is leupold worth it?

Exit pupil is whey a 20X rifle scope is too blurry on dark day in the Seattle area. Turn the scope down to 10X and the target appears clear. The dark day make the human eye pupil get big, while the high power scope with small objective produces a small exit pupil.


I give money to Wikipedia, despite their politics
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exit_pupil

If my nature documentary, "Squirt the Wonder Clam", doesn't do well financially I might have to start using BSA.

On second thought I'd rather use irons.

Klint, since that 2007 post at optics talk, Leupold has not been holding still. I ordered another VX6 last night. This one 3x18x44.

Klint Beastwood said:

http://www.opticstalk.com/leupold-vx7-2510x45-comments_topic7339.html

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Clark said:

Klint, since that 2007 post at optics talk, Leupold has not been holding still. I ordered another VX6 last night. This one 3x18x44.

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You beat me to it Clark. What relevance does a thread from ten years ago about a discontinued product have? Unless one has a serious agenda.

ohihunter2014 said:

how do i figure out what the exit pupil is?

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Diameter of objective lens divided by magnification power.

So a 3-9x40mm set on 9x has an exit pupil of 4.4mm, set on 3, it has an exit pupil of 13.3mm.

The human pupil can typically span ~3mm at the bottom up to ~8mm at the top end, so that 3x example above is actually passing a larger image than the eye can really take in, so you won't see the image start to dim at all until your pupil starts needing to constrict (i.e. exit pupil shrinking below 8). Then, say you use a scope like a 6-24x40mm, you get down to 1.7mm exit pupil, the image will look VERY dark, because your pupil simply can't shrink small enough to mate up with the exit pupil - you'll get too much interfering light from your surroundings.

i hunt in very different conditions just about every year, heat,rain and snow and i don,t want to have to come home early because a scope craps out on me or miss a chance at a animal because because of a scope, so my choice has been leupold over 50 some years and they have worked for me all over the world. eastbank.

cdb1 said:

You beat me to it Clark. What relevance does a thread from ten years ago about a discontinued product have? Unless one has a serious agenda.

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the relevance is they sucked then, they sucked in the 90s and they suck now.

ohihunter2014 said:

voice 3-get the vx2 and be done with it.

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If you can get a good price on one and its in your budget id go with that option.

The Vx2s ARE a step up from the Nikon Prostaff line. Im not a leupold guy by any means, but even ill say that.
If you can get an OLDER buckmasters, Monarch, or Prostaff 5 in the same price range id go with one of those, but again thats because I REALLY like nikon, not because i dont feel the leupold is a good scope.

Klint Beastwood said:

the relevance is they sucked then, they sucked in the 90s and they suck now.

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You can do better than that if you want to trash Leupold. Post a thread from this year about how bad they are and maybe someone will take you seriously. And I know you can find one because there is not one brand of optics that's universally liked by everyone.

ohihunter2014 said:

I guess I'm not finding if it would be better in a hunting situation. right now I'm set on getting the vx2. I go through this faze with anything I have to spend high dollar on.

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For hunting, it probably wont be TOO much better. For hunting ill only look through a scope for at most 30secs at a time. If i can see well enough to place a bullet thats good enough for hunting.
Where i really see the advantage in incremental increases in performance is a day at the range, where i spend alot of time looking through the scope.....or right at last light, and then it usually still dosent matter.

I had an old used vari x ii 2x7 that In 2005 I put it put on a home made Mosin Nagant scope base that is cantilevered worse than a diving board. It shook the reticle loose. I sent it to Leupold and they sent me a new VX1. I put that on an M70 I rebarreled to 270. In 2008 and 2009 I shot a total of (9) mule deer at ~~ 400 yards with that scope. In 2010 I put an old used 1995 vari x iii 1.75vx6 on a Ruger #1 7mmRM and shot (3) mule deer at ~~400 yards. In 2012 I put an old used 1994 vari x IIc 2x7 on an 1885 falling block I reballed to 257RAI rimmed. I shot (4) mule deer at ~~400 yards. In 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2016 I used various new Leupolds, mostly VX3 2x10x40 CDS. Some of the other scopes I have are; IOR, Nightforce NXS, Sightron SIII, Kahles Helia CL, USO, Burris Signature, simmons, Vortex rzr, Nikon, etc.

I wish Leupold would present the information on their website more like an engineering data sheet [I don't need glossy pictures of models posing like they are hunting], but I cannot fault Leupold scopes, or the way they talk to me on the phone. Still my favorite.

i own 32 leupold scopes and here are 13 that are not on rifles or shotguns right now, some old and some newer and not one of these has needed to be repaired and they are some of the scopes used on my hunts. verix1,s-verix11,s-verix111,s, 2.5x compact to 8.5x25 and several shogun-pistol scopes also. i sent four scopes back for service to leupold, two were repaired and two were replaced with better scopes than i returned. i have hunted in close to 15" of snow at close to 0 degrees and in rain that made my ass cheeks pruney and in dusty heat close to 110 degrees, i have dropped-bumped-fell with my firarms over the years and rode in trucks on bone jarring rocky poor excuses for a road.and not once have i had to quit the hunt because of scope failure. buy what you want, i,m only relating my expearence with leupold scopes. the buffalo in my avatar was shot in S.A. near kruger park in 2015 with a MS 9.3x62 with a older 4x leupold and it was a hot dusty walking hunt. eastbank.

