My brother, who does not have the color vision probems that I have, noticed a major difference betwee the Conquest and the Leupold Vari-X. He also noticed an improvement in image with the higher priced Swarovski, Kahles and the Zeiss 1 inch scopes, but nowhere near as much as the gap between the Leupold and the Conquest. It was a very easy call for him to buy 3 Conquest scopes even though they were about $100 more than the Leupold, but not worth it to him to pay 2-3 times as much for the higher end Euro scopes. Since you are out west, you might want to think about the bigger Conquest. The 3 x 9 x 40 might not be powerful enough for your tastes out there on a .300 Weatherby. I still have an original Pentax Lightseeker 3 x 9 x 42 with old Kimber QD rings on my first generation .270 Model 70 Classic Super Grade. It is also better than the Leupold and close enough to the Conquest that I didn't see any sense in upgrading at this time. I'll wait and spend the extra cash to put a Swarovski or Kahles 1 inch tube on it when I feel the need for a change. The Schmidt and Benders were just as amazing in the optics department, but the fit and finish was not quite as good as the other Germanic scopes. I heard a while back that they were in financial trouble and were going to have to shut down production. Anyone know what happened