Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics Anyone give the new Leupold VX 5HD a good work out yet??

Last month I bought a 1-5x24 duplex reticle to put on my unmodified CZ 550 375 H&H and mounted in Warne QD's. Took it to South Africa 2 weeks ago and shot animals from 35-110 yards. Worked perfectly for me. Before I left I shot about 2 boxes and scope zero was still spot on after the plane flight over. I found the non-locking ocular ring to not be a worry. I set it and it never moved the whole trip. While I like the finger adjustable elevation and windage knobs, to me personally, I didn't feel the 'clicks' were sharp enough when adjusting. But again, that's my personal preference. I don't see recoil bothering it as I previously had a 3-9x40 VXII on that rifle and it made two trips across the pond, lots of rounds fired and that scope never skipped a beat.

https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/galleries/12238089#Post12238089


Still no idea how to post photos up here but the link above is of a 3-15 x 44 that I mounted up yesterday. Just holding it and playing with it around the house I was surprised by how much I liked it. For the price, I was extremely pleased with fit and finish.

With Talley one piece rings the scope has just a few millimeters of tube available for adjustment. I was a bit worried until I mounted it up - the eye relief is really good and with my normal cheek position on the stock I had a clear view, with no need of extra adjustment. Looking out into my yard, glass is bright with surprisingly good edge clarity.

No real world data to report on durability or turret tracking.

I just mounted the same scope on my 260 Rem, I used the extended Talley's and had no problem with plenty of adjustment room on the tube. Need some range time before a review on turrets can be added, glass wise it looks great.

I think these scopes have been out a few short months if that, hard to believe there has been enough time to evaluate them and get an idea on durability.

It takes but a few minutes with most scopes to see that they don't track correctly, adjust correctly, nor return to zero.

Exactly. One sightin session and you know something wrong when it is.

So you had one of these in your possession and tested it ?

Generally bad scopes go bad almost out of the box unless they are pounded by a big magnum and or dropped. Recoil effects are cumulative so a few minutes won't get it .

I bought 3 of the VX-5HD 3-15x44, with the impact 29 moa reticle. I installed one on a 300 win (long range deer rifle) and the other on a 338 rum (long range elk rifle), and kept one to use later. I found what I thought was a good deal on them. Sighted both in and shot painted rocks at 500 and 800 yds, to verify the trajectory of each. Not alot of shooting yet, but they tracked perfectly during sight in, the etched reticle is dead on, and are as clear as can be. I'm using the etched reticle instead of spinning turrets, trying to keep the mechanical "aspect" to a minimum, for shooting big game. I really like these scopes, so far, and don't see how you can get more scope for the money.

FWIW, I replaced two VX-6 3-18's (first model) with the windplex reticle, with these. I sent the two VX-6's back to Leupold to have the CDS ZL changed out to CDS ZL2, and then mounted them on 22-250 and 308 varmint rifles. I'll spin the turrets on these for rock-chucks, this spring. I'll find out real quick, how repeatable the 6's are, after one session of shooting chucks.

Andy3