Sightmark is an Amerian based company, with its headquarters in Mansfield, Texas. They also have European Headquarters, which is in Sofia, Bulgaria. Sightmark produces all kinds of sports optics like rifle scopes, red dot sights, reflex sights, night vision and much more. Many of their products are in use by law enforcement, which proves their quality. For the end of 2019, Sightmark introduced a new series of riflescopes for close to long-range hunters and sports shooters, called Sightmark Citadel.
Citadel Series
The new Sightmark Citadel series can be divided into 3 categories. They all have some common features like the illuminated reticle, the housing made from one-piece aircraft-grade aluminum, with a hard-anodized finish. They are all waterproof, fogproof and shockproof up to .338 LM caliber. The lenses are all fully multi-coated for optimized optical performance.
All rifle scopes, except one, have a 6-times zoom ratio and only 1 product has a 10-times zoom ratio. 2 rifle scopes have exposed low profile locking turrets, and 2 products are available only with capped low-profile turrets. The same is with the reticles – 2 rifle scopes have the reticle positioned in the second focal plane, and the other 2 have a first focal plane reticle. For each model, at least 2 different reticles are available.
Sightmark Citadel 3-18×50 MR2
The Sightmark Citadel 3-18×50 MR2 is the most versatile rifle scope in the entire Citadel series. Thanks to the small magnification of only 3x, it can be used for close-range hunting and target shooting, and the maximum magnification of 18x enables the hunter/shooter to engage targets even at great distances. The 50-millimeter objective lens helps in lower light conditions.
A great feature of this rifle scope are the low profile, lockable turrets. The locking function is simple, with a push and pull design. Sightmark advertises 17 MIL of elevation, but the product we got had 25 MIL. This is more than enough for shooting past 1000 meters with a popular caliber like the .308 Winchester or 6.5 Creedmoor.
The reticle is illuminated with 11 intensity settings, and the rotating turret is nicely stiff, so it cannot be turned on by accident. The parallax adjustment is on the same turret and is adjustable from 10 yards (9 meters) to infinity.
Conclusion
I think that the new Citadel series will be a great success, and the main reason for this is the great build quality for a very low price. The MSRP for the Citadel rifle scopes ranges from 450EUR up to 800EUR. The Sightmark Citadel 3-18×50 MR2 will be available for around 650 EUR. All products come with additional accessories like a sunshade (3-18×50 and 5-30×56 models), a battery, throw lever and flip-up lens caps.
