PK4 collimator sight by NPZ
Review of the PK4 collimator sight.
Often, many reviews of domestic optics begin with brief, sometimes veiled information about performance characteristics or with fanciful and sophisticated formulaic phrases about the uniqueness and lack of analogues in the world of the presented product. So I would like to start differently ...
Today it is quite difficult to surprise with a collimator sight, the market is oversaturated with both expensive eminent manufacturers of premium military optics, for example, Vortex, EOTECH, and positioning themselves as predominantly luxury hunting brands, such as Ziess, Swarovski, and numerous Asian manufacturers of the budget segment unknown to the general public. In the current conditions, I think few expected serious attempts from a domestic manufacturer to squeeze out competitors in the civilian market, but the stagnation of the economy, the COVID-19 pandemic, the depreciation of the ruble and other factors, apparently, accelerated the emergence of domestic competitors.
Speaking about the Novosibirsk PK-4 collimator sight today, it is difficult to say how its further fate will turn out, whether it will receive development or will remain a rarity, released in small numbers on the civilian market. For now, we can only say with certainty that finally a large and well-known domestic manufacturer of optics began to consistently refine and improve its collimator sights: PKU-2 was replaced by PKU-2 PRO, and now PK-4 has appeared, in general, everything in order ...
Unfortunately, I did not have enough experience with the previous generations of Novosibirsk red dot sights, so from an aesthetic point of view I will compare it with the PN-23 of 2013. So, the PK-4 collimator sight comes in a beautiful, bright cardboard box, upon opening which, I confess I was immediately very surprised to see there a high-quality foam bed, which did not give off cheapness, penny savings and a careless attitude towards the client. Separate slots contained an adapter for the battery compartment, a high-quality hex wrench, a battery, a napkin and an aluminum adapter that allows you to increase the height of the sight, as well as a waterproof rubberized case.
Outwardly, the sight made a positive impression: a high-quality matte powder coating in black looks much more advantageous than the rubberized coating on the early PN-23. I especially want to emphasize the covers. To my surprise, they are completely non-disposable, but rather sturdy, made of plastic that looks like hard rubber. The glasses are quite light, with an antireflection coating, the picture does not turn yellow, and retains natural color rendering. I was especially pleased that the field of view is not blocked by the emitting element. A pleasant surprise was the refusal of the manufacturer to use the 'exotic' slot in the form of indentations and pins on the covers of the adjustment drums, as was the case in PKU-2, now in their place is a standard hexagon. The quick-release bracket is standard, time-tested. The nut and the counterpart of the bracket are made quite interesting: in the form of a kind of asterisk, like a ratchet wrench with a fairly small pitch, which allows you to very smoothly adjust the closing force of the quick-release bracket. In general, outwardly, the sight makes a rather pleasant impression, of course, it does not have such an excessive pretentious gloss, typical for foreign luxury optics, but at the same time the sight does not at all give the impression of a product that the manufacturer has saved on.
I will not write too much about turning the scope on and off. The operating manual, which is presented on the website https://npzoptics.ru/files/%D0%9F%D0%9A-4.pdf, describes all this in detail. I will confine myself to the fact that everything is intuitively simple and clear: two buttons 'ON' and 'OFF', 6 brightness levels of the aiming point size 2 MOA in the 'night' mode and 6 brightness levels in the 'day' mode, a total of 12 brightness levels of the aiming point ...
Speaking about shooting, I would like to say that everything is generally convenient, simple and predictable, even somewhat boring. There was no opportunity to shoot with a bolt rifle yet, in the near future, I hope, to allocate time for this. In the meantime, I tested the PK-4 on VPO 148 in caliber 5.45x39.
So, why did I choose the PK-4 and not another sight:
1.PK-4 closed-type collimator.
2.Price. Vortex Razor AMG UH-1 Gen II or EOTECH HSW are unreasonably expensive in today's realities. Yes, we can say that they are the best imported holographic, not collimators, but still ...
3. Power supply. PK-4 operates on a standard AA battery or CR123A or 14500, which, you see, is a significant plus.
4.Relatively small aiming point of 2 MOA, allowing you to target small objects.