Apart from the cost issue, I don't think you can have "too much quality" in a scope, after all you can't hit what you can't see and you need something reliable and robust.

When I started stalking I had some cheap and medium price scopes go faulty and prove generally unreliable, and that prompted me to spend the extra on decent European glass...

I've compared Leupold 6x42mm side by side with a Meopta 7x50 and secondhand Swarovski Nova 6x42mm, and the Nova's optical quality was noticably better. In particular it handled "flare" better when the sun was low on the horizon, and it resolved detail in deep shadows better..

In one test I set the three scopes up on a wall and viewed into the deep shadow at the rear of a garage down the street.

With the Leupold, the shadow was just black, no detail.. with the Meopta, I could see a round shape on the back wall, but not really work out what it was, but with the Nova, I could see it was a coiled hose pipe hanging on the wall. I appreciate that level of optical quality..Now if that had been an animal laying up in deep shadow, it would have only been shootable with the Nova.

Of course no scope is perfect...The Nova was heavier than the Leupold and had shorter eye relief, although it had a much better field of view...

At the end of the day, you pays your money and makes your choice and that choice is usually a compromise of some sort.

I never regreted buying that Nova, although I now regret selling it, which I did several years later..If I lived in the States, I am sure I would own a Leupold or two, but price wise, they are just not such good value for money over here..


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