When you ask an open ended question without specifics you get GI GO, as in garbage in garbage out.

Nightforce, SWFA and Leupold make different levels of scopes at a variety of price ranges all with differing performance levels. For example: SWFA makes non-HD scopes in fixed powers 6x, 10x, 12x, 16x and 20x, plus 1-4x24 and 3-15x42mm variables. These are nice scopes, and are bargain priced and deliver a great value for the $ spent. SWFA also makes scopes with HD glass 1-6x24mm, 3-9x42mm, HD 10x42mm and 5-20x50mm with glass that rivals the best that you can buy. But these scopes generally lack some feature sets like illumination or zero stops that the best scopes will have and charge dearly for. The best of the lot the 5-20x50mm is geared more to LR shooting and gun games than a pure hunting type optic.

Nightforce makes 3 levels of scopes that would find interest here. The SHV line, which features 20 year old technology (3x zoom range) wrapped in a reliable package that NF is known for. The glass is just OK, and performs a bit below the SWFA HD glass listed above. The NXS line is again nearly 20 year old tech, with SFP reticles, but most offer zero stops and illumination, and glass that's above average but still a bit below SWFA HD offerings. But NF reliability, zero stops and illumination generally make up for what it lacks in overall glass quality, but I still think NF's reticle selection generally sucks compared to other makers. NF's ATACR line is a big step above any thing SWFA offers in terms of both feature set and glass quality. But the price reflects that, and even the smallest ATACR is geared more towards gun games than hunting in it's weight and feature set.

Leupold is the hardest to define. They make junk, over priced junk, and really overpriced junk. For a company that once had the market cornered up until the early 2000's to see how far they fallen compared to the competition is a sad epitaph for a formerly great company. Just compare a Leupold Mark 6 3-18-44mm @ a street price of $3150. compared to NF 4-16x42mm F1 at a street price of around $2300. and tell me the Leupy is providing some extra value for it's $850. bigger price tag??


Last edited by Shadow; 12/15/17.