Review: ZeroTech Thrive 4-16x50 PHR II

The ZeroTech Thrive 4-16×50 PHR II rifle scope offers great open-country hunting performance at a really good price, with a ballistic reticle for longer shots backed by very good optical qualities.

A scope with 4-16x magnification is a great choice for open-country big-game hunting with a centrefire, or for rimfire shooting at small game out to ranges at the limit of the little cartridges. It’s not just for that generous magnification but because the erector ratio covers a relatively modest four-fold increase in zoom, which keeps the cost down compared with the increasingly common five-fold and six-fold options.

ZeroTech Thrive 4-16x50 PHR II review — Despite being fairly compact, the ZeroTech mounted well on this long-action Winchester

There may not be much in it sometimes, but we’re all on tighter budgets these days and every bit makes a difference. This ZeroTech Thrive initially retailed for $700, a very reasonable cost, but is now available for just $579, a real bargain.

You can buy scopes with either a wider view at the low end for close shots, or a bit more magnification for long shots — and scopes that give you both — but you have to ask yourself if it’ll give you much advantage.

Is there much practical difference between 3x and 4x? Or 16x and 18x? Not really, and 4-16x quite adequately covers just about everything most of us want to hunt, especially in fairly open country. I didn’t need to think hard about pairing it with the Model 70 in .30-06 that I tested it on.

The Thrive range sits in the middle of ZeroTech’s three-badge line-up, above the Vengeance and below the Trace. There are Thrive models and Thrive HD models, the latter with higher-quality glass, and both types are dedicated hunting scopes.

As such, this one has all the advantageous design features a hunter both wants and needs, without the complications of long-range or target style scopes, nor the compromises of entry-level scopes.

It has low, capped turrets, for example, containing adjusting rings that can be wound in clearly defined clicks before being reset to your chosen zero in a few seconds. They don’t have a zero stop or a zero lock because these are unnecessary accoutrements for hunters who know how to aim using their reticles.

The left turret includes parallax focus adjustment, which is pretty much essential for a clear view in any scope with high magnification and the ability to help you stretch your range. However, on lower magnification for shorter ranges, the view is clear no matter where you’ve got the parallax set, and any unperceived error is not going to be enough to miss a game animal at close range if that’s what suddenly presents.

Despite having that third turret, the scope is less than 65mm wide. The turrets barely protrude wider or higher than the 59mm diameter of the housing for the 50mm objective lens.

That big objective lens gives it a noticeable advantage over typical 40-42mm lenses by providing an adequate 3.1mm exit pupil at full magnification. Admittedly 3.1mm isn’t great for low-light vision but it makes eye position and eye relief less critical than the meagre 2.5mm exit pupil you’d get from a 40mm lens.

You’ll also get good light transition at higher magnification, potentially not seeing any detectable reduction until you wind up past about 7x, compared with about 5.5x with a 40mm lens.

Lens quality is good and you wouldn’t guess that the Thrive was only two steps up the ZeroTech ladder; it also makes you wonder just how good the Thrive HD models must be (spoiler: really good). Edge-to-edge clarity is brilliant all the way from 4x to 16x, and the sharpness of the image is great.

Light transmission, though not boasted about in the specs, is certainly good. The contrast, too, permits you to pick out the details in shadows to a satisfying level, and while colour is not quite as vivid as in higher-level scopes it’s enough to separate animals from their habitat in almost all conditions without effort.

The PHR II ballistic drop reticle, when the scope is on maximum magnification, covers a huge 25 MOA of drop from its small central aiming dot to the lowest bar across the vertical crosshair. The bars in between are set in 5 MOA increments. It’s a relatively coarse scale best suited to slower cartridges with arched trajectories, or to extremely long-range shots with faster loads.

Serious long-range shooters dealing with that much bullet drop will choose to run a more finely graduated reticle but this one has two things going for it: anyone who knows the performance of their rifle and ammunition well and prefers a simpler reticle will get what they need from it; and it’s very easy to use the PHR II like you would a duplex when shooting within your rifle’s point blank range or just beyond it.

This same 4-16x scope is available with four other reticles: a plain plex, a mildot, the G4 and the PHR 4, so you have options. In the Thrive, illumination of reticles is not available.

The Thrive is finished in a tough, matte-black coating that resists marking. The magnification ring moves with medium resistance and is covered in grippy, textured rubber. At the back of the diopter, the eyepiece offers the convenience of quick focusing.

At 33cm long and 670g in weight, the Thrive is just on the compact, lighter side, which is impressive for its 4-16×50 specs. Yet it fitted – just – onto the fixed mounting system used on the long-action Winchester, its roughly 90mm of eye relief putting it just within a comfortable distance of my eye; on a different mounting system such as a rail you’d have no trouble, of course.

This ZeroTech offers good open-country performance for a great price, built to good quality standards and backed by an excellent warranty. It’s just the optic for a lot of Australian hunting.