As I did not recognise the scope, I sidled up to Jano Brink to ask him about it. He told me it was a Riton 7 Conquer in 3 to 24 power with a 56 mm objective. Unable to contain my curiosity at seeing a scope I had never even heard about, I asked if I could have a wee peek through it.
It was a fairly warm afternoon, with a mirage that turns good optics into garbage. However, I was surprised when I dialled the parallax focus and the image of a distant powerline literally jumped out at me in good focus. The detail I saw was impressive. Later, I had a chat to Hendrie from Guns and Bows, who told me he was the official Riton importer and distributor.
I forgot all about the scope, as the shooting schedule towards the end of 2021 was hectic. I was up and down from Gauteng to Bloemfontein and, then up to Calvinia and all over the Western Cape. When Louise from On Target Africa called to ask if I would conduct a review of the range, even though it was our peak business time, I agreed immediately, as I wanted to see more of the scopes and how good they really were.
Riton is a USA-based company that is veteran-owned, with scopes OEM-manufactured by one of Japans top optics manufacturers. It has four ranges, with the number suffix denoting the level of technology and optical glass used. The 1 Conquer is aimed at the general hunter and sports-shooter, going up through the 3 Conquer, the 5 Conquer and then the top-end 7 Conquer, aimed at the discerning shooter and top-tier military and law enforcement markets.
In addition to the wide range of traditional riflescopes, there is a full range of mounting accessories, sunshades and a complete line-up of tactical scopes for modern sports rifles, as well as a string of red dot sights. There is also a single 10 power binocular. Riton offers an online series of videos to teach you all about your optics. I watched a few of these interesting and informative videos. They are great to store on your smartphone, as the scopes themselves do not come with any documentation at all.
One thing that jumped out at me while doing my research was the unlimited lifetime warranty offered. Riton knows that, if a product fails, consumers don’t want to instead of its products. This is a welcome change from some other manufacturers that repair products, often with a waiting period of over three months.
