Introduction

I love riflescopes, and the market has become more and more competitive in the last decade. Bringing you new rifle scope options is one of my favorite things to do, and today I am bringing you another one. Today we are going to look at a new to me brand, the Apex Optics Rival 4-32×56 scope.

The optics market has recently been flooded with a great selection of imported optics. And today I am adding another one to my list. The Apex Optics Rival is a 34mm tube riflescope, with an eight power zoom and first focal plane reticle. Like most scopes in this range, it also includes a side focus/parallax adjustment, and illuminated reticle.

With a plethora of fantastic rifle scopes in my collection, I was happy to add this one to the pile and see how it stands up to the rest. The features of the Rival are ideal for competitive long-range shooting, or any other application needing high power and ballistic compensation.

The Apex Optics Rival 4-32X56

Specifications

• Tube Diameter: 34mm
• Objective Lens: 56mm
• Magnification: 4-32x
• FOV @ 100y: 29.9ft-3.73ft
• Eye Relief : 3.54″ (90mm)
• Exit Pupil: 8mm-1.6mm
• Parallax Range: 15y-Infinity
• Glass Type: ED
• Focal Plane: First (FFP)
• Reticle: CLR (Illuminated)
• Reticle Type: Glass Etched
• Elev. Adjustment: 32 MIL
• Wind. Adjustment: 20 MIL
• MILs Per Rotation: 15E / 10W
• Turret Rotation: CCW
• Illumination Color: Red
• Illumin. Levels : 6 w/ On-Off between settings
• Length: 15″ (381mm)
• Weight : 37oz (1049g)
• Mounting Length: 7.4″ (189mm)

The Apex Rival is not a compact model, as you can see by the size dimensions. And weighing in at thirty-seven ounces it’s a bit chubby when compared to your traditional hunting rifle scopes. So I guess what I’m saying is that this isn’t a scope for your typical hunting rifle, it means serious business.

Serious precision rifle shooting usually doesn’t concern itself with weight though, so big optics like this are welcome. PRS circuit shooters are usually adding weight to their guns, so putting a serious scope like this isn’t a problem. The Apex Rival also incorporates a bunch of the features that dedicated marksmen use frequently. Adjustable turrets, first focal plane milling reticle are just some of those.

As I opened the box to inspect the Rival, I was impressed with its presentation and accessories. The scope is nicely packaged, and comes with battery, sun-shade, manuals and other swag.

Mounting the Apex Rival

As a complete optics nerd, I couldn’t wait to get this scope mounted. I grabbed one of my Area 419 scope mounts to use as a mounting interface, you can read more about that here. After leveling the scope and torquing down the fasteners, it was time to stick to a rifle. For that, I chose my Desert Tech SRS M2 with the 223 Remington barrel. This rifle has been one of my favorites over the years, and with the 223 barrel in it, I was sure to give the scope a good exercise.

With the rifle and scope mated, it was time to get busy with it. But before leaving the house I did a quick tooless boresight job. I grabbed some ammunition for the rifle, as well as the rest of my gear and headed to the open Rocky Mountains.

Zeroing

Once I got to my shooting position, I set to zero the Rival. Sometimes when I’m in a rush, I will simply use an open patch of dirt. Picking out a small detail and firing a shot at it shows what corrections I need to make. After repeating this process as many times as needed, I pick out a tiny little rock chip and see if I can hit it.

The high power magnification of the Rival allowed me to see not only the impact of the shot, but also to pick out the white dusty remnants of the rock chip. I confirmed the results a few times, just to satisfy the sharpshooter in me.

I love shooting in the barren springtime mountains, besides the beautiful signs of spring and singing birds, there is a refreshed feeling of renewal. The spring snow keeps much of the public far away from my operation, and that’s fine by me.

This rifle is very predictable, and I have a solid drop chart programmed into my ballistic computer. So the very first thing on the menu was a target six-hundred and eighty yards away. A flat rock face tucked into a steep chute full of brush. The smooth surface with various lichen spots made a perfect aimpoint, and one I could follow up on.

I was shooting Nosler RDF 85 grain bullets which even at six-eighty hit with some impressive power. The impact left nice little white marks on the rock face as the bullets disintegrated into the soil around it. Using the CLR reticle I measured the difference between my point of aim, and the impact and made an adjustment. With a better wind hold I was stacking one white mark right on top of another.

Shooting Long-range

It was time to stretch this thing out a bit more. After all, part of the reason I went with the 223 barrel today was to give this scope a good workout. The 15 MRAD turrets of the Rival are very nice, I much prefer 10+ MIL turrets like these because it’s much harder to get lost in your elevation. But that’s almost impossible with another great feature, the turret rotation indicator.

Once you dial past fifteen MRAD on the elevation turret, there is a small indicating pin that pops up on the top of the turret. This allows you to both see and feel if you are on the first or second rotation. Due to the huge fifteen MIL turrets, only two rotations are needed to hit 30 MRAD which is well beyond anything I typically shoot.

