Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics VX-6 3-18, STOP the presses...it's REAL !!!

While at the Dallas Safari Club Convention today, I got to handle the new Leupold VX-6 3-18. I must say, it is AWESOME. I also looked through the new Zeiss Conquests HD's. They too are AWESOME as were the Swarovskis. Really, the Lupey was right there, I would buy the Lup but already got the Z-5. Got tired of waiting. The Leupold rep said they were shipping now.

I looked through a Vortex HD LR 4-16 at the same booth with the scopes above, really???!!! It looked like the Vortex had vaseline all over the lenses, it was horrible, at least compared to these above. NOW WAIT...the Leupold VX-R was right up there too and was 10000 times brighter/clearer than the Vortex. I was about to buy a Vortex HDLR, but not now. If It can't be a VX-6, it will be the VX-R,

By the way, this show was friggin awesome. It was a who's who of the hunting world. All the personalities from all the TV shows were there. It was cool seeing them as "real" people, like us.

Gosh, if I can just win the Lotto tonight, I will be back there tomorrow!

Good info. I'm ready to hear some in the field reviews on those scopes.

Were the scopes mounted on anything?

no, they were on display tables

Good scoop. Thanks for sharing. It sounds like a fun show!

Eric

Price?

They say they have stock...starting at $1100

Optics Planet: V6 3-18x44

There are 15 at the distribultor here in Canada. All illumintated reticles. Price? $1500

Sounds awesome!

Sorry, but I'm not paying 1100 for a Leupy. Not when a Swaro or Zeiss high end is just a few 100 more.

A few hundred? try twice as much and you'd be close. I was at DSC also and that VX6 is very impressive, and I wa surprised how nice that VXR was....very nice for sure. The glass in that Conquest HD was very nice too. I tried my best with every optic I handled, to look up in the nooks and crannies of the ceiling shadows since we were obviously inside. They had one of the HD's with the new ballistic turret on it. I asked the Zeiss rep a few questions and was very surprised when he told me "if I were you I'd just get the Kenton turret". He also told me he thought the only way to get the ballistic elevation turret was to get the ballistic windage turret also. I'm not sure if he was right but that is strange to me. The eyepiece on the HD is also pretty bulky. Not HT binos to look at, thought that was a bummer. I really like everything about the Swaro El Range, except the ergos sucked IMO. I hate the big bumps on the bottom of the barrels. Probably the most impressive bino I looked through was a Kowa Genesis Prominar 10x44 I think it was. It has been tweaked since I had a pair about 3 years ago, with a new coating and zero "rolling ball". It is as sharp and bright as anything I saw in the whole building, including EL SV's, SLC HD,s, Ultravid HD's, etc. Very, very well built too. I did take a minute to tell the Leica guys they ought to be ashamed of themselves for "offering" a 10 yr pre owned and demo warranty. It's too bad because they have some fantastic glass. GreatWapiti if your reading this....those HD Geovids' blew me away buddy....fantastic stuff. Lastly, from a Leupold rep (take it FWIW), Leupold will have a McKinley HD bino out in a couple of months supposedly. They say it promises to "blow your mind" for $600. We'll see I guess. Great show IMO. It took me two days to see everything.

For $600 I'll guess that the McKinley HD is from Asia ?

It's gotta be RD. I berated the guys over discontinuing a hellaciously good Gold Ring HD with no replacement in sight (none for 2013 either I was told). They told me it(GR HD)was 100% produced in house, and there was just no way to do that and be competitive at the pricepoint they wanted. If you remember it was well over $1000 until the closeout prices came along.

I got to find a dealer near me that has those new Conquest HD 5's in stock to take a look. Wish someone else would be the guinea pig though for field testing and durability.

Glass was sweet, and the duplex reticle was more like the VX3's which I think is a good thing. That is the one thing I'm not crazy about on my Conquest.

Which is a better low light reticle between the Zeiss (HD 5) and Leupold ?

They look so similar to me I'd just be guessing really. I only saw them indoors too. On the regular conquest it would wash out for me a couple or 3 minutes earlier than the Leupold duplex. I bet that's changed now that the thinner wires on the HD are a little thicker.

You talking about Leupold's standard duplex or the heavy duplex ?

Standard. Just to clarify what I'm comparing to.....my Conquest has the ZPlex, which is configured like the Leupold wide duplex. The thick part of the reticle is great, and the thin part is too thin for my tastes. I use it and shoot it but I wish it were like the std duplex VX3. The Zplex I saw on the Conquest HD was configured like the Leupold std duplex...thicker wires closer together and thinner wires thicker than my Conquest.

Couple point/questions


Is a SWaro slc HD Bino twice as good as a meopta meostar?
It does cost twice as much


Also the 3-9x40 conquest has always had a real duplex, the 3.5-10x44 and the others all had a wider duplex but not te 3-9x40, I've owned both.