Australian Long Range Shooter Magazine

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Review of the Zeiss Victory Diavari 6-24x56 Rapid Z 7

This week I had the opportunity to have a play with a Zeiss rifle scope that has a lot of potential for use on a semi long range rifle. The scope is a Zeiss Diavari
6-24x56 with the Rapid Z 7 reticle.

The scope was intended to go on a .338 Lapua, but as this scope is limited to 700m I told the owner to get another model.

This is the first time that I have had a chance to play with this combo and I came away with mixed feelings about its usefulness.

The scope is shown in the photo on the right alongside a Night Force 3.5-15x50 to give an idea of the size of this scope. Weight of the zeiss scope came in at about 28 oz which is just about the same as the N/F.

Optically the Zeiss scope was excellent with a bright clear image right out to the edge of the lens. This scope features the normal features of a LR scope with side parallax adjustment and fast focus eyepiece.

This scope also features some sort of rain guard to help keep the view clear in fog and light rain.

If you are after a dial up scope, then forget this one. This Zeiss scope is all about the use of the Rapid Z 7 Reticle and as such the elevation turret does not even have numbers engraved on it to measure turret movement.

The elevation and windage turret covers are made from crap plastic and I would have expected better quality caps from a scope of this class.

The idea of this scope is to sight in the rifle at 200m using the elevation and windage turrets in the normal way. The turrets can then be set to a zero mark by lifting the spring loaded turret and lining it up with the indication make.

This could be handy if you wanted to maintain zero settings for two or more loads by writing down the correction required relative to the standard loads zero setting.

The idea of this scope is to sight the rifle in at 200m with your chosen load then take the rifle out to 600m and shoot it at a target using the 600m aiming mark with the scope set on 18 power.

Once you have fired a few shots at the target you will see where the point of impact is relative to the aiming mark. Now the trick is to adjust the scope power setting so that the 600m aiming mark lines up where the bullets are hitting.

Then you shoot at other distances with the other aiming marks to confirm that your trajectory lines up with these marks.

This bullet drop compensating method is quite popular now with most scope manufacturers as it gives them another selling point. How useful it is for serious long range shooters is doubtful given that the range is limited by the marks on the reticle. And no compensation is made for slope or changes in atmospherics etc.

I also think that 700m is too far to be relying on this type of aiming system for a hunting rifle. There is just too much error that can creep in and animals deserve better.