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We will take a look at two European hunting rifle scopes - Blaser and Swarovski from Austria.
We are going to compare a newcome Blaser to a well know and highly respected Swarovski, which has been in the hunting scene for a very long time and its one of the best names when it comes to high-quality optics.
On the other end we have Blaser with big sortiment of equipment, from rifles all the way to clothing.
Today we will compare to high-end and extremely capable low-light rifle scopes, Blaser Infinity 4-20x58 iC vs Swarovski Z8i 2.3-18x56.
Read Swarovski Z8i 2.3-18x56 Riflescope Review
We are looking at two very similarly priced rifle scopes, that both exceed 3000€ mark. If we summ up what we get for the price we come to this conclusion. Blaser already comes with a ballistic turret and Zeiss mounting rail when Swarovski does not. For a ballistic turret you will have to spend extra 267-534€ depending on which turret you choose, additionally you will have to add another 60€ to that for Swarovski SR Rail. With all that said you will have to spend 484€ more for Swarovski.
Eventhough Blaser looks bulkier and massive it is only 45grams heavyer than Swarovski, but if we would put ballistic turret on swarovski the difference would be even smaller.
Their lenght is pretty much the same there is only 1mm difference.
We have to point out that Blaser Infinity has huge 36-milimeter main tube, which is almost unexistant in the word of hunting rifle scopes. Only new Blaser and Zeiss V8 have it.
On both of the scopes the parallax adjustment goes from 50 to infinity, on Swarovski the parallax clicks when you are on 100meters but on teh Blaser it locks in place and that is nice if you hit your rifle since it does not change.
Because of Swarovski magnification range from 2.3 to 18 times you can use a rifle in many scenarios(stalking, mountain hunting and raised hide hunting), that is where is Blaser`s biggest disadvantage. It`s purpose is only low light hunting.
The difference between the scopes is light transmision. Blaser has 90%, when Swaroski has 93%. When we tested them scopes we thought that Blaser is just tiny bit brighter that Swarovski, since it has 4x zoom, this is quite logical.
These two scopes are opticly great , but in some situations Blaser suprised us, because it was even better that Swarovski. This is probably because of smaller zoom factor and a bit simpler construction.
Better max magnification
Great low light performance
Great optics and turrets
Bulky
Parallax position
FFP reticle for hunting use
Only 4 times zoom factor
FOV
More expensive
Lighter
8 time zoom
better illumination system
Price
Better minimal magnification
More than twice maximal filed of view
Extra expendature