Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics Leupold scout scopes

Any feedback from users of these scopes?

i had one on a swede scout a few years back. worked very well. could have used a much heavier reticle, though.

I have one on my Marlin 45/70 and it is great. Love the sight pictures when I throw the gun up to shoot.
Scott

I have one of the 2.5x Scout Scopes on my 1895G. I really like it. I did send it back to Leupold and have them put in the heavy duplex reticle. That made it even better for low light brushy conditions.

Great scope, have one on my BLR 308. It takes a litle adjustment to work with a Scout scope, but it is a great tool and very useful out to 300 yards.

BMT

I was an early user of the scout system, I took a rifle course under Jeff Cooper in the early 90s and went back later for an advanced rifle course with a scout configured rifle. I also put them on a .450 Ackley and a .416 Remington, and my Steyr Scout rifle came with the Leupold Scout scope mounted.

My considered opinion is a low-power variable mounted over the action is a better general purpose sight than the scout scope. It is also cheaper to mount over the action than any of the barrel-mount option. The scout scope works best from 8:00a to 5:00p on square ranges (i.e. with high contrast targets). I wrote a review for African Hunter that is also on snipercountry.com.

The Leupold scout scope is of excellent quality, and mine is still trucking along. It mostly sits in the safe now though.

jim

Thanks, good review.

Have several Leupold scout scopes mounted.

One is on a 500 A-Square caliber rifle using a Jim Brockman / Talley mounting system.

One is on a 460 Weatherby, again using a Brockman / Talley system.

Another is on a Ruger 30/06, again using a Brockman / Talley system.

Several are on Swedish Mausers 6.5 x 55 using a Gary Weigand system.

Another is on a Chilean Mauser 95, again using a Weigand system.


All work fine. No problems with any. Like them.


Hammer

I take Jim's considered opinion seriously. And I read his review of the Scout Scope. It was a very good read. He makes some excellent points.

However, I disagree on one point. The scout scope IS and excellent scope for hunting during daylight hours. I have used mine in thick brushy woods very successfully.

The Scout Scope is NOT a maximum brightness, use it at the edge of legal light, scope.

If you will hunt all day long with one rifle, use a conventional scope.

But if you are hunting during midday, driving deer out of the brush, or stillhunting in a hardwood forest, its a pretty darn effective rig.

Just my 2 cents,

Your Milaeage May vary,

BMT

Jim:

Why a variable and not a fixed.

Disadvantages of variables:
1-Loose about 1/2" of eye relief because of the power cone.(Cannot move the scope further forward.)
2-More fragile
3-Heavier
4-More complex. More things can go wrong.

Didn't they find that hunters who use variables almost always kept them at one setting anyway.

To me a good 2.5X or 4X will work as well as a varible.

Just asking?

SM

What I decided......
I have a safe full of guns, so this is not going to be the, be all and end all, one rifle solution.
I bought a Ruger Frontier in .308, not because I needed it, but because I have thought they looked appealing since they first came out.
The gun is obviously set up / intended to be to be a quick handling carbine.
I have quite a bit of experience shooting Aimpoint red dot sights, and have found I can hit things well at ranges that surprise me. The advent of the 2moa dot only makes that better. And, inside of 100 yards, it is hard to imagine a more effective sight for speed.
So, since the gun is designed to be a fast handling carbine, and the Aimpoints work so well for that, that is the direction I decided to go.
I will use this gun as suggested above, hunting in the woods, still hunting, etc. If I plan to sit on the edge of a field, I will have a bigger, heavier gun with a Nightforce or Zeiss on it.
I appreciate the input from all.

I had a custom made Scout Rifle once with a Burris Scout Scope. I've also used lots of scopes, peep sights and open sights on lots of rifles on fast moving targets, etc.
The Scout Scope really is as fast as anything. And you can see better with them than any iron sight setup. But their limits are the same as any 2X rifle scope. Not much twilight perormance. A simple 4X works, for all practical purposes, just as fast and does far better in lousy light, etc. Actually, if you pick a 6X with a large eye box, they work almost as well as a 4X when it conmes to speed and rapid target aquisition.
Fixed magnification scopes with stand recoil far longer than variables. They allow more flexability in mounting so that one can get one's eye in just the right spot to best use the eye box of the scope. For those reasons alone, they are better than variables. E

E:

Good post. Everything is a compromise. Scopes included.

BMT