New scope for 25/06

What distances will you be shooting and do you hunt at night?
What town/city are you located in?

From near your price to a little high, and you can get free shipping: Great glass

https://www.brownells.com/optics-mo...cFYzZEVHU2JyMCJ9&avs|Manufacturer_1=swarovski

I have optics from a lot of manufacturers, but my favorite lately has been the Leupold VX-R. The optics are great and the red dot reticle is outstanding.

I have a couple of Meopta MeoPros. They are my favorite scope in the price range I can afford.

Leupold VX-3i in either 2.5-8x or 3.5-10x

In the past two years I have bought myself 41 scopes. [half of those were on 22s, so I could give the 22s away and are now gone]
43 of my total scopes are Leupold. [Gotta use a spreadsheet]
I read the gun forums, other than this one.
Leupold is taking a beating right now over repeatability with constant turret cranking.
I got a couple VX-6HD Leupold scopes this year and they seem to have no problems with me cranking for long range, but I paid $1100 and $1400.
If you can use a BCD type reticle on full power with a second focal plane scope, you can still go Leupold and stay in budget... and live with internet gun culture mythology.
In 2012 Leupold introduced the "Twin Bias Spring Erector System" in some models.
I don't know if that has filtered through to all the internet complainers yet.

Alternatively I have also been buying Weaver Grand Slam and Super Slam scopes. They are a great value and have thick reticles for old eyes hunting.

It's quite a coincidence that I logged on looking for the same recommendations. In my case, I'm also looking for a relatively light scope. I've got a Savage Axis II XP that came with the Weaver Kaspa. One of the things I like about the rifle is that it is light, under 6.5 lbs with scope. I've seen several posts about the Kaspa reticle coming loose and other failures and I'd like to replace it before I take it hunting. The rifle shoots very well, so decent glass seems in order.

All my rifles have Leupold scopes, mostly the old VX-III 3-9x40, but I also have a VX-6 2-12x44. Looking at the recommendations so far, the Leupold VX-3i, VX-R and the Swarovski's all look good, but I'm not sure about the value for money ratio. Comparing the Swaro 3-10x42 and the VX-3i 3.5-10x40, the specs are very similar. Weight and length nearly identical. Slightly larger FOV for the Swaro. One advantage of the Swaro seems to be constant eye relief (website shows 3.5") while the Leupold ranges from 3.6 - 4.4". The big difference is the price. The Leupold is $400 and the Swaro is $730. That price difference is more than I paid for the rifle/scope combo!

Wombat 13 - nice write up. I have a number of Leupolds, A Zeiss, two Swarovski scopes (one is on my wife’s 257 AI), Tijicon, Aimpoint, and Bushnell TRS 25 red dots. Additionally, I have Leupold and Swarovski in my binoculars, and Swarovski in my spotting scope. For pure brightness and flatness, Swarovski rules - great glass. Comparing “low” end Leupold to Swarovski is not fair. Comparing high end Leupold to Swarovski is a more fair comparison. You are absolutely right - for the money it is very hard to beat Leupold (in fact, I bought a 1.25-4 VX-R this weekend).

When the conversation morphs to Cameras, I will wax poetic about the amount of money my wife has tied up in Canon lens (her camera hobby helps me buy better glass, hard for her to argue about quality....)

rabid wombat said:

For pure brightness and flatness, Swarovski rules - great glass. Comparing “low” end Leupold to Swarovski is not fair. Comparing high end Leupold to Swarovski is a more fair comparison. You are absolutely right - for the money it is very hard to beat Leupold (in fact, I bought a 1.25-4 VX-R this weekend).

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Cabela’s has four flagship stores. They are big, twice the size of their normal size store and around four times larger than their tradepost stores. I worked at one of the four for 2.5 years part time so I could upgrade my optics and get a few higher end{at least to me) firearms. The regular store discount isn’t worth having but Cabela’s has employee discounts programs with many gun companies and most of the optics companies. I paid $750.00 for my Vinci, these programs are great. A month after starting there I was laid off so I didn’t have near the money to spend that I planned on. Still bought a number of firearms and optics.

The Leupold discount was 60% off MSRP on any eight items during the calendar year. Vortex was 60% off MSRP on 16 items. Swarovski was 50% off two items. Burris was 70% off MSRP on two items including Steiner. Zeiss was the same as Swarovski. I don’t remember what Trijicon, Nightforce and Bushnell were but they were good. Nikon wasn’t as good as the others. Meopta calculated out to around 75% off and there was no stated limit though I was never able to test that out.

