Review: Minox RS-4 2.5-10x50 riflescope

The deceptive simplicity of the Minox RS-4 2.5-10×50 is part of its attraction and reflects the fact that it is a purpose-designed hunting and stalking riflescope, with great low-light optics and wider fields of view. No long-range precision, no tactical tech, no target fixation. Just good hunting.

The deception in the simplicity is that it also delivers practical hunting features like parallax correction placed handily in the left turret, and reticle illumination to give you a genuine benefit in poor light or against a very dark animal. It also comes through in the low-profile turrets and lack of other protrusions.

Minox RS-4 2.5-10x50 riflescope review — The RS-4 is a fairly compact hunting scope with the right features for the job but no extraneous add-ons

At first, it had me fooled because it sort of slipped in unnoticed, arriving on the top of a Mauser 25 straight-pull rifle that grabbed all my attention. You know how it is: the rifle was all shiny and new and very, very novel, and it had a scope. But the more I used the Mauser, the more I saw how good this optic was.

Minox is a German optics company that’s now part of the Blaser Group, and it makes its scopes in Germany. The RS-4 line is an inexpensive range, starting with a 1-4×24 and stepping up to a 3-12×56, with a 2.5-10×42 and this scope in the middle.

Minox states this one has light transmission of at least 90 percent, which is pretty good in an optic of this price, but the 50mm objective also endows it with an exit pupil that never shrinks below 5mm. In the evening, the view is brighter than your eyes can see on their own, and for quite some time. Under a spotlight, the RS-4 works very well.

It’s also pretty good at sorting out the detail in shadows, partly due to the very good colour rendition and contrast Minox has achieved with its lenses and the proprietary coatings it uses.

In pre-dawn hunts for fallow, I could make out antler quality and place the illuminated dot precisely on potential targets long before I could make out much detail with my naked eyes. Just a pity none of the bucks were worth pulling the trigger on!

People complain these days that 10x magnification is not adequate but it’s more than enough beyond the maximum point blank range of most rifles if you’re hunting medium and large game. At 300m or so, you can still clearly see the point of aim on a fallow deer and estimate any holdover without trouble. At 100m, I was able to repeatedly shoot ½ MOA groups with the Mauser the Minox was mounted on.

I know it’s nice to be able to see a bit more detail but I reckon it’s nicer still to have a wider view and quick target acquisition at the bottom end of the magnification range. The RS-4’s field of view down at 2.5x is 16m wide at 100m distance — or more relevantly, 4m wide at 25m range, so it’ll be easy to lock onto target for a snap shot at a close animal, even if it’s running.

That played out exactly when a group of four deer ran past in a forest, only 30m away, and I could track the buck through the trees and loose a shot that killed it within seconds.

The plain plex reticle provides no distractions to slow you down, either. It has a small central dot that can be lit up to one of 10 brightness settings reached by turning the left turret, with an off position between each one.

The left turret also handles parallax. Focus is very deep and forgiving so it won’t matter much for hunting accuracy if you’re slightly out; you’ll still have a well-focussed picture and it never, ever seemed to impact bullet placement for the shots I took at ranges from 30m to 225m. It’s like the best of both worlds: non-adjustable ones that don’t require tinkering and adjustment when you do need to be sure of precision.

That left turret, which also houses the battery, is wide, the only compromised bit of design in the Minox — but it’s hard to avoid. The other turrets are very low profile, only 15mm high when measured from the main tube to the top of the caps, and unlikely to ever get hooked up on anything.

Under the caps, reticle adjustments are made in increments of 1cm at 100m per click, and with far more range of adjustment than you’ll ever need if your barrel isn’t bent. Clicks are light and not quite as precise as in other scopes, with fine markings, too, but it’s workable. Both adjusters can be reset to zero after sighting in is done.

The magnification ring moves nicely through about 180 degrees and has a grippy rubber cover that includes a raised pointer to provide a tactile indication of where in the range you have it set. Diopter adjustment is generous, from +2 to -3, and doesn’t need much tweaking if you change magnification. The 90mm of eye relief claimed seems to be slightly on the conservative side; even at 10x it’s not critical.

The RS-4 is well built and appears tough, with a good, strong, matte black finish. It is, as you’d expect, nitrogen filled to avoid fogging, and waterproof unless you take it deep diving. At 660 grams it’s a respectably light weight for a hunting rifle and at 35cm long it’s the right fit, too.

This Minox is a simple, pure hunting scope that gets back to (mostly) basics so you can just aim and not worry about faffing around with all the settings and adjustments. The few things above basic level, like the illumination, are worth having. For a 4x erector ratio, the magnification range has been well chosen for general hunting duties, and the optics are very good.