Clark said:

I wish Leupold would present the information on their website more like an engineering data sheet [I don't need glossy pictures of models posing like they are hunting], but I cannot fault Leupold scopes, or the way they talk to me on the phone. Still my favorite.

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But, the shinny catches hunters....ya know, if you drug a leupold thru the woods i wonder how many hunters youd hook?
I dont really feel a need to defend leupold, but let me say that even tho I dont use the scopes I recommend them. I also have little trouble recommending Nikons, or Bushnells of the Trophy line or higher. Ive used customer service from all the companiss and its been universally good, you can probably blame that on leupold.

I save money by buying Leupold.

LoonWulf said:

I also have little trouble recommending Nikons

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I generally agree with your post above, but I'll admit, I choke a little whenever I throw a recommendation for Nikons into a thread. I've been happy with many Nikon products over the years, but I have to admit, I've always found Nikons to be very critical for eye relief, and almost universally all of them have had edge effects at high magnification. While neither are a big problem for hunting, if a guy does much positional shooting it can be frustrating, and if a guy spends a lot of time in the scope at full magnification over a long session, he's due for a headache. Nikon also does quite a bit of political pandering to their "one with nature" product line buyers; photographers and nature watchers, which has meant varied levels of dejection towards their hunting optics lines over the years. Contributions to anti-hunting agencies, hiding their hunting optics in their site, etc. They've righted that ship a bit in recent years, but I guess I haven't forgotten the sour taste. And of course, I was incredibly disappointed in the older products - especially the flagship Monarchs, which only had 20MOA of elevation adjustment... It just never made sense to me (Zeiss Conquests used to be that way too - way too little adjustment).

I'm very happy with a plethora of their products, but if I could buy a Leupold at the same price, I'd get the Leupold. Similarly, however, if I can get an equivalent Bushnell at the same price (which is silly to say, since they're generally cheaper), I'd get the Bushnell over the lower end Leupolds every time, and more often than not, get the top end bushnells over the top Leup's too.

So maybe I would be most truthful in saying it this way: "I don't like that I like Nikon scopes." I might not be proud about backing Bushnell in the company of some more accomplished/credentialed shooters - at least not until I can get on the firing line - but I like liking Bushnell scopes. I like liking Nightforce scopes. I'll equally say to provide a bit more context, I'm disappointed that I haven't been able to make myself like Vortex scopes, and I'm disappointed to say I've never been terribly impressed by Leupolds. I don't relish in a dislike of any brand or model, but I can say, I have a handful of Nikons which I'd much rather have a different scope in their place - but I'm not disappointed by them.

^ Excellent post!

nothing wrong with liking what you like and buying the same. to each his own. eastbank.

I really like the Leupolds I have but like my Meopta and Zeiss better. I believe as a general rule that scopes of European origin are better in low light than Pacific Rim origin scopes with Leupold as a wild card. There are exceptions to the rule such as a number of scopes made by LOW in Japan, like the Bushnell Elite 4200 I have.

ohihunter2014 said:

well guys i was looking over the specs of the Nikon 2-7 and the leupold vx2 2-7 and they seem very comparable with leupold having a little more eye relief and a better FOV.

Nikon--fov=9.5@7x, 33@2x. Eye relief=3.8, 44mm eye piece, exit pupil=4.6-16

Leupold-FOV=44@2x, 17@7x. Eye relief=4.20, 40mm eye piece

Burris fullfield 2-FOV=45@2x, 13@7x eye relief-4.1, 39mm eye piece, exit pupil=5-17

Now here is my other dilemma. I don't baby my stuff at all and i noticed my Nikons are a little more rugged as far as the rubber eye pieces, bells, housing, etc.

How does Leupold compare to Nikon for being banged around? I've had sling studs come out of polymer stocks, slings come undone and drop the rifle, guys knock it over when leaned against the truck, falls, lowering it from the stands and it bangs the tree or goes to the ground a little too quick.

I think the eye relief might help me a little more with this being a lever action but never had an issue with the cva and eye relief but that is shaped different. it seems the leupold is better in terms of fov, eye relief, etc so now im about 80% leaning that way.

i also noticed the burris to have the magnification built into the eye piece. is this good or bad?

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I like the 2-7 VX-1 on my Guide Gun but I do wish it had a rubber eyepiece. It's fine unless shooting a little out of position, then it can bite.
I think a pad to raise the comb will help.