Swampfox is a relatively new optics company. However, they are rapidly innovating and improving. They seem to really be in touch with what the shooting public wants. One of the things that the shooting public wants is a 1-10 power LPVO (Low Power Variable Optic) that is affordable.
The Swampfox Arrowhead is 1-10×24, Second Focal Plane, 30mm tube, with illuminated reticle. The illumination is Daylight visible, which is just short of daylight bright. However, with this particular reticle I would not describe daylight illumination as vital. That is because the reticle is etched with a segmented circle and crosshairs, and is not difficult to use during the day, even with no illumination.
In general, it is difficult for a first focal plane reticle to be really great at both low power, and at max power. This is because a reticle will either be too small to be used in the up-close role, or too big to be used for precision shots at long-distance. Swampfox addressed both concerns with this reticle by making the segmented circle, which is big, and fast to find, for the close-range. The crosshair reticle with half-MIL ( in my case) hash marks, allows for precise shooting at long-range. This reticle is similar to that which can be found on The Trijicon Accupower, Credo, or Credo HX. In my opinion, the lack of daylight-bright illumination places this scope in the category of being most useful at longer ranges, but it can also be used for up-close. In contrast, a Nightforce NX8 1-8 is probably the opposite; it works at long-range, but is probably better at up-close because of the extremely bright center-dot of the reticle.
The physical characteristics of this scope are extremely well done. The elevation and windage turrets are pull-to-unlock / push-to-lock. Another nice detail is that the magnification ring rotates counter-clockwise, from lowest to highest magnification. This is nice, because (as a right-handed shooter) the included throw lever doesn’t dig into your body when you use a sling and the rifle is resting against your body when the magnification is on 1x.
The optical quality is good. You probably won’t mistake this for a $2,000.00 scope when you look through it, but that is to be expected, for this price. But, there is very good light transmission, and the picture is bright and clear. The eye-box (the area behind the scope where your eye must be in order to have an unobstructed view through the scope) is pretty good, but you better be in the habit of utilizing a repeatable cheek-weld if you want a perfect view, which is true for all LPVOs. Some LPVOs (such as the Vortex Razor) have exceedingly generous eye-boxes, but the Arrowhead 1-10 is not one of them, at least not for me.
In summary, The Swampfox Arrowhead has a lot of performance , and a lot of very usable magnification for the price ($549.00 at Amazon). If you want a budget-friendly, do-it-all optic, with a little more magnification than the competition, you won’t be disappointed. RKB Armory will be happy to buy and re-sell these scopes for years to come.