I found the eye box to be fine, though some of my shooting companions did mention they thought it was a bit touchy. Meaning they felt they had to be perfectly situated behind the eyepiece to be able to see well. I didn’t experience that at all.

Shooting distances like 940 and 1200 yards was a nice little poke for the rifle. And spotting puffs of white at those distances was easy through the Rival. Dialing the turret back and forth between targets felt nice as I could easily count the clicks, and feel them too.

Like most every other scope I’ve ever tested, the Rival darkens some at max power. I rarely use scopes at their maximum magnification, especially when it’s 32X. Which brings me to another thing I like about this and other high mag scopes I have. This scope is clearer at 25X than most scopes that max out at 25X, just because it’s an 8-32 doesn’t mean you can’t use it like an 8-25. I usually use all my scope at roughly 80% of their max power at any time. I prefer the clarity over the magnification.

Apex Rival Features

CLR Reticle

While shooting at these distances the CLR reticle was great. I really like open center’s like this one has, nothing but a very fine dot in the center of the crosshair. The reticle gives a good amount of holdover and measuring subtensions, and also staying open enough to allow seeing low impacts downrange.

This made for quick corrections while shooting in the field. The grid part of the reticle allows you to quickly spot your impact, and estimate quick corrective solutions. Both windage and elevation can be quickly figured out and either dialed or held for the following shot.

Illuminating the reticle is easy with the rheostat mounted on the parallax turret. There are many brightness settings with an off setting between each.

Turrets

The elevation turret of the Rival reminds me of my Kahles K318i, it has a very similar function and design. Which sort of makes a zero-stop unnecessary. The clicks are very clean and audible, and more importantly they track perfectly with the reticle. I mounted the scope to a table for the purpose of some tracking testing. I was very happy to see that over a many courses of motion I could always expect the reticle to end up exactly where anticipated

Throw Lever

The magnification ring can be quickly adjusted using the throw lever, or cattail as they are sometimes called. The Apex throw lever is open in the middle, which allows you to see your turret through the lever should it be in the way.

Sunshade

Included with the Apex Rival was a perfect fitting sunshade. The shade extends the front of the objective preventing light glare from obscuring your view. This comes in very handy when looking in steep country where the sun could close or even behind your target area. The sunshade prevents the light from hitting your lens unless you are looking almost directly at it. Also included were to obligatory cheap flip caps, that obviously work but I don’t expect to last.

Parallax/Focus Adjustment

It’s become very popular to use a side adjust parallax turret. This allows you to remove the effect of parallax in your image, and get a sharp and clear impression of both the reticle and the target.

34 Millimeter Maintube

The larger 34mm main tube allows for a very robust structure and larger diameter erector. This is part of why the scope has such a broad movement capacity of 32 MRAD. It has also become a very popular size resulting in a great variety of mounting options like the one I used here.

HTX Lens Coating

The HTX lens coatings are applied to help light transmission through the scope. The extra low dispersion lenses are manufactured to optimise wavelengths of light coming through them. Both the coating and the lenses themselves help provide as bright an image as possible.

Apex Rival Pros & Cons

Pros

• Great optical quality- suitable for competition and precision shooting
• 15 MIL turrets- for concise elevation adjustments
• Milling Reticle- the CLR reticle works great for holdovers and corrections
• 8X Zoom- gives you a broad spectrum of magnification
• Included Extras- sunshade, throw lever
• Turret Indicator- to keep track of turret rotation
• 34mm Tube- universal size with longer internal travel
• Illuminated reticle- for low light shooting
• Robust Construction- heavy duty and built to last
• Accurate and repetitive tracking

Cons

• Loses clarity at max magnification
• I don’t care for the orange trim
• Promotes Canadianism 🇨🇦

Final Thoughts

After shooting with the Apex Rival for a while now, I only look forward to shooting it more. Many shooters are quick to discount import rifle scopes unless they come from Europe, but scopes like this are rapidly changing minds.

With the Rival mounted on my favorite gun, I feel up to most anything. It provides a fantastic picture with an above average magnification spectrum. The controls are crisp and concise, and perhaps more importantly they track accurately. I really like the reticle, it is a good match to the scope’s optical abilities. There were really few things I could come up with that I didn’t like about this scope.

At over $2000 it isn’t cheap by any means but you can certainly spend more. The Rival is in a touchy situation; it’s too big an investment to be easily bought and tested as a casual purchase. But it’s also not as well known as other scopes that people can confidently invest their money. If my experience using this scope is any indicator, I think it is worth its asking price. A comparable scope made in the US or Europe would easily cost at least another five-hundred dollars. My intention is to continue giving this scope a good workout, stay tuned to see more about it.

-CBM

If you like this one, check out one of our other scope reviews