you to pound sand and fix it yourself. The Nexus I checked out had extremely unacceptable levels of chromatic aberration. The much cheaper Nightforce SHV and way cheaper Chinese Athlon Midas Tacs literally smokes it in optical clarity and turrets as well and I think even the Arken EP5 has night and day clearer glass when compared at 20x. I own a lot of scopes from budget Chinese made to mid grade to high end and compared a lot of them already to know which are the really terrible scopes not even worth buying and the best bangs for the bucks.
If the Theos had a better warranty with excellent customer service and better quality build then I would recommend buying them but for now be sure to pay as little as possible for them (no more than 2/3 their normal selling price AND NEVER EVER pay regular price for them) just in case you get screwed over regarding warranty which unfortunately I'm finding out first hand the hard way. I recommend buying the Vortex Razor Gen 3 instead for their no BS no questions asked lifetime warranty even if you damage it or it gets burnt in a house fire you get a brand new replacement and Vortex even sends a prepaid return shipping label so you never need to pay anything out of pocket to send anything in for warranty. It's worth paying the extra for the Razor Gen 3. The new black ones are under $2500 regular price. The Vortex Razor Gen 3 have clearer image quality and more total elevation travel than the Theos. Only negative is the weight. I bought several of the Element Optics Theos due to their lighter weight and totally tool less zero stop compared to the other much better quality competitors. At least IMHO I think the Theos is probably going to be more reliable than the Zeiss LRP S3 with similar warranty.
Just to be clear, I only like the Element Theos specifically at 2/3rds their normal selling price. I would never pay full price for them. I'd just buy another Vortex Razor Gen 3 for cheaper instead if I had to pay full price for the Theos.
I only recommend Arken's EP5 and EPL4s with the Japanese ED glass.
I only recommend Vortex Chinese Strike Eagle specifically the 3-18x44 34mm FFP not the 5-25x56 where the Arken EP5 is a much better scope for half the cost. Most other cheaper Chinese made lower end Vortex scopes aren't very good quality and may not be reliable. I also like the Chinese made Vortex Crossfire 2's with front focus AO and 1 inch tubes that have been reliable for me but nothing else from their made in China lineup. I like their Razor line seem to be decent quality but kind of overpriced so buy them only when they have a good discounted sale.
I'd recommend Athlon but recently got screwed over by their warranty department too so buyer beware with Athlon brand also so only buy them when you see them for half price sale assuming you don't have warranty support just like Bushnells.
How much?
Is it suitable for 306 cal?
I honestly don't know mate, I have very little knowledge of the larger calibre rifles. Maybe worth having a look on the FB owners group?
@@tillysgunstocks thank you
The msg adjustment on my discovery 5-30x56 is stiff so chucked a coaster on it, problem solved
The breakaway coasters are perfect for the job,but ironically terrible as an actual coaster 😆
@@tillysgunstocks working so far little more chunky than I would have liked but does the job so far. Found with the discovery even though minimum parallax is 25 can use it at 20 on lower magnification, but I rarely Shoot at less than 30 so doesn’t matter to me, and zero at 30m is good for 20 25 30 drops slightly at 35 so always dialling up. If I want to go ratting I’ll either stick a different scope on or take another rifle more suitable for that. Another great video btw 👍
Have you tried the Eagle Vision dovetail to picatinny adepters? I use them on all my guns that come with dovetail, and I have never had an issue.
Although, I can't make shit like you can 😂.
I have a set of the eaglevision rails here, I just can't get them to sit true with the dovetails.even with the grubs down through the top they flex and splay. ☹️
No stock at Uttings 😢 sold out at Arken too but listed at £499
I didn't know they listed them,Im going to look now 😀
@@tillysgunstocks Arken…. Typo sorry 🫣
If only they had a 50x or 60x scope
Personally I have no need for that high a magnification but if they do a higher mag option it could well be a decent br or ft scope.
Can you guys get Sightron scopes over there?
They have a SIII 10-50 X60 which msrp is about $1300.00 U.S.D. that is pretty decent for the dollars.
I wondered why he didn't mention the price so I checked. Two prices came up, £822.99, and 866.99, now I am suspicious.
Where did you see them prices? They have dropped significantly since 😉
@@tillysgunstocks Optics Warehouse, Optics Trade, I have just found Arken at a 39% discount £400.99.
@@tillysgunstocks Correction, £499.99.
£829.99
No, £499.
I only looked at optics warehouse
@@imdaprophet Arken optics U.K. (they have their own website) is actually part of optics warehouse. Do a Google. It is £499, but sold out.
@@imdaprophet that's the RRP. When in stock it is £499
I did after seeing your comment it’s 39percent off. So the original price is £820 something. Not worth it for a new Chinese company
I’ve been waiting weeks for mine 🥲