Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics Leupold VX Freedom Creedmoor

Just bought a Tikka CTR in 6.5 Creedmoor. Currently have mounted a thermal on it for night hunting but also want to get a regular scope for general hunting use. Any experiences with the VX Freedom Creedmoor?. I see that they have them at Cameraland.

Seems unusual/marketing ploy to use the term Creedmoor, I don't really see any unique advantage of the reticle offered. I would be fine I'm sure but any Leupold Duplex in that price point would be ok too.

Leupold claims that the reticle is designed for use with factory ammo, but nothing that I could see specified what factory ammo, bullet weights, or claimed velocity. It seems that those things would be useful to know.

For <$1K I would look for a used LRHS/LRTSi 3-12 or new/used Trijicon or Nightforce of some flavor on that rifle, depending on your purpose. Or LRHS2.

VX Freedom is the last place I'd look.

The Creedmoor reticle has dots like the former VX-II/2 LR reticle. I don’t know if they are spaced the same as the LR reticle, but they don’t appear to be much different.

If I was looking for a ballistic reticle for hunting most of these simple BDC work well out to 500 yds for most conventional cartridges.

Regardless, one just has to learn the trajectory and where to hold. All my serious hunting rifles now have Leupold B&C, LR, or Burris BDC reticles.

Certainly. I use the Credo HX hunter holds in a 1-6 on my coyote build and a Meopta BDC in a 4.5-14 on my pest control rimfire.

The CTR screams for more.

For $200 more than the VX Freedom I'd go with the Trijicon Credo 3-9X40.

At 9X you have better drop holds plus windage holds, plus illumination. And a solid optic that still comes in at 17 oz.

They have other reticle choices in that model as well.

What distance do you anticipate shooting with the regular scope? Out to 200-250, I don't see any need for anything but a plain or duplex crosshair. Beyond that, some kind of marks on the crosshair to measure holdover or adjustable knobs become handy. You'll need a way to estimate range to use them. Some of the "marks" can be used to get a general sense of distance by bracketing objects of almost-known size between marks but a range finder is better, and necessary with duplex.

I've owned 3 VX Freedom scopes. I'm not real satisfied with them. I have not found it possible to have the crosshairs crisply focused simultaneously with having the target crisply focused with any of them. More or less usable but it is clear (sort of pun?) that a compromise is involved. In that regard they are inferior to the VX II / Vari X II scopes I own .. by a lot.

I don't know some of the scopes being recommended but .. I would definitely consider / assess those recommendations.

That’s interesting. I have heard something similar about the Freedom 3-9.

Allegedly the Freedoms have the same glass and coatings as the VX-2’s did. Maybe something else has changed to make the Freedoms behave that way.

On a really tight budget I'd go fixed power.

SS 10X42

Going to grab one for a spare/backup. A 6X too, if they ever become obtainium.

Waste of money with anything creedmore.

I still have my original fixed 10x since it's sentimental to me (used it on my 50BMG for quite a while) but got rid of the 6x scopes. They're eclipsed by many other options IMO now. If the reticle was illuminated I might look at them again, but for that size and weight I'm going elsewhere for a scope that tracks just as well, but has more features.

Of course. But not for that $.

OP never explicitly stated a budget so I went off Doug's price on the Leupy he mentioned.

Good information. Thanks. I plan on using this rifle for varmint/deer hunting. I am not really a long range shooter so I generally try to limit my shots to 350 yards or less. I have only taken on big game animal at greater than 400 yards and that was a very specific situation. I have several of the Leupold VX III scopes but they are all 2.5 x 8x and I was looking for something with a bit more magnification for coyotes and smaller game. Was hoping to get some glass for under the $600-$700 mark.

In my estimation they did the scope a disservice by hanging the Creedmoor name on it. A failed attempt to ride the current popularity of the Creedmoor name.

I have a couple of the Leupold 4-12 Freedom Creedmoor scopes. The reticle is very similar to the Long Range dot scope that they offered a few years ago, a horizontal crosshair and a two hold-over dots under the crosshair. It is like any other hold-over dot scope in that all you have to do is set the horizontal crosshair for whatever distance you want then shoot the dots to confirm point of impact the holdover gives. If you go to the Leupold website they show the reticle and also have a chart that gives the distance between dots.

I had a couple of the earlier Freedom 3-9x40 and the adjustments were vague feeling with very little feedback. MY 4-12's are recent manufacture and the adjustments on them are very solid and give good tactile feedback. The tracking of them has also been perfect, maybe I just got lucky with them or perhaps they have listened to complaints about mushy feeling adjustments and did some correction.

The glass in my Leupold Freedom scopes is noticably better with less edge fuzziness and better and better clarity than the Burris Fullfield and Droptine series of scopes.

IMO they are a good scope for the money.

drover

FWIW: The has marks on Vortex BDC scopes line up very well with 6.5CM drops. I have a Vortex Viper 2.5-10x44 that works great on my Tikka 6.5CM.

That Leupold reticle reminds me of their "old" B&C Big Game reticle.

It has woIt has worked well for me for gophers, PD, and coyotes. I use a 4-12 Freedom with the holdover dots on my 223 and 22 LR.

drover

The CDS on my leupolds work.
Sometimes the vx2 3-9 doesn’t get back to 0 at 200. Seems to be MOA high after dialing.
The vx3 and vx3 hd in 3.5-10 has been solid.
If no leupold, Maybe look at tract or meopta ?
Meopta glass has been very nice
Not a lot of dialing time with either one of them just yet.

Leupold still offers the B&C reticle in higher magnification scopes. But for some inexplicable reason not in the lower magnification scopes……🤔

VX-3HD 4.5-14 has the B&C reticle as an option. It squeezes in under your budget.

Or as ShaunRyan noted the FFII 4-12 with the BDC reticle. Although the FFII will definitely have less eye relief, smaller eyebox, and not as good glass as the old VX-1 series in comparison.