Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics Weaver Grand Slam Critical Eye Relief?

I'm curious as to how the critical eye relief on the Weaver Grand Slam 3-10x40 stacks up to a Leupold VXII ('04) 3-9x40.

I'm looking for a new scope for my .30-06 and was planning on the Leupold VX-II, however, I had a bug put in my ear about the Grand Slam. Looking around here people seem happy with them and they appear to get good comments.

I haven't played with either. But I can suggest a few ways to tell.
Read the specs. If one has a longer eye relief than another, the eye box is usually larger ( i.e. less critical eye relief ) than the other. If one is advertised as a "constant eye relief" it usually has a more critical eye relief than the one w/o.
If you can check them in the store, then test them yourself. Shine a light in the objective of each and hold a card horizontally in the beam exiting from the scope. The diamond shaped form on the card is the eye box. That will show you how they compare. Be sure to change magnification and check at different magnifications. E

i have 4 Leupolds (4X, 2-7, 2.5-8, and 6.5-20) and one Weaver Grand Slam (3-10X40). I really like the non-critical eye relief of the lower power Leupolds, but have to admit that the Weaver GS is very comparable. It has noticeably more eye relief than my Nikon pre-Monarch 3-9X40, which I have high regard for. The Weaver is comparable to my VariX-3 2.5-8 in terms of clarity, sharpness, and brightness, but the Weaver is more bulky and has to be mounted in medium rings because of its large power adjustment knob. I have mine on a Ruger Mark 2 Ultralight in 257 Roberts in medium Ruger rings. I'm definitely pleased with the quality of the Weaver, but would not say that its better than my new Leupold VX-2 2-7 that I bought for a similar price.
JZ

Good information on some different possibilities. I bet the new Leopold is great, but it's not a fair comparision for a 2-7 vs. a 3-10. In addtion I have found the Nikon also to be short on eye relief in comparision.
I have a 3-10x40 GS mounted with millet low rings on a Browning 300WSM A-bolt. It turned out to be a great and very accurate combo. Very happy with the scope.

I have a Weaver GS 6.5x20 that replaced a Bausch & Lomb 6x24. Of the two I much prefer the weaver precisely because it's not as eye position critical as the bausch & lomb. I haven't looked through the lower powered grand slams, but mine is a very nice scope. I don't think anything out there is going to be as forgiving of eye positioning as a leupold, but the weaver does a good job.

When the Weaver Grand Slams were designed, the engineers very deliberately copied the eye relief of the Leupold line. They figured there were several reasons Leupolds are so popular, so why not join the club?

Actually, I think VX2 2-7 vs. the GS 3-10 is a fair comparison. Both are nearly identical at the low end of the spectrum (2X vs 3X) where I leave it set 99.9% of the time in the field and I can personally shoot just as well out to 300 yds (the extent of my range) with a scope that tops out at 7X vs. one that goes to 10X. I actually havent cranked a variable scope up to take a shot in years (in upstate NY) and have never felt handicapped by my Leupold 4X. I hunted whitetails with both the 2-7 and 3-10 last fall and was able to see well past legal shooting hours through either of them, even though that the 2-7 has a smaller objective diameter. I was simply stating that, in terms of quality, I think the Weaver GS compares favorably to the Leupold VX2. I like a scope mounted in low rings, which wasn't possible on my M98 7X57 due to Weaver's large power adjustment ring, which is why I put in on my Ruger with the medium rings it came with. However, with my Nikon 3-9 it's no problem to mount low despite the fact that they both have the same objective diameter (40 mm). With the Browning's 60 degree bolt lift, the handle won't hit the adjustment ring on a low mounted scope. I like both scopes, but will probably buy a Leupold the next time. The best way to decide which scope suits your needs is to go to a store that has both and compare them side by side.
JZ

Thanks to all for the good info!