Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics Leupy vx6....anything better for the price?

Yes it has a CDS dial for the 7Rem Mag it sits on, calibrated for a 3050fps 160gr Accubond. I have probably 300-350 rds with this setup and it has been a great performer out to 900, back to 200 zero, and various distances in between. Maybe I'm lucky, but so far so good. It also has the best plex hunting reticle of any scope made IMO.

I always scratch my head when a hunter says the main criteria in a hunting scope is glass/optics. Any $300 scope nowadays has glass that will get you past legal shooting light. Holding POI/POA is my main criteria, followed by a reticle that I can see in low light (56 yr old eyes), eyebox/usability ranks up there too. This particular VX6 has the most generous eyebox and usabilitly I've ever personally seen in a hunting scope, even at 12x.

If you buy anything Leica, keep Doug @ CL's phone number handy. When Leica screws you over he will fix it for you.

In 47 years and having owned hundreds of scopes the only brands that I have failures/issues with were Weaver and Leupold.

I'll keep take my chances on Euro glass

Take a look a the Burris Veracity scopes; FFP, good reticle IMO, good form factor, priced in the $600 - $800 range, but maybe just a few ounces heavy for some. Saw them at DSC last week and I was very impressed being a FFP fan. Oddly, the low price is a concern - How can they market such a scope at that price?

That may be true, but as soon as there is a $300 scope that could have made ANY of these shots, I'll buy it.

Count me in as one of those risk-takers as well...

Better maybe, but MUCH better...???

I have VX-6 and Alpha Euros.

It's diminishing returns, a little mo better for a LOT mo dough...

The VX-6 glass quality approaches the Euros, IMO.

With some Euros now selling at discount, it does get more interesting. Euros have generally been in the $2-3,000 range, aren't 2-3 times better than a VX-6.

The VX-6, IMO, has the best duplex of them all. And, I like the Firedot set up better than illuminated Euros, some of those with ugly battery pods on the eyepiece...

DF

How much better is a vx6 optically, mechanically than a vx3?
Would a vx6 overwhelm a kimber montana or forbes?

BobbT, nice pics buddy. Shooting in the dark is cheating! We use spotlights with our $300 scopes....works great!

To me it's step up, closer to the top dogs. Mechanically, I don't know, no problems with VX-6 or VX-3.

From what I can tell (without elaborate testing, just looking) the VX-3 is about on par with the Conquest. I like the heavier Conquest duplex better than the std. VX-3 duplex.

The VX-6 is pretty close to my Zeiss Victory scopes, closer to them than the Conquest/VX-3.

The VX-6 eyebox (ease of getting behind the scope and quickly on target) is top notch. It's very forgiving even at max power. The ER is very adequate at full range of power.

The VX-2 is pretty close to the VX-3, making those a real sleeper of a deal.

The 4200 Bushnell glass quality is somewhere in there, but with shorter ER. I had a 6500 2.5-18x42. ER was less than the Leupolds, the eyebox a bit tight, even tighter at max power and in dim light, it started to fade at 16-18X. I sold it. The VX-6 2-12x42 eyebox is still generous at top power and it doesn't fade, never handled a 3-18.

Now, you may say I'm comparing 18X on the 6500 with 12X on the VX-6. True, but I doubt the 3-18 would fade like the 6500. Would appreciate input on that.

30mm scopes can be rather big on a sleek, small rifle. The VX-6 2-12x42 is streamline and not that heavy. So, I guess it's all in the eye of the beholder. Personally, I'd go with a Z3 3-9, VX-3 or similar on a small gun.

DF

I agree with Dirtfarmer and JGRaider in that the VX-6 lineup offers some terrific optics and bridges the gap between lesser models and the Euros. Leupold offers them with an excellent duplex, a distinct improvement over the skinny reticle used for years, and added a decent illumination system.

But then Leupold dropped the ball and went with ideas of marketing instead of input from hunters.

