Booth / first look: Shot Show 2023 interview with Matt from Element Optics — Part 1 of their booth tour (Helix hunter scopes). Theos flagship is Part 2; HYPR-7 hybrid is Part 3. Not a range T&E or owned long-term review. Specs, pricing, and configs may have moved since this tape; verify current info before you buy.
Channel fans and family — Element’s Helix line already had a reputation as the affordable precision optic that still tracks. At the booth, Matt walked me through what hunters had been asking for next: illumination, a more hunt-friendly magnification range, and HD glass — without turning the Helix into a jack-of-all-trades that masters nothing. The answer was two scopes: the Helix HD and the Helix HDLR.
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Why a hunter Helix at all?
Matt’s backstory: the original Helix was aimed more at budget precision — keep cost in the mechanics, leave illumination off. Hunters kept asking for an illuminated reticle. Instead of bolting illum onto the existing tube, Element rebuilt the package around hunting: 2–16× (instead of the old 4–24×), second focal plane, HD glass for that 8× zoom range, and illumination as a first-class feature.
Different hunting cultures inside the company (South Africa / U.S. / Sweden) couldn’t agree on one “perfect” hunter scope — Western open country vs Eastern timber is a real split — so they shipped two variants instead of a compromised all-rounder.
Helix HD — capped, simple, dawn-and-dusk friendly
On the table first: capped elevation and windage, low-profile, no zero stop on this model. Thread-protector rings are in the box if you want to run the turrets exposed — Matt said it still tracks well if you dial — but the default buyer is someone who mostly holds, not spins turrets every shot.
- BDC reticle with an illuminated center dot — simple crosshair plus a few hash marks for that 200–300 yard poke
- Framed for European / Eastern U.S. hunters (whitetail, closer shots, low light)
- Also a stepping stone for shooters who aren’t ready for Christmas-tree reticles and exposed turrets yet
BDC calibration tip from the booth (SFP, so magnification matters): at 8× they called it out for a .308 Win / 168 gr soft-point hunting load; around 10× it lined up closer to a 6.5 Creedmoor / 143 gr ELD-X-class load. Play with mag, find your match, leave it there for holdovers. The 8 is highlighted in red on purpose — they put the BDC reference mid-zoom so you’re not stuck at max power if that isn’t your load. Box also includes little round stickers for the flip cap so you can write your own drops for whatever mag/load you settle on.
Helix HDLR — same glass idea, dial-for-distance hunting
Same hunting DNA, different turret story: exposed elevation (the Helix-line turret Matt kept praising for click feel), zero stop, and about 100 MOA of elevation travel — wild for a hunting scope. Windage stays simpler; the reticle shifts from BDC to Element’s APR-1C (MOA; MRAD option on tape) — still a “simple for Element” hold reticle, calibrated at 16× (16 highlighted) because that’s where SFP subtensions are honest.
Target shooter in Matt’s head: Western / open-country hunters who might actually need a calculator and a dial for a valley shot — the guys telling me about 800-yard elk while East Coast me is still celebrating a clean 50-yard lane.
Both models: parallax down to about 10 meters/yards. Matt’s claim on tape — just because these aren’t pitched as PRS scopes doesn’t mean they don’t track like the rest of the Element line.
Price & where it sits in the lineup (as taped)
Availability: “plenty.” Street talk on the booth floor landed around $600 retail — roughly mid-stack between classic Helix features and Titan-class HD glass. Matt’s framing: not “cheap,” just feature-packed hunting glass that fills the gap after Nexus / Titan / original Helix already covered precision and value lanes.
Treat this as a 2023 Shot Show first look at the Helix HD / HDLR hunter concept. Confirm today’s SKUs, reticles, and street price on element-optics.com before you budget. Same booth walk continues with the Theos flagship (Part 2) and the HYPR-7 hybrid (Part 3) — both already up on slavguns.com today.
Keep squatting.
Would you rather run capped BDC Helix HD in the timber, or dial-happy HDLR out West — or are you staying on a precision Helix / Titan for everything?
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