Review: GPO Spectra 6x 1.5-9x44i rifle scope

The GPO story is a bit cheeky, a classic tale about upstarts learning secrets from the masters before setting out on their own to do it the way they think is better — or in this case, a way that slashes the cost of European-quality hunting optics.

But we’re not talking about over-confident apprentices here. No, GPO is headed by Richard Schmidt, former president and CEO of Zeiss, and he persuaded other senior optics-industry people to join him, including his managing director, Stephan Kern. Kern came via Schmidt and Bender and that other exemplar of more affordable Euro optics, Meopta.

GPO Spectra 6x 1.5-9x44i review — The Spectra 1.5-9×44 is an excellent match in size and balance for a hunting rifle

Schmidt established GPO (German Precision Optics) in 2015 and the company grew quickly, to the point where its riflescope range covers models with 3x, 4x, 5x, 6x and 8x zoom ratios, plus fixed-power scopes, binoculars, monoculars, spotting scopes and rangefinders.

GPO does almost everything in-house in Germany, including R&D, design, manufacturing of electrical components and fibre reticles, and critically, quality control and inspection before any product is packaged and sent to the shops.

However, optical components are manufactured in Japan, the Phillipines and China, often on tooling owned by GPO rather than the host factory. Even Chinese-made optics can be very good quality if and when high standards are established and maintained.

Which brings us to this GPO Spectra 6x scope, with a magnification range of 1.5x to 9x — it is one of nine options in the high-end 6x range, from 1-6×24 up to 4.5-27×50, all with illuminated reticles. The Spectra 6x series sits on one of GPO’s higher shelves, yet prices are relatively modest — most gun shops sell this 1.5-9×44 for $1100-$1300.

The optics are excellent. The view is clear all the way to the edges, and if you look for it you’ll notice only the merest hint of distortion on the fringes but not enough that you’re at all aware of it when you’re focussed on a target.

Colour rendition is accurate, with clarity enhanced by good contrast in all lighting conditions. The GPObright lens coatings certainly seem to do the job well, and the Spectra transmits a claimed 90% of light through its glass.

Parallax is fixed at 100m, another good thing in a hunting scope because it’s something you don’t have to mess with while trying to take a shot. As long as you’ve got the diopter set for your eye, the focus appears perfectly good from just in front of you to the horizon unless you’ve got too much magnification wound on at close range, eg, 9x at less than 40m.

The 44mm objective lens is designed to provide better low-light performance; there’s a 1.5-9×32 if you prefer your scopes a bit lighter and more compact, and don’t mind sacrificing a bit of performance around dawn and dusk.

GPO Spectra 6x 1.5-9x44i_1800p review — With the turret caps off, graduations are clear to read. Left turret adjusts brightness of the reticle’s central dot

The bigger lens provides an exit pupil ranging from a generous 9.5mm at 1.5x magnification to 4.9mm at 9x — and this is plenty big enough for fading light conditions.

The GPO provided me with a shootable picture long after my own eyes couldn’t properly make out the target as sunlight faded to night.

That large exit pupil when you’re way down at 1.5x also gives you more room for error in lining up your eye behind the reticle. If you’re snap shooting, for example, and don’t pull the scope perfectly into position you’ll still be able to easily line up the shot instead of trying to centre the view.

The brightness of the illuminated dot in the middle of the reticle is adjustable via a rheostat on the left turret, from off all the way up to a shine you can see clearly in daylight.

The 1.5-9x offers you a choice between two second-plane reticles, both ideal for typical hunting use. One’s a simple plex with thick outer bars giving way to thinner inner ones with no interruption. Its illumination lights up the point where the crosshairs meet.

The test scope had the ballistic drop version. Its thick bars end further out and the thin crosshairs end just before they meet, leaving a floating dot in the centre that can be illuminated. In addition, the bottom crosshair has hash marks all the way down to help you judge holdover for longer shots. On 9x magnification, each one represents 5cm at 100m, 10cm at 200m etc.

It’s fitting that the measurements are indicated at 9x because any shot you’re taking when ballistic drop comes into the equation is going to be far enough away to justify full zoom.

In my book, 9x is ample magnification for any kind of hunting of medium and large game out to several hundred metres. The first shot at game I took using this GPO was on a little yearling fallow at 180m, accomplished with no hassles at all.

On the other hand, the very wide field of view down at 1.5x can be a great advantage at very close ranges and on running targets, and is well worth it if you’re regularly hunting thick scrub.

The six-fold magnification range gives you a lot of options in between, too, and marks this as a very versatile hunting scope. Having said that, the Spectra 2-12×44 may just be the sweet spot if you don’t mind a more complex reticle.

Another thing in the GPO’s favour is the long 97mm of eye relief, a particularly good thing if you have a hard-kicking rifle.

The 1.5-9×44 is a good size, physically, for mounting on a hunting rifle: about 34cm long, 6.8cm wide across the turrets, and 6cm high from bottom of objective to top of capped turret. It is just over 14cm along the mounting length of the tube so will fit well on most short- and long-action rifles.

It weighs a respectably light 575 grams.

The magnification ring comes with a 2cm throw lever screwed on, which is handy for quick changes. If you don’t like it, you can easily remove it and instead use the grip afforded by the knurled ring and small mounting tab that the lever was fixed to.

Aiming adjustments are done in 1cm increments (at 100m) and the 30mm main tube allows a massive 400 clicks top to bottom and side to side. Those clicks are coarse, too, so easily felt and counted as you dial.

It is easy to reset the turrets to zero after sighting in, all without tools.

Bottom line is that this 1.5-9x scope has so much in its favour that it’s hard to resist if you hunt medium and large animals at typical ranges.