Valiant Epic riflescope review

My first impression of this scope was “wow!” As its super-zoom specification suggests, this is a specialist scope.

It’s certainly not for your everyday plinker, not that they would consider such a behemoth at around £570.

The Valiant is huge, measuring up at 567mm and tipping the scales, sans mounts, at over a kilo.

That mass is partly down to its monstrous, 56mm diameter objective, though there’s no denying that it’s also one of the most solidly built scopes on the market.

You wouldn’t buy this on a whim; it’s more a lifetime investment, I’d say.

Valiant is a Czech scope brand, albeit a relatively new one. The brand designs products in-house and gets them manufactured in the high-tech optical factories of the Far East.

Valiant’s comprehensive scope lines are distributed to UK gun shops by Range Right, who sent me the new Epic 5-25×56 ED FFP model to review.

Opitcal performance

Expensive as it is, the Epic comes with a fair number of accessories. All are practical, like the flip-open lens covers and magnification ring throw lever.

However, like many high-end optics, it doesn’t come with mounts. You’ll probably need to invest in a new set, too, because this scope’s body tube is 34mm, as opposed to the “norm” of 30mm or 25mm.

They’ll also need to be the high type to cater for that milk bottle-sized front end.

Even then, you may find – as I did – that there’s still not enough clearance to push on the front flip-up cap.

If the Epic’s oversized tube and objective throw up a few mounting hurdles, these are outweighed by the benefits they bring to the Valiant’s optical performance.

Quite simply, even with the magnification wound up to the maximum 25x, the sight picture is one of the brightest I’ve ever experienced. It really is absolutely incredible.

Over a protracted test period, I used the scope at dawn, dusk and in thick summer woodlands which were so dark, I may as well have been lamping!

Yet not only could I pick out my target with ease against any background, the level of detail I could home-in on was phenomenal.

It also dealt with awkward lighting scenarios with real aplomb, so I never had a need for its 95mm screw-on sunshade.

Over a protracted test period, I used the scope at dawn, dusk and in thick summer woodlands which were so dark, I may as well have been lamping!

Yet not only could I pick out my target with ease against any background, the level of detail I could home-in on was phenomenal.

It also dealt with awkward lighting scenarios with real aplomb, so I never had a need for its 95mm screw-on sunshade.

Extra-low Dispersion glass (ED)

I’m guessing this scope’s clarity comes courtesy of the Extra-low Dispersion glass used in its lens arrays – denoted by the model’s “ED” suffix.

Valiant claims it minimises chromatic aberrations and enhances colour fidelity. It’s a claim I can certainly substantiate.

Though unfamiliar with the brand, I consider any scope over £500 should come without compromise.

So, when I eventually put it through my optical clarity tests, I had pretty terse expectations.

The Valiant Epic performed in line with these at the centre of the sight picture. The tests did show a surprising lack of crispness at the edges, though.

Even after confirming I’d set the eyepiece bang on for my eyes — an easy task thanks to the ocular’s quick-focus thread.

First focal plane (FFP) reticle

However, there’s de facto testing and then there’s real world testing. In practice, I was never aware of these soft edges.

Actually, I’d even go so far as to say that this helped focus my attention more to the all-important centre of the image where, as I alluded to earlier, the detail this scope’s ED glass renders is nothing short of extraordinary.

While we’re talking “detailed”, I’d like to touch on the Valiant Epic’s reticle. It’s set in the first focal plane (FFP) and my test scope featured the MIL-F25 crosshair.

This is laid out to a milliradian scale that also complements the 0.1 MRAD clicks of the adjustment turrets.

The model can be purchased with an MOA-F25 FFP reticle and matching 1/4MOA turrets if you prefer.

Crosshairs

The middle section of the crosshair is red-illuminable to one of six intensity levels via the outer ring of the left-hand turret.

Housing the CR2032 battery, this has an “off” setting between each brightness level which makes the Valiant Epic’s IR (illuminated reticle) feature very practical indeed.

