Unobtanium
Regular Member
The K16i is currently the king of the hill in 1x-N optics, arguably. So, naturally, I had to have one for my "damn the cost" build...
Here is a short review of it, leading up to actually shooting with it in my review of the bobro mount's RTZ.
First, the weight. It's the first thing you notice after you get over the pain of actually paying for the thing. IT'S LIGHT! At just 17oz, it's one of the lightest optics on the market with this magnification spread (1-6x). Touching on this, it is a twin of the Z6i, however, the tube/body of the scope is exclusive to the Kahles line, and has been beefed up from the Z6i hunting optic for the "tactical market". Also of note, while the internals share a lot in common with the Z6i, they are not the "same identical parts", but are rather made by Kahles. I do not know what, if any, physical/mechanical differences exist from the Swarovski counterpart, but suffice to say that if any do, it is skewed more toward durability.
The second thing you notice is how substantial it feels at 17oz when you manipulate the adjustments. With a few caveats...
First of all, the magnification ring has a wonderful "fin" in place that removes the need for aftermarket throw-levers. It is perfectly sized. The stiffness of the magnification ring prevents it from being easily moved, while not being what anyone would call excessive. The "fin" is sized perfectly for the force required.
The diopter has a much "coarser" adjustment than my Nightforce NXS 1-4 FC-2 scope has. This, I MUCH prefer. Instead of endlessly ****ing with it, you can dial it in in 30 seconds or less, and leave it be. I personally wish that the diopter was a bit stiffer and had a locking mechanism, but it DOES have a handy arrow on it which allows you to reference it with the occular, should it be moved inadvertently.
The turrets...now the caveat. The turrets are rather firm. Firmer than I'd like for a capped-turret scope. Also, they are less tactile than I would prefer. I called and spoke with Jeff Huber (president of HPS importers, Kahles USA). His explanation shed a lot of light on things. A scope's adjustment is determined by its "lowest power". If you have a 1x optic, the adjustments must be VERY! precise and VERY fine, as only the SMALLEST of movements will net a result at 100 yards regarding crosshair movement as compared to say, a scope with a 4x bottom magnification. This works the same way that holding your finger right in front of your face and moving it 1" vs. at arm's length and moving it 1" works. Do that while looking at a 100 yard target, and see how far "off" the target your finger is moving 1" laterally at both distances, and you get the picture. To that end, the turrets are adjusting parts that have roughly 120 threads per-inch. They are as tactile as they can get "geared down" so low, as it were, is my understanding. Which is to say they feel about like a "crisp" Aimpoint's turrets. Not the best in turret feel, but they do get the job done, and you aren't dialing dope with this optic.
Next up, and part of why you buy a K16i, is the illumination. It's pretty darn good! You get about 35 hours on 1 battery, it has a 2 or 4 hour auto-off (I have read both, Kahles USA says 4 hours, other sources say 2, I have not tested it). This is, in my mind, a good thing, with said battery life. To that end, there is a spare battery under the windage turret cap. Yes, Kahles ships it with 2 batteries in the optic...when you pay this much, your toys come WITH batteries...
The illumination is pretty darn good for an illuminated reticle. I would put it at similar to an Aimpoint T1 or T2 at 8-9. If it's a white target with direct noon sunlight on it, you might want to just turn it off and use the black reticle. Otherwise, it's awesome, and out of direct sunlight, it's brighter than necessary at full brightness.
The next thing is...how is the glass? Well, it can't be captured in photos, but let's just say this thing feels more like a worm-hole that moves you closer to the target when you dial the magnification up than it does a set of lenses in a tube.
Eyebox? It's the most forgiving eyebox I've seen on a 1-6x variable. This includes the MK6, Razor HDII, VCOG, and SWFA offerings. The width and depth of the eyebox on 1x is VERY impressive. On 6x, it does get a bit more cramped, with depth being a bit more restrictive, but at 6x, you should be in a more stable position, anyway. On 1x, you can punch the rifle out on the sling from on your back, and still see enough reticle to make hits without it being a circus trick. Especially illuminated. I personally, and I know some will argue with me, so I made a video...find my Nightforce 1-4's eyebox to be a bit more forgiving...in exchange for a LOT of FOV (almost 30% less), and 2x less...I made a video to compare on 1x.
