Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics Best Tracking

I have shot silhoutte competition for a few years now . Optics for this game need to be very repeatable. resonably light weight (the heaveist gun you can run is 10#2oz. ) and the sport is dominated by Leupold, than a number of weavers followed by sightrons and elite 4200's followed by a mesh mash of other stuff.yes you will see a few NF . but they are heavy when you get to the 20+ X

I also shoot silhouette. As mentioned, Leupolds dominate. You also see Nikon's, old Weaver T's and Redfields.

Not very qualified to speak on this one, but I'll add my .02.

Been using Leupolds for 30 years. Never been impressed with their tracking. Been VERY aggravated at times as I'm a perfectionist. Once tried a Swaro about a decade ago.....was equally unimpressed plus the parallax sent it back to the factory and then I dumped it.

Bought 2 Zeiss Conquests 1.5 years ago. One is on a .338 RUM and the other is on a .375 H&H getting ready for an Africa trip one of these years (both are 3.5x10-44mm).

Both of these Zeiss Conquests are by far the best tracking scopes I've ever owned, no question.

Me neither...

PH

also one might want to remember that leupold, tasco, NF, bushnell , ect most companies make different quilty of scopes to certian price points so a high end bushnell may very well be better than say a leupold rifleman

Exactly. One of the most repeatable scopes I have is a Leupold Mark 4 10x. Have also had very good luck with recent VX-3's and the Leupold fixed-powers with the same basic erector/adjustment system, as well as the VX-6's. Also had very good luck with a VX-2 3-9x40 for several years, until it didn't work so well when sighting-in the rifle for hunting season. Right now it's back at Leupold.

Right now have a Bushnell Elite Tactical 10x on one rifle, and it's adjustments are dead-nuts repeatable. Have had excellent luck with one Weaver Super Slam 3-15x, and a Vortex Viper 4-16x.

One of the other questions aside from repeatable, accurate adjustments is how the long the scope will go before the adjustments aren't so repeatable--as in the VX-2 3-9x mentioned earlier.

The one Nightforce I've owned was dead-nuts, but it was larger model topping out at 22x that I couldn't imagine hauling around on a hunting rifle, though it worked fine for distant varmints. One of the best I've tested in a hunting-size scope is my Schmidt & Bender Summit 2.5-10x. Have been meaning to test one of the SWFA Super Sniper scopes but haven't gotten around to it yet, but like the Nightforces they're pretty heavy.

Most Swarovskis I've used have pretty good adjustments. Zeisses have varied some, but recent models have been pretty good, including Conquests and the one Terra I've tested.

One of the best was a 4x Bushnell cheapie that came as a package deal on a Ruger 77 .30-06 I bought from a store during a pre-season sale in 1983. It adjusted perfectly. My cousin has had it on his .30-06 for 20 years now and it still works perfectly. The optics aren't Zeiss, but they're good enough to kill most Montana deer and elk.

I've got a Vortex Diamondback that is horrific. Two clicks to the right may be right on, but then bring it back and it's 6 clicks off. Just brutal chasing shots.

I've got a Burris that is pretty dang good.

Here is the funny thing, one of my Redfields is on the money every time no matter what, but I've got a VX3 that you have to bang with a 4lb sledge to assure adjustment.

I can tolerate some tracking issues as my scopes are all for hunting and none are in the elite price point. But Lord, some just suck if you have to twist the turret.

I shoot silhouette and use a Leupold FX-111 12X that I bought second hand here on the 'fire. When I got it the tracking was a joke so I called Leupold and the man I talked to said they would fix it so I sent it in. It wasn't any better when I got it back. I shot a few matches with it hoping that it would settle down. It didn't get any better so I called Leupold again and asked what I had to do to get them to fix it so it would work for silhouette. He said, "Oh, you shoot silhouette! Send it in!" Well, guess what? They fixed it! They replaced all the adjusting mechanism in it and it tracks beautifully now. Unfortunately it still doesn't turn misses into hits. Maybe I'll call them again!

I have a Leupold VX-11 3-9 that tracks so well it's scary. I would put a turret on it if it had better glass in it. I have one of the close-out Conquests that I am going to test thoroughly. If it tracks I am going to have a turret put on it.

Sightron Big sky is good

Sold all five of my Leupolds due to tracking issues. Now I have one Nightforce and several Vortex Viper PST's that all track perfectly. No problems cranking them out to 1000 yds. and back to 100.