The Vixen 6-24x58 rifle scope is a pretty nondescript long-range scope, and at first glance, seems to be lacking a lot of the tactical features you’d expect from one. Of course, before getting into a review, the obligatory Vixen background: Vixen has been making high quality astronomy optics for quite some time, and their rifle scope oferings are brand new for 2013. The company has a long history of manufacturing some very high quality stuff at a very affordable price. All Vixen rifle scopes are 100% Made in Japan and carry an unconditional, transferrable lifetime warranty. The Vixen 6-24x58 is, in most respects, a typical high end (over $1,000) rifle scope. To get the basics out of the way, let’s clarify that this scope features the expected qualities: One piece body, 30mm main tube diameter, full waterproofing, fogproofing, nitrogen purging, anodized aluminum finish, and so on. At the price, this is all expected. There would be more to say if it didn’t include some of these things, and we could say right off the bat that the price wouldn’t be justifiable. But all is good. The first thing that stood out when we removed our first Vixen 6-24x58 scope from the box was the size of the objective. Most rifle scopes manufacturers don’t go above 56mm, with a few exceptions - US Optics, for one. There are two advantages to an objective this large, the first being low light performance. Once you get into this area of price and performance, most glass is going to perform on a similar level, with discrepancies that will be caused by differences in lens manufacturers and lens coating types. But the factor that will most affect light transmission will usually be objective size. Along with the increased size of the objective comes a slightly larger exit pupil, and depending on your eyesight, this may make for a better experience. But all this is subjective, and will depend heavily on what type of shooting you’ll be doing. One thing worth mentioning, and something that saves a lot of headache for guys who use them, is that the Vixen 6-24x58 includes an anodized aluminum 58mm sunshade. The threading on the sunshade and objectve end of the body match up very well, perhaps even better than the threading on the turret caps. The sunshade measures 2.75 inches in length and gives the scope a mean look. The finish on the Vixen 6-24x58 is the same found on the other high end Vixen scopes, and seems to be very durable. We’ve seen a lot of scopes advertised as ”anodized” that were anodized only in the loosest sense of the word, and we’d describe those scopes more like ”painted with a rough finish.” That is not the case with the 6-24x58, this finish is exactly what you’d expect. The scope we used for this review had obviously been handled before, and we were able to simply wipe away some light abrasions on the anodizing. The 6-24x58 has a quick focus ring in addition to side focus parallax adjustment. The quick focus ring performs as you’d expect and is good for quick adjustment. The focusing ring is tight, which speaks to the manufacturing tolerances present in the higher end Vixen scopes. Most of them feel identical, with no roughness or dead spots in the range. The side focus parallax adjustment is marked at 30, 40, 50, 60, 75, 100, 150, 200, 500, and infinity. The effort required to adjust parallax is slightly less than that of the magnification adjustment ring, while still being precise. The stock turrets on the 6-24x58 are more of a hunting type turret, but there are a pair of tactical turrets included that can be swapped out with the included allen key. The turrets themselves have some excellent tactile and audible feedback, which is exactly what we’ve come to expect from every Vixen scope, even the more affordable versions. The Vixen 6-24x58 turrets adjust in 1/8 MOA increments, with maximum adjustment range of 15 MOA. The optional tactical turrets feature much larger numbering and hash marks for easy visibility. This model also features an illuminated dot at the center of the reticle. The dot itself is about half the size of the mil-dots on the vertical and horizontal posts of the reticle. The illumination dial is marked from 1 to 11, but like the Vixen 1-6x24 and other models, these are not actually 11 seperate settings. Instead, the brightness adjustment is constant from 0 to 11. We think this is an advantage because you aren’t limited to a pre-set brightness, and you’re free to turn until you get your preferred brightness just right. How does the Vixen 6-24x58 perform in the optics department? As far as clarity and sharpness, this is up there. Color is vivid, which is due in no small part to the massive objective. At low magnification, there is minimal chromatic aberration, but we did notice some light rolling ball effect. Some people call it globe effect, or pincushion, but they area all the same. It’s not extremely noticable, and the severity of the effect will vary with the eye of the person looking through the scope. On higher magnification, the rolling ball effect goes away, but chromatic aberration incraeses, which is expected.
