I’ve had a 3-12x42 klassik for a bit over a year now. I have a few areas where Id change it a bit if I could, but overall its a great scope and I would buy one again if I were in the market.
Likes:
Solid reputation for reliability—above drop test and some relevant PM’s, a few friends, lots of online research all pointed toward it being a pretty darn reliable scope. Plus my own “united airlines baggage test”, in addition to a year of slipping up and down snow covered mountains (including one very hard fall where I went ass over teakettle, fully airborne, and landed HARD, full body weight onto the rifle), and zero has not shifted at all—not even one click. Ive checked multiple times.
Glass is very, very good. No one ever complains about S&B glass. I have not noticed the tunneling a few others talked about. Depth of field is fantastic, I had parallax changed to 225 yards (from 100) when I had turret installed, but I really dont feel limited by the fixed parallax on this scope within its range limitations.
Reticle selection I like. I have p3l, which is a bit fine for my taste here in the northeast, but by far one of my favorite ffp hunting reticles I have personally seen. I like that it's essentially a duplex, with the added bonus that I can use the reticle for holds at any magnification if I don't want to dial for any reason.
Turret—I just had the bdc turret installed. Zeroing and setting the turret is easier than just about any turret I have ever seen. From a ease and convenience of use standpoint its great. I have not done a tall target with it—I will at some point—but so far have found the adjustments very precise and consistent when zeroing and at the ranges Ive shot it (mostly 300 and in)
“meh”
Turret rotation is opposite direction what Im used to from all other brands Ive used.
Magnification ring turns opposite direction compared to every other scope Ive ever used.
The mag ring travels so far (from about 7:00 all the way to 5:00) that it prevents using a throw lever to avoid hitting the bolt. Because of this, for me it requires 2 hand movements to go from low to high, and if you are behind the gun its hard to do all at once in one movement.
Illumination is too dim for daylight/dusk use until you get to about setting 5 or higher. Its made for night hunting. No off setting in between brightness levels. There is a considerable halo at higher brightness levels and some bleed at higher brightness levels. Good choice for just twilight/dark illumination, not a good choice if you're looking for "daylight bright" illumination.
Dislikes
The bdc turret is limited to 3.2mils of travel. (per below posts the 4-16 also uses the same turret which limits travel to 3.2mils on a .1mil/click scope. Scopes with .05mil/click will be less travel). A rail has NO effect on this, as it is the turret itself, not the total travel in the erector, that limits this. Depending on cartridge that allows me to dial to 450-550 yards, maybe a bit more with a very flat shooting cartridge. My .270 win with factory 129lrx gets to about 550. Im not shooting critters past that range anyway so for me its a non-issue, but for others that's a deal-breaker.
Ultimately I have some clear gripes, but on the whole am very happy with it and Im not sure what other scope in that size and price range I would buy if I did it again. Happy to answer any specific questions.
Fwiw, mine was purchased new in december of 2021, and is labeled as made in Germany. Some models of Klassik are made in hungary. I have been told the manufacturing facilities are “the same” but dont know anything more than that.