I knew I’d get Meopta, Leupold and Swarovski products but a funny thing happened on the way to the forum. I’d never looked through a Swarovski optic before working at Cabela’s but knew they were awesome, and they truly are. For everyone but me.

I looked through a whole bunch of Swarovski scopes, Z3 and Z5 and they weren’t any better to my eyes than a Leupold VX-3. I spent a lot of time looking through Swarovski glass because we all know it’s better than a VX-3 but it flat out wasn’t for me.

So IMO there are times when less expensive glass is actually better. It depends on a persons eyes. That’s why even though I do it I feel a little uncomfortable recommending a particular scope brand to someone, especially a person that will have to buy sight unseen.

I was at Cabelas in Mt Vernon WA and at State Line ID.
I asked the same question of each employee.
How can this many square feet of retail be supported? I owned commercial space in the 1990s and got $1/ sq ft/ month retail and $10/sq ft /month medical.
Each time I got an answer, I got the same answer. It is the gun department. I bought a few guns from their gun library. It was like renewing my driver's licence at the state department of motor vehicles.
Since 1994 I have made 10X as much investing in stocks as in engineering. I do not invest if they have competition. Cabela's has competition that keeps their prices down. Without doing any numerical analysis, just a drive by, I can't see how Cabella's stays open.

There is a pretty low profit margin on new gun sales. It is my understanding guns and ammo is what brings the people to the store but clothing, footwear, optics, fishing etc are where the profit is made.

Just look at what you have to walk through to get to guns and gear - clothes! Then you walk back past the clothes to get to the checkout.

Hereya go.......

https://www.ebay.com/itm/LEUPOLD-VX...e=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649

And if ya need a bit more legs(magnification) to reach out and touch the cds system is awesome have it on my long range hunter 300 win mag

https://www.dowdlesports.com/Leupold-VXR-4-12x40mm-CDS-FireDot-Duplex_p_33558.html

free shipping

Leupold® Custom Dial System®
We'll customize your scope's elevation dial to match your exact load, velocity, and conditions for unprecedented precision.

Once you range your target, simply turn the elevation dial to the correct position, make any necessary wind adjustments, aim dead on, and squeeze the trigger.

• First dial free with purchase of CDS scope
• Quickly dial in elevation corrections to confidently place accurate, effective long-range shots
• All CDS dials are shipped with installation tools and instructions
• Match dials with specific loads and environmental conditions
• CDS is available on all VX-6 models, and select VX-3i, VX-3, VX-R and VX-2 models.

I do like my VX-R. Have a 2-7 mounted on my AR. I appreciate that it automatically switches off if it is motionless for a period of time.

Yes. I don’t use my AR very often and when I do it’s usually without the dot on. I don’t see how the dot not being on could affect the POA of the reticle.

IMHO you couldn't do any better than the 3-15 Ziess HD5 on that 25-06. I put one on my .243 and the same in the compact 2-10x42 on a tiny Harry Lawson custom I have . The glass is outstanding , to me better than low end Swav...

I built this 25-06 in 2016 on a 1953 Win M70
I had to cut the extractor relief of the breech on the mill.
I put a 2.5x10 Nightforce NXS scope on it. I shot a buck with it.





I bought a 1994 Browning B78 in 25-06.
It was too old for sling studs.
I built a forend for it for long range shooting with a bipod.
I put a Leupold VX3 3.5x10x40 CDS scope on it.

cdb1 said:

I looked through a whole bunch of Swarovski scopes, Z3 and Z5 and they weren’t any better to my eyes than a Leupold VX-3. I spent a lot of time looking through Swarovski glass because we all know it’s better than a VX-3 but it flat out wasn’t for me.

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That was my experience. I was going on a bear hunt in Canada. Cost of the scope was a minor part of the overall cash outlay. I was firmly convinced that I was gonna get a Swarovski when I walked into the store.

I checked a Leupold side by side. Same size objective and magnification range, apples to apples. The Leupold was very slightly clearer and about 1/2 the price. Both are obviously excellent.

Sometimes you really do get more for your money. Sometimes you're paying for the name stamped on the side. After that, everything I get is Leupold

The one I can't understand is Nikon. I've owned one, my hunting buddy had several. I looked at one it a store that the owner was all kinds of proud of. To say the quality on any of them was marginal would be too kind.

YMMV

I have Leupold on everything I own. The VXR with the dot has harvested many low light deer than I can count.Without it I wouldn't have been able to shoot by not being able to see the crosshairs. 2016 for example 2 minutes to last shooting time.