Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Vari X II vs Burris

Great post selmer. I think a lot of us feel the same way. However, I have an appreciation for the gloss Burris FFII 3-9x40 with ballistic plex. They look at home on older rifles like pre 64 model 70's or my old sporter m1917's. I don't think a lot of guys here have the gloss version of the FFII with ballistic plex. They did not make many of them. Here's a rifle I bought last year that had to have a gloss Burris after the Leupold that was on it did not pass the test:


Then one I bought right at the beginning of last year, also got a gloss Burris FFII with ballistic plex:


The aesthetics of those scopes are just as good as the older Vari-x IIc Leupolds. The old Vari-x IIc is a good scope that really holds it's value though. When I run across them at a good deal, I snag them:


I actually paid $150 for this one less than a month ago. I can turn around and sell it for $300+ on ebay. You'd be surprised what they are going for over there. The silver Leupolds are going for over $400!!


Guys buy these older Leupolds for a few different reasons. 1. Nostalgia 2. They don't make them anymore 3. Aesthetics and they look great on old rifles.

However, the Burris just plain works. I got my first FFII 3-9x40 with ballistic plex in 1998. Somewhere around the time they came out. I still have that American made FFII. It's been on more than 10 different rifles now and has really proven itself. It resides on my 1956 model 70 30-06 fwt.

In a recent test, where I had a "new to me" (bought it less than a month ago) rifle set up with a FFII 3-9x40


and a rifle set up with a brand spanking new Zeiss V4 4-16x44:


I could actually see the 1/4" black diamond inside the 1" orange dot I aim at, better with the Burris FFII 3-9x40 with ballistic plex reticle. Even when the Zeiss was cranked up to 16x. To me, that is unacceptable. But that was real world testing. You will often see differences like that when comparing 2 different scopes. I kept saying my Nightforce scopes focused much better than the Zeiss, and that may actually be a better comparison because the retail pricing of the V4 is closer to the SHV 5-20x56 I was comparing it to. But it seemed really unfair. Then when I compared the much more expensive Zeiss to the cheap Burris and the Burris blew it out of the water, I was very disappointed. I actually had to wait 6 months for that Zeiss scope to arrive, so there's that as well. I've only had to send 2 Burris rifle scopes in for warranty repair. One of my older American made scopes and a recent purchase that I made on Ebay for a $100 on an older American made Burris FFII. I sent it in to Burris and had the same scope back in 2 weeks time. I told them I wanted that scope back, if at all possible because it is an American made FFII and it was worth more than the phillipine made FFII's. They were cool and sent my American made one back with a note of what they fixed. I tested it and it worked fine after I got it back. I threw it on a rifle my buddy wanted for yote hunting and sold him the package at a very good deal. So, in my experience both companies treat you very well. But having to wait 6 months to get a scope from Zeiss was an eye opener!!!! This thread really needed some pics... Just sayin.