I use the term “crosshair” loosely, though. The F25 resembles a submarine’s periscope more than that of a riflescope.

By way of dots and bars, there’s myriad reference points that you can use for aiming or range-finding using the useful “bracketing” system.

While it may look impressive, I actually found it a bit confusing in the field. Not only did I struggle to “identify” specific reference points on it when taking aim, I simply couldn’t see the reticle’s fine etching at powers below 12x.

Disappointingly, that meant I could only really use half of this scope’s zoom range; in other words, from 12x to 25x.

And that threw up another problem. Being an FFP crosshair, where its size increases and decreases as you alter magnification, much of the lower portion of the F25’s stadia fell out of view at those higher powers.

So, in certain scenarios when long-range shooting with a sub-12ft/lb air rifle, you could find yourself running out of visible aimpoints below the horizontal crosswire.

Does the Valiant Epic come with a Parallax adjustment sidewheel?

While that may defeat the point of a high-magnification scope, you can always “dial-in” a dead-centre zero at whatever distance your target’s at.

And, here, the Valiant Epic gives you everything you could wish for. All in a very practical format, too.

First, there’s its sidewheel parallax adjustment. P/A doubles as a handy range-finding system on high-powered scopes because it brings an element of fine-focusing to sight picture.

Once the target looks its sharpest, you simply read off the distance shown on the sidewheel.

Turning the Epic’s magnification ring up to its full 25x power is helped by its screw-in throw lever. Its P/A sidewheel “snaps” the target into sharp focus nice and quickly, which really assists in accurate – and repeatable – ranging.

The minimum focus of the Epic 5-25x is stated as 18 metres. However, I found that winding its power down to 8x still gave me enough clarity to make out both crosshair and target as close as 10 yards.

That’s handy for airgunners.

Valiant includes a 75mm diameter P/A extension wheel with the Epic, and for range-finding purposes, I’d highly recommend you fit it (see the panel Use the Bigger Sidewheel for Range-Finding).

The extension wheel also made the whole focusing operation smoother, too. Without it fitted, the onboard parallax ring felt stiffer to rotate.

Elevation and windage turrets

Second, there’s the Valiant Epic’s elevation and windage turrets. These are as comprehensive, large and sturdy as they come.

Their verniers are marked in tenths of a milliradian (MRAD), providing 10mm adjustment at 100m, 5mm at 50m, 2.5mm at 25m and so on.

They click very positively and, more importantly, always return the point of impact (POI) no matter how fast you operate them.

Handily, windage is marked for L and R (left and right) adjustment and both turrets feature push-pull locks.

Pressing down anchors them into place, thus avoiding any inadvertent adjustments being made. This is a good feature.

What’s not so good is that when they’re “locked”, the pointer reference mark is hidden from view because it’s then under the turret drum.

It would have been better if Valiant had put a mark on the scope body in my opinion. At least the reference is visible once the turret is in its unlocked state, though.

Both turrets’ drums can be reset to their “0” mark once you’ve zeroed-up (even if you have to “guess” this to some extent because of that hidden reference pointer).

The reset procedure requires three grubscrews to be loosened, and a hex tool is supplied for this.

The elevation turret also features the in-vogue Zero-Lock system, meaning you can spin the turret back to a “stop” quickly, without really looking.

As I’ve said on other scopes I’ve tested in the past, the jury is still out on this concept for me, as an airgunner.

Zero Lock

Unlike firearms shooters, for whom Zero-Lock was developed, we airgunners usually have a POI above the crosshair as well as below it.

Therefore, we need to rotate our elevation turret down from the “0” setting, not just up if using the dialling-in method. When deployed, any Zero-Lock system won’t let you do that, though.

For this reason, I tend not to use the Zero-Lock facility. Of course, when initially zeroing-up your rifle, you have to disengage it anyway.

If you don’t, you won’t have access to the entire elevation click adjustment range.

