Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics Lightweight 2-10 Suggestions?

Looking for recommendations for a lightweight scope for my 338-06 Weatherby V Ultralight. It currently wears a Leupold vx-2 2-7, which is light and has worked fine for the brushhunting I did this year with it, but am getting it ready for goats and want a bit more magnification. I need it to have a low mag for bears as I bushwack up to the alpine.

This is what I have found so far:

On the ultralight side I have found the Weaver Classic V 2-10X38, and the Maven R2. The maven looks nice but the specs for the eye relief looks terrible and my 338-06 will be loaded with 250 gr rounds and that looks like I will scope myself. I have no idea about the Weaver Classic V but it is very inexpensive and made in Japan, but after searching the fire sounds like it terrible scope. And maybe that is why you can find it for sale for $150.

The vortex LH 2-10, the Leupold VX5 2-10 are both 16 ounces and both look like nice scopes but are considerably more money.

Doug has a good deal on the Steiner GS3 2-10 and thinking about that, it is a bit heavier.

Anything I haven't found? Any of the above that I should stay away from?

Swarovski 2-10x 42’s top all my rifles including both of my Wby UL’s. The scopes only weigh 12 oz.

If you want quality you won’t find it for $150

Sending you a PM.

Reloder, thanks for the tip. I hadn't seen any 2-10's by Swarovski. I will have to check their catalog. I found the Z8i 1.7-13.3x42 P, but it is more scope than I am want and is heavy beside being out of my budget. And the Z6i 1.7-10x42 L but if only comes illuminated.

I don't believe the Z5 is offered in 2-10. The Z3 is 3-10 nominally.

I recently got a Razor LH 1.5-8 and have been impressed with it. The price of them bounces around a lot on Amazon. I've seen them as low as $440 recently but they are $530 right now. The 1.5-8 is currently $407. The optics are very good. I was shooting at a 4" dot at 500 yds yesterday.

One of the scopes I've used over the past several years that I've been truly happy with is a Tract Toric 2-10x42. Some members here don't care much for the company but I can only give my experience with it. It's been shot somewhere around 1000 rounds now (+/-), much of that running elevation up/down between shots and on adjustments it's been perfect. Glass is very good. The eye relief and eye box are excellent....this may be one of the things I like best about it. It's not a lightweight at 18.6 oz but it's not overly heavy either. It seems to be very solidly built for a 1" scope.

Switched it over to a different rifle yesterday and it made me think about why I've tried so many different scopes over the past couple of years when I like that one so well.

They can be purchased with either a T-plex or BDC reticle...below are details on the scope (T-plex):

https://www.tractoptics.com/products/riflescopes/toric-2-10x42-t-plex

I've thrown this suggestion out a few times, not necessarily because it might be ideal, but because I have spent some time with it.

The Athlon Argos 2-10x40 would meet your magnification range and (probably) weight parameters. I've found it to track well for a few hundred rounds on 2 different rifles. The eye relief is enormous, & it's really easy to get behind.

I wish it had brighter glass, but it's more than serviceable. I believe you'd need to spend 3x as much to even get appreciably better glass.

Some of your earlier responses seem to indicate that price does figure-in somewhere in this equation, and Doug has got these priced really low.

Not a be-all, end-all: just another piece of data for ya.

FC

Sorry, i meant 3-10.

Agreed......Most of My rifles wear Swarovski Z3's .....Hb

Leupold vx5 HD is pretty nice. 599.00 at SWFA right now.

I am running Swaro Z3 2-10×42mms on a 700 Ti in 280 AI and a Model 70 FWT in 300 WSM and love them. I put them on for the same reasons you asked about. Great glass and light weight.

Gotta say, I like mine a bunch. Pretty good glass, especially in the gloaming.

Don't beat me up here but tract also has there tekoa on close out right now in a 2.5-10. It looks like a great deal on a great scope. Same turrets as the toric line so should dial well.

I have several of the Minox 2x10x40 scopes with the German #4 reticles and have found them to be excellent all around scopes. I use these on Mauser Sporters I have built over the years but not on my go to rifles which only get Alpha Glass.

When these first came out I did a torture test on 1 scope with several hundred rounds through a 30-06 and then 75 rounds through the Ruger 375. Several years old now and zero issues ever. Same with the other ones I have on other rifles. Bright, clear, and light.

You can still get new Minox ZA5's if you look and they are possibly the best value going in the 2x10.

Interesting. I have one of their little 15-30 spotters for the range, which was cheap, tiny, and light enough to work on a tabletop tripod. Can't recall seeing their scopes for sale.

I agree that the Z3 2-10x42 as about the best quality, light weight scope you're going to find. They're over your budget, but can sometimes be found used, nearer your budget.

DF

I have several and have not had any issues

I have had six HD LH scopes go through my hands and several people I stay in touch with purchased them per my recommendation. All in all, I am sorta keeping track on a couple of dozen of these. All of these are used on hunting rifles, so they are not used for turret twisting. However, they are all staying zeroed just fine and holding up well.

Of the ones I had my hands on, I tested tracking on two different ones and it was spot on for two turret revolutions, which is as far as I was interested in going. I ended up keeping the 1.5-8x32 which is sitting on my 458 SOCOM and staying zeroed on it quite nicely.

ILya