Tried out a friend's Swampfox Arrowhead 1-10x24 this weekend on a custom-built .223, these are my quick impressions:
- Good eyebox on 1x (4" eye relief).
- At 10x the eyebox is a little picky (about 3.5" of eye relief).
- Fixed parallax set at about 100m.
- Second Focal Plane, so holdover is only at maximum zoom.
- A little hazy (not razor-sharp).
- At 10x there's noticeable chromatic aberration (purple fringing).
- Not daylight-bright at 1x.
- Not bad brightness reduction at 10x.
- The quick-throw lever is smooth, there's a lot of travel.
- Holdover markings aren't illuminated and are hard/impossible to see on dark objects.
- Built solid, heavy. (Those two mostly go together but it's a bit heavy for what it is).
- I did not get to dial it (by request, zero-stop wasn't set), but it sounds like there's enough adjustment to reach out to 800 yards with a .223 (so not stellar, though gets the job done). Airgunners could run out of adjustment quickly, so be forewarned dialing-for-distance might not be an option depending on the distance.
- Available for purchase, he paid $500. (Amazon currently has them for $440 incl. S/H).
If you need a budget-level scope this one is good and should do the job, BUT it's not ideal for an airgun. A .25 cal or larger PCP (preferably a .30 to .50 cal) should be a good fit for general use and hunting.
If you want something better, the Primary Arms GLx 1-10x24mm First Focal Plane (due to be released in 2021, though due to delays should be available 2023 Q1) with daylight-bright reticle will probably be a great 1-8x24, though 1-10x24 will probably be a slight reach. Having Japanese HD glass and metal internals it should deliver what a budget scope cannot. A fixed-parallax scope might not fit your purpose, you might need more adjustment range depending on your shooting distances (I don't know what the range of this series will be at release), and this won't be a minor investment (somewhere around $800-$1000), though it also might be exactly what you're looking for.
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