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Daniel Schindler

Greetings.

First…and foremost…these are nothing more than one man’s opinions. If you are an engineer looking for technical, long range scope data here, sorry to disappoint. Half day tracking tests and results, again, none here. With all that out of the way, here are a few conclusions from a 75 year old curmudgeon who is stubborn about keeping things simple. Possibly you can find something useful here?

Please remember, this brief review comes from one "hunter’s" standpoint. Here’s my story…FWIW:

I ordered 2, new, Zeiss V4’s. Put one on my coyote rifle…243 Win…went to the range to sight in. For the record, this rifle is scary accurate. It makes me look good. 75 gr and 87 gr Vmax handloads. Long story short, the optics were great. I very carefully followed sight-in procedures by the book. Hours and hours and too many rounds were wasted trying to get POA and POI to line up...and stay lined up. Unsuccessfully. I’m not that incompetent. The scope was a dud.

See my curmudgeon comment. I skipped the factory return thing and returned both scopes to the dealer, the 2nd one still in the box. As I have a long relationship with the owner, the shop honored the return. Ordered 2 Leupold 5HD’s, 3x15x44. One went on the .243 and the other on an ’06.

Early conclusions with one Leupold:

1. On the .243, everything worked. Simple adjustments. No issues. None. Basic sight-in process…scope tracked perfectly. Can’t tell you how happy I was about that! EZ-PZ. When I asked the scope to move my group up 1.5” and .5” to the right…it did exactly that. Exactly. OK, only a simple test. Yes, but a good test nonetheless.

2. Rifle stock length and scope eye relief are both important to me personally as I have neck issues. The Z4…for me…eye relief was critical to get a clear, 100% picture in the scope. Always had to fuss with that. Annoying. The Leupold offers a much more generous, very obvious, welcome eye relief…for me. YMMV.

3. Optics: The Z4’s and my one Swarovski…all three are what everyone seems to call “bright.” And definitely crystal clear. The Leupold’s are the same, with a difference. Whether by accident or intentionally, the Leupold’s seem to cut the glare more. Not darker like looking thru sunglasses, but definitely a slight bit shaded. For me…it’s very noticeable and GREATLY appreciated as I’m bright light sensitive. Long ago I had 20/10 vision. Today, I’m blessed to still have 20/20. So the scopes are not making up for poor vision. Will the Leupold’s “perceived” glare reduction affect twilight and dusk images? TBD. I’ll know next week after a short coyote hunt.

I’m sure the scope you like and recommend works very well for you. I’m not comparing your gear to mine in this post. I’ve owned too many Leuopld scopes to count and not one has ever disappointed, at the range or in the field under tough conditions. Animals fell promptly and were tagged. These two 5HD’s…to me…seem equal to my 5 Series Swarovski and in some ways, better.

I’ll be sighting in the ’06 in a few weeks. Not anticipating any surprises. I hope my post, in some way, proves helpful.

Cheers.

Daniel

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