Dunno about the coatings. I only touch my lenses very rarely, as in every couple years usually, and then only with the proper fluids and optical cleaning tissues etc.
The eye box of a 3-9 Conquest is indeed smaller than a Leupold. What isn't? The Leupold eye box is massive- at low powers. But you pay for that. At high powers, the 3-9 Conq kills the Leup.
The 3.5-10 Conq is one of their 3.5" ER models. I had one. Great scope, but on a long action M700, I wanted more ER. So far I can't find one thing the 3.5-10 would do that I cannot do with a 3-9, however.
It takes a 3.5-10 VX3 with a CDS at $500 to match the functionality of a 3-9 Conquest at $369. Might not matter to some, but me, that's $130 I can put to good use funding this expensive hobby in other ways- powder, bullets, etc.
