Lost in a sea of rifle scopes please help...

rrg991981

rrg991981

Joined
Oct 31, 2006
Messages
778
I am looking for a quality rifle scope for a .308 Remington 700VTR I have $600 or so real money to spend (I would prefer less), there are so many scopes out there how do I chose!!

Heres what I am looking for,

Low end power, 3-5 or so
High end power, 10-18 or so
Objective at least 40mm
Mil-Dot Reticle

I like the Leupold Mark 2, some of the Nikons look promising, Leatherwood too

I will do some light hunting, maybe some Varmint, white tail deer and a lot of target shooting. The majority of the shooting will be under 200yds but I would like the flexibility to go longer if wanted to, what do you guys think??
 
Zeiss Conquest. Made in the USA with Zeiss glass, etc, so you aren't getting hammered by the high Euro so much. 3 x9's start at around the low $400 range at the discounters. WEll worth the money. Puts comparable Leupold's, etc to shame.
 
I would stick with Leupold. I did quite a bit of looking and asking a few months ago, both at some of the rifle forums and at brick & mortars, and I came away with a Leupold VXIII3.5-10x40. I did see one Zeiss at a store that looked better than their Leupold, but the store was quite a ways from my house (I wasn't ready to buy that day) and the next three stores I compared them at, the Leupolds beat out the Conquests.

They both have lifetime warranties, but the research I did showed the Leupold customer service was outstanding, while there were several complaints about Zeiss wait times. "Made in America" is also a plus for me.

One thing I learned that may be helpful is to look at the farthest darkest corner you can find in the store when comparing and find something with a good amount of detail. Of course, it's not anywhere near the distance you'll actually be using it at, but looking out the window into bright sunlight makes it very hard to distinguish the better scope. I found using this method really helped appreciate the differences in scopes- for example, a VXII vs. a VXIII.

My $.02
 
jdm61 said:
Zeiss Conquest. Made in the USA with Zeiss glass, etc, so you aren't getting hammered by the high Euro so much. 3 x9's start at around the low $400 range at the discounters. WEll worth the money. Puts comparable Leupold's, etc to shame.
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+1 on the Zeiss. I've used their 3-9x40 and 6.5-20x50. Excellent glass. :thumbup:
 
rrg991981 said:
How important is a 30mm tube over a 1" tube?
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A 30mm tube gives you more elevation and windage adjustment.

I'm not a fan of mil-dots for game and prefer an adjustable target turret if ranges are going to be over 300 yards. A Leupold equipped with M1 turrets is my choice, just dial up the elevation turret (in MOA) and fire. With the drop tables taped to the stock, it's the easy button :) I'd rather hold on "hair" than hold over. Leupold offers a ton of options.
 
leupolds are hard to beat unless ya wanna spend some serious cash, then swavorski, zeiss, lotsa really good stuff out there.

my mantra on scopes is buy the best ya can afford, if ya are hunting with it, the better scopes amplify lite better at dawn/dusk, when the lite is bad, & it seems that when i always get a shot, the cheaper scopes also often have glare problems, a cheapo scope cost me a pretty good buck one year due to me losing the thing in the glare right at dusk shooting into the setting sun, some folks question the sanity of putting a $750 scope on a $450 rifle, but a good scope can make or break a hunt, for sure, & if ya spent $2K on a lease, probably $1K on incidentals (ie, food, lodging, gas,ammo, clothes,etc) and your $75 scope costs you a buck, a $250(or more) scope seems well worth it, to me anyway.
 
Another vote for the Zeiss Conquest. Great glass at that price point.

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I swear by Leupold--I shoot with it every month, has never let me down once. Imho Zeiss is too expensive, and Leupold is just as good (I think better) than Zeiss at the price.

Of course, that's just my opinion, if you have the money and get a Zeiss, tell us how it works out :).

BSA stuff is alright, but I will not touch Bushnell--been burned too many times by their scopes even their high end ones.
 
knivesandguns said:
I swear by Leupold--I shoot with it every month, has never let me down once. Imho Zeiss is too expensive, and Leupold is just as good (I think better) than Zeiss at the price.

Of course, that's just my opinion, if you have the money and get a Zeiss, tell us how it works out :).

BSA stuff is alright, but I will not touch Bushnell--been burned too many times by their scopes even their high end ones.
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How much are good Leupold scopes? The Zeiss Conquest line is competitive with the Pentax Lightseeker scopes which I also prefer to Leupold. Allof the Leupold and Burris scopes that I looked through gave me the impression that I was peering through a window that had been colored slightly by tobacco smoke when compared to the Zeiss, Pentax and ESPECIALLY the uber-pricey Zeiss, Schmidt and Bender and Swarovski scopes and to a slightly lesser extent the Kahles. I'm not talking about the Diavari line or the other German scopes that start at around $1k. The 3x9x40 goes for $450 and the 3x9x50 for $550. The next size up, the 3.5 x 10 x 50 goes for $650 and so on.
 
My Zeiss Conquest 3-9x40 was $400, and the 6.5-20x50 was $800. I would consider both to be pretty dang good value-wise. I had the same experience when comparing the Zeiss to the Leupold and Burris, also. Not that they're bad, I just didn't prefer them. Leupold isn't exactly a fly-by-night company, nor are they new to optics. My issue was personal taste, and the Zeiss tasted better. :D
 
truthseeker said:
My Zeiss Conquest 3-9x40 was $400, and the 6.5-20x50 was $800. I would consider both to be pretty dang good value-wise. I had the same experience when comparing the Zeiss to the Leupold and Burris, also. Not that they're bad, I just didn't prefer them. Leupold isn't exactly a fly-by-night company, nor are they new to optics. My issue was personal taste, and the Zeiss tasted better. :D
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I have a slight red-green color blindness issue and the German/Austria scopes optics just make everything crisper and higher contrast to my eyes than the Leupolds. The Pentax is my favorite non-European scope. To my eyes, the benchmark for scopes are the 30mm Zeiss, Swarovski and Schmidt & Bender scopes. Go to a big store like Bass Pro or Cabelas or a local high end gun shop that carries them and take a peek. Then compare 1 inch scopes to them and see which one gets the closest. For me, it was the Swarovski 1 inch scopes, which are stoopid expensive nowadays (but even back in 1993, they were twice as much as a comparably sized Leupold or Pentax),and Kahles (owned by Swarovski) American Hunter series, which are also not reasonably priced any more. The Zeiss Conquests were third best.
 
You need to look into getting a Tasco super sniper, Yes I said Tasco. They made them for army sharp shooters but then lost the contract to leopold.:D
 
I have made a decision on a brand, I will be going with a Nikon because I can get them at cost through one of my suppliers so that makes a huge difference!

Either a
Nikon Monarch 8425 5-20x44 with BDC reticle
or
Nikon 8415 Tactical 4-16x50 with Mildot (this is my choice, I just dont know if I can swing the xtra $$ it will depend on what I get the rifle for)

anyone own one of these?
 
I'd get the tactical--I don't think you could go wrong with either though--I've heard a lot of good things from Nikon.

My personal opinion--the European glass has almost a slight blue tint to it, while the Leupold glass seems perfectly fine to me. I guess everybody's eyes are different...
 
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