And as experienced airgunners will know, you often need plenty of elevation to get an air rifle’s sights dialled-in.

And there’s tonnes of elevation available on this Epic model, too – a span of 340 clicks, in fact. This reduces to 176 – around one-and a-half turret revolutions – when you set the Zero-Lock.

So, there’ll be no need to pack up the rear mount, which is sometimes required when sight-setting an air rifle with a “droop barrel”.

Is the Valiant Epic easy to zero?

I came across another very useful, if not unusual feature when zeroing-up the Valiant Epic on my Daystate Red Wolf.

After removing the elevation turret drum to disengage the Zero-Lock, I realised I didn’t need to refit it to start my initial zeroing-up.

This, therefore, meant I didn’t have to fiddle around with the drum’s three grubscrews, pro tem, only to undo them yet again later when I came to finally reset the vernier to “0”.

Instead, I could simply click the “naked” turret using a 5mm hex wrench courtesy of Valiant’s clever design.

t may sound odd, but I really appreciated the simplicity of this method. Now, I wish all scopes had such a system.

As scopes go, the Epic 5-25×56 ED FFP is certainly a maverick among scopes, and not just because its 5-25x zoom range breaks the “norm” (of 6-24x).

From its reticle to its massive turrets, its oversized body tube and objective to its super-bright sight picture, every element of this incredibly well-made scope looms large.

While it’s not for everyone, it’ll certainly catch the eye of specialist target and long-range airgun shooters.

Valiant Epic technical specifications

Make: Valiant
Model: Epic 5-25×56 ED FFP (with MIL-F25 crosshair)
Magnification: Variable, 5x to 25x (stepless)
Objective: 56mm diameter, ED (Extra-low Dispersion) coated
Tube diameter: 34mm
Mounts supplied: None
Reticale: MIL-F25. Glass-etched, first focal plane
Illumination: Central section (Six intensity settings)
Parallax adjustment: Sidewheel, 18m to infinity
Turret adjustment: 0.1 MRAD (10mm @ 100m)
Elevation: Push/Pull locking, with Zero Stop mechanism. 340 total click range; 176 click range with Zero-Stop set
Windage: Push/Pull locking, with 240 click range
Focus: Quick-focus, +/-2.5 dioptre
Eye relief: 92-88mm (5x-25x)
Field of view @100m: 4.45 degrees (5x) / 0.89 degrees (25x)
Length: 367mm (excl. sunshade)
Weight: 1.082kg (excl. mounts)
Extras included: Flip-up lens covers (opaque), zoom ring throw lever, 95mm sunshade, 75mm diameter P/A sidewheel, lens cloth, hex tools, CR2032 battery, user manual, five-year warranty
SRP: £570
WEB: range-right.co.uk; valiant-optics.com

Post-script: Use the bigger Sidewheel for Range-Finding

A parallax adjustment (P/A) system is primarily for eliminating aiming errors.

However, because it fine-focuses the image on high-magnification scopes, it also doubles as a rangefinder: simply read off the distance shown on the sidewheel P/A… and then aim accordingly.

While this handy benefit is not as accurate as a laser rangefinder, it can be improved by increasing the circumference of the sidewheel.

This is why the Valiant includes a 75mm diameter sidewheel in the box. It offers a significant increase on the Epic’s built-in 41mm diameter sidewheel.

The advantage of the additional sidewheel is that it increases the space between the distance points marked on the sidewheel’s vernier.

For example, the space between the “20” and “30” on the scope’s integral P/A is around 16.5mm; it’s about 9mm between the “30” and “50” marks.

However, fit the 75mm wheel and its extra circumference makes these spaces increase to around 31mm and 17mm respectively – almost double.

In other words, you can be a lot more accurate in your range estimation once you’ve fine-focused the target with P/A.

The larger sidewheel comes unmarked, so you’ll need to work out and then mark your own distances on it.

But once set up, you’ll be surprised at just how accurate this onboard rangefinder is for airgun work.