Instead of the added expense and lost transmission from a 6x zoom, why can't they offer a simple 3x or 4x magnification range -- and put the $$ saved on the additional glass into improving the optical performance even moreso on a 3-9 or 4-12x? I'd buy into that.

But I don't want or need a 3-18x just to get their 50mm objective, and I simply won't buy it when better options exist. The 2-12x42 is good, but for a hog in the moonlight at 165 yards, I need 9 or 10x...and that leaves the Leupold out in the dark, so to speak.

Granted, everyone's situation is different, but I don't want or need all the bells and whistles and light-robbing mega-zoom ranges to kill a hog. I just want pure optical performance. And that's where some -- not all, mind you, but "some" -- of the Euro scopes excel.

Bobby
Is that 3-12X50 Leica ERi the best low light scope you have used?

I've also been considering a Zeiss Victory HT ill 2.5-10X50. What I don't know yet is if the ill is low enough for complete darkness.

Great point about the smaller exit pupil in the 6X zoom ratios. Many people haven't caught on to that yet.

Thanks DF. I already have 3.5-10 vx3's on a kimber and and Forbes.
That Cabelas deal just had me wondering if I was missing much by not trying one.
I guess I could put it on my Sako 7 Mag!

The HT can be adjusted until you can no longer see it, I was thinking Leica except service complaints.

I'm thinking same. I still wish I could see them both in the dark side by side. The HT was a no go for me when it first came out because of price but their are deals now.

I'll say this about the Leica ERi: it produces an image more vibrant/pleasing and resolves detail better than any scope I have tried. Its light transmission is on par with the original Victory. And its illumination system is wonderful and adjusts even more dimly than my beloved Kahles CSX.

It may not be the best, but it suits my needs as well as -- and perhaps better than -- some of the tops scopes I have tried.

I had a 3-12x56 Victory HT for a while and wound up returning it. It had an array of problems, including an incorrectly-set parallax and the inability to produce an acceptably-sharp image at 200 yards, even in the best of lighting conditions.

The HT illumination system is good, and the saving grace for it is the fact that the dot is 0.3 MOA -- the smallest of any I have tried. While I'd prefer it be a tad dimmer, it works fine -- without adversely affecting your vision under diffused moonlight -- thanks to its small size.

I plan to revisit the HT series some day, but the 3-12x56 I had did not make me smile.

One more thing about the Leica ERi: At night, we need amplemagnification to make an ethical shot, and I have found that 9-10x generally serves me best for those 150-175 yard shots. In fact, in poor lighting, I usually can't make out enough detail until the magnification is that high, including with Kahles, Zeiss & Swaro.

But the Leica -- likely due to its terrific resolving power and the way its contrast range separates tones -- has proven to me that 6x will work for a 150 yard shot at night, something I have not been able to do with other optics.

Not true...

The dot on the HT goes fairly dim, but at night, it will never adjust to the point you can no longer see it and in fact could stand to be a tad dimmer. But it works fine due to its small size.

Here is a 2-12x42 on a Kimber Montana.

Been using it the last two years with zero issues. Though it's caused so issues for some moose, caribou, and grizzly bears

That looks good, not over powering.

Thanks for posting.

DF

The cabelas deal shows a model with Zero Lock and parallel. Is the pic and ad misrepresenting? I want something similar with a zero stop, and reticle options later like a TMR or windplex so this seems like the perfect scope for my application. I want 2-3x on the low side with at least 10x on the high side. I like SF though and if this has capped turrets and no SF it's probably not for this application. I was looking hard at a Zeiss Conquest HD 3-15 but the target turrets don't come with any windage hold just a duplex. I would ideally like a tree but not a calibrated deal just standard mil or moa to match turret. I sold my LR stuff but my new backyard is all steep terrain and valleys leaving longish shots a real possibility. Funny, I keep changing tools for different terrain. I guess that's why people don't sell guns/scopes but the idea of dust collecting isn't appealing to me.