Gear Review: Konus M30 4.5-16 X 40 mm Part 2

After my less than stellar first take and subsequent return of the M30, Konus was nice enough to send me a replacement. My first impression whilst removing it from the box was that this one had even worse locking turrets. In fact, once locked, you can still wiggle the turret back and forth somewhat negating that whole “locked” thing. I dutifully mounted in on my AR and took to the range. This time, I used my brand spanking new laser boresighter. I’ll be damned if I’m going to waste any more good Black Hills ammo than needed on a scope test.

I spent close to 20 minutes cranking back and forth on the turrets doing a box text at 50 yards. I found that at 16X magnification, the M30 would move the dot the same distance around the paper and return it to zero. Feeling confident, I loaded up some 77 gr. Sierra MatchKing rounds from Black Hills. I shot the following box test at 50 yards on 16X magnification with the parallax knob adjusted for 50 yards off a solid rest.

For reference, this is what my AR can do at 100 yards with a solid rest using the 77 gr ammo. All targets are shot on 1/4 inch grid paper.

Here is what it did at 50 yards with the Konus M30

I zeroed at 50 yards right in the center where you see that hole a hair off of the center dot. Then I cranked the turret “up” and “left” 32 clicks respectively. With 1/8 MOA adjustments, this should net a shot group two inches high and left. The spread between the upper left and lower right is about 2 inches.

I started to get worried about how large a group that was, but committed to soldiering on. I moved the turret “down” 64 clicks, took 3 shots. “Right” 64 clicks, took 3 shots. “Up” 64 clicks, took 3 shots. “Left” and “down” 32 clicks and took 2 shots.

At these ranges, with that rest, and quality ammo, I expect to see 5 ragged holes in the paper. I can’t make this thing work and I’m done trying. Nick has had an excellent experience with his Konus scope, so I’m going to ship it over to him. We all know that he is quite a bit better at testing than I am.

My final recommendation is a strong “don’t buy.”