Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics $110 off Leupold VX-3 3.5-10x40 & 4.5-14x40

Select Leupold VX-3 3.5-10x40 & 4.5-10x40 have a $80 mail in rebate and optics planet is giving $30 off as well. Just ordered a Leupold VX-3 3.5-10x40 CDS that will end up costing me $419.99 total. Thought some might be interested as this is a great deal on good glass with hunting season alsmost here.

Question-

Is the CDS a custom dial offer (meaning you send load particulars to Leupold) or is it just the generic dial?

Comes with a generic moa marked dial as well as a coupon for a custom dial. I usually use my custom dial for an MOA marked dial w/ zero stop but it can be used to match your particular load and zero distance.

I hate to ask this because I know I can search it out but how does the CDS differ from the M1?

I only have two scopes with turrets, an older 12x Leupold with a target turret and a newly screwed on M1 on a VX3 3.5x10 but I haven't had as much time to mess with it as I'd like. I have it dialed in pretty good but have only messed with it out to about 325 yards or so. Been a busy summer.........

I have a new to me Sako 25-06 that SCREAMS antelope <grin> and I'm thinking VX 3 3.5-10 with the CDS or send in another "on hand" 3.5-10 for the M1 elevation job. Thoughts?

Difference between an M1 and CDS?

The CDS will spin on you without you knowing. I've had several, and without a piece of tape over them, I could never quite trust it to be "on". It was usually only off a click or two, but I once had it off like two MOA after struggling my way through a juniper choked hillside. Seems like Calvin had his off almost a whole spin, if I remember correctly. Not exactly confidence inspiring to know your scope is rezeroing itself while you hunt.

Never had a problem like that with an M1.

Prarie, not being argumentative here, but i posted this reply on another thread where you said the same thing. I'm curious how your CDS keeps getting "off"?

"For the record I'm not pushing one style over another. That's where personal preference comes in. Seriously though, the CDS has a zero stop. You can't screw it up no matter if the dial gets moved accidently or not. The only way it can get off is if the allen screws somehow get loose and the dial spins on the turret. I've never had it happen though."

I think he is saying that the CDS is easier to click than they M1. Thus while pushing your way through cedars, crawling through thick CRP or whatnot, the CDS knobs have had a tendancy to unknowingly click.

By bumping into things.

The scopes had a zero stop, but it seemed like every time I looked at the rifle, it was a few clicks off from zero. Too easy to move, IMO. I found myself constantly checking to make sure I was bottomed out on the zero stop.

M1s take a pretty good amount of pressure to turn, which is certainly a good deal on an exposed turret. The CDS seems more like a target turret, though the target turret is fine since it's covered.

So far, knock on wood, I have not had an issue w/ my CDS. I only have them on 2 rifles, but so far, so good!

I have several with CDS -- never a problem.

Who's been hunting with a CDS for a few years now and really has put it through its paces? Repeatability? Reliability? Durability?

I know the M1 certainly has a good following.

I think most would lean towards the M1, no? (at least the most vocal!)

OYOA's Big Fin has been using the VX3 3-10x40 CDS for a few years now IIRC. Maybe he'll chime in.

If you take a CDS turreted scope for a ride in a scabbard on an ATV there's no telling where you'll be aimed when you pull it out. You have to tape it in place. They really need firmer clicks, or a cap.

I've had hard hunts for mountain goat and a lot of deer and antelope using cds scopes. Of the 3 cds rigs I have, none have ever moved. Of the 4 M1 turrets I have, none have ever moved. I don't use scabbards though and I don't ride atvs to hunt.

Thinking mountain out of a molehill on this particularly with a cds equipped with zero stop. Both are nice. For my lightweight carry rigs I just prefer the cds, son likes M1.

I used a CDS 3-9x40 VX-R elk hunting last season and had my turret turn off zero several times. I blame this on a fairly snug scabbard. One evening I posted up on a good looking saddle and checked the CDS and it was exactly 180' out. I had a moment of panic because I didn't know which way to turn it to zero it, but then figured out to remove the bolt and sight down the barrel at a rock near my sight in range and then compare it to the view thru the scope, the same as I do the poor guy's boresight. If you turn it back the wrong way and you are then 360' off this will show up dramatically.
It ticks me off when you spend $500 for a scope and it requires a piece of electrical tape to make it function reliably.
Wishing Leupold would make the clicks more firm or employ the wonderful Weaver/Nitrex lift to turn and push down to lock style caps.

A zero stop would eliminate any guessing and mine all use them. Of course with my rig and a zero stop I can only go to 700 yards. Life is full of compromises.

An M1 turret is not going to play nice for the same reason as your non zero stop equipped cds.

except M1s have a scale for immediate indexing of the turret......

no indexing scale is my biggest beef with both the CDS system, and the turret system on the Mark II/AR series. I want a 'short' M1 style exposed turret.....

Last fall I packed a CDS scope equipped rifle up a cliff after a goat, across the cedar breaks for mule deer and elk, crawled through the russian olives after whitetail, over the cactus for antelope, and in between the lodgepole deadfall hunting black bear. The only thing that kept it zeroed was tape.

While packing a CDS topped rifle last winter horseback for coyotes, I pulled it out of the scabbard and the tape had come off. You guessed it, it had moved. Got rid of both CDS scopes soon afterwards.

M1s for me.

Yep. I always denote what hash mark I'm zeroed at with a paint marker on my M1 scopes. Easy return to zero.

Haven't done that but will.