Anyway. All that aside...is this optic a legit 1x? Is it REALLY 1x? Well, honestly, no. It's not.But it's as close as your going to get outside of an Aimpoint, and it's closer to 1x to my eyes than the Trijicon MRO. It's so close to 1x, that the only time you will notice that it's NOT 1x, is when doing a bench-review like what I did. In actual running and gunning use...it's going to be 1x. However, no, it is technically not 1x, and I have never held a variable power scope that was.
6x
1x
*all photos on full illumination, clear sky, 4pm CST, sun is bright!
K16i vs. Nightforce 1-4 NXS - YouTube
* A special thanks to Sport Optics, who I purchased this optic through! They treated me right!
The test ammunition is the 75gr .223 gold dot.
The test optic is a Kahles K16i. It weighs 17oz, per product literature.
The mount, and subject of this test is a custom mount that Andrew Bobro made for me. It is a 30mm with 0MOA bias, and the lever on the RIGHT side. The clamping springs used are the heaviest Bobro stocks. It weighs 7.5oz, and is the single-lever version.
The rifle is a Daniel Defense with a 16.1" Chrome Lined, Hammer forged, .gov profile barrel. It is freefloated. The suppressor is a Surefire 556-212, mounted on a 212a mount. The trigger is a Geissele Super-V. The rifle will be fired with the front of the rail braced over a sand-bag.
The protocol for this test will be tailored to display RTZ (or lack) of the Bobro mount. It is as follows:
- After zeroing, two targets with 1" grid will be placed at 100 yards from me, the shooter. I will fire a 10-shot group without removing the optic into the target on the left. I will "come off of the gun" after each shot. This is because it is necessary to do so to remove the mount efficiently in the second string of fire, and will prevent the disruption of cheek weld being a potential discriminatory factor in over-all group size, or POI shift.
I will then fire 10 shots into the target on the right, removing the mount from the rifle between each shot. The first shot will be fired after removal and replacing of the mount.
The two groups will then be measured for over-all size, and any POI shift of the group centers will be noted.
The protocol was as described. Also, of note, I could see bullet holes clearly at 100 yards using the K16i. This agitated my spirit.
The largest single shift I could measure from the Bobro mount was 0.733 MOA. This was "high". It also negates to take into account that this is about a 1.5 MOA rifle/ammo combo, and I am typically a 0.5-0.75 MOA shooter on any given day, if using a bolt gun with quality ammo and optic off the bench. Statistically, I did not discern any POI shift that would concern me. Even if using our "largest extreme single measurement", we are off by roughly only 50% of the intrinsic accuracy of the platform. Put another way, at 1000 yards, you will "miss" by 7.33", at the absolute very worst, assuming perfect intrinsic accuracy of the system.
I do not think there is a 0.733 MOA shift in this system, if one were to use statistically significant data, which mine is not, because who's to say that 1 shot wasn't pulled 1/4-1/2"? I know when I really throw one (1 MOA+), but I can't call 1/4-1/2 MOA pulls. Also consider, the variance of total group size from the group without detachment vs. detachment each shot (including before the first was fired) varied by only 0.482 MOA.
Anyway, here is the raw data for your consideration. maybe someone with some software can upload the groups and give a "center" POI shift that appropriately weights the distribution of the 10 shots in each group:
*I would also note that I have been using my 1-4 NF in a Mil-Spec Unimount, torqued to 65 in-lb. I removed it for this test, and re-attached it afterward using a tq wrench. The RTZ confirmation showed no discernible shift. It still punched a tiny 3-shot group dead-on the bulls-eye. I did not care to perform a statistical analysis of it. It's "on", and that's fine.
Someone plugged in some data for me:
0.385 MOA shift of the group centers across 10 removals...