Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics VX5HD 3-15 Reticle options....

The duplex reticle shown on the website is the classic Leupold Duplex, but when I looked through it at the store it appears to be some kind of wide duplex and not the advertised standard duplex. Has anyone else had a different experience?

And for those of you with the fire dot, is it a classic duplex reticle with an illuminated dot? I haven't had the opportunity to look through the fire dot in the VX5HD 3-15.

Thanks,
Andy

I've had your experience - it is rather wide. A while back there was a thread here where it seemed the consensus was that nothing could be done about it. The glass sure is nice.

FC

Same here, though the VX-6 I looked at appeared to be a normal duplex. Can't remember if it was a 2-12 or 3-18.

Yes the vx-5hd has a wide type duplex. The VX-6 has a heavier somewhat medium wide PLEX from memory. Interesting though is I saw a picture of the PLEX in a VX-6HD and it looked like that in the VX-6 so not sure why they did that with only VX-5HD models.

I am looking at this exact model to ride my Sako 85 FL 270 WSM, checked it out in the store the other day and was really impressed with it. The one I looked at didn't seem wide at all to me, it actually looked thin.

By WIDE I mean how far the bold outer reticle lines are from the center of the reticle not how HEAVY or BOLD the reticle posts are.

Perhaps they've tidied it up a bit. Either way, if it looks good to your eyes, run with it! The glass is awfully damned good, and my sample of 1 tracked well.

FC

I know exactly what you mean, I experienced the same thing. I was making the switch from the VX3i series and the duplex was definitely different, I called Leupold to ask them because it appeared to be a wide duplex instead of standard to me as well. The tech guy said that it was in fact the standard and gave me the specs, I think they are also on the website but the standard duplex on the HD series is definitely wider/taller in comparison to the 3i series. I went ahead and purchased two of the VX5HD's 2x10x42 with the standard duplex and honestly I didn't like the duplex to start with. One of the scopes was for my daughters rifle and she actually loved the wider duplex and after some bench time with mine it grew on me as well and all is good. I will say that the glass in these HD models are excellent. The tracking has been good as well but we don't do a lot of dialing because these are hunting rifles so we pretty much set them and that's it but in setting them up the tracking was spot on. Nice piece of glass for sure.

The ones I have looked through (2 different stores) had wide duplex reticle. Kind of annoying, the standard duplex is about perfect.

I am sure the price has gone up but it used to be only $30 more for a custom reticle. Not everyone will be available but most should be.

The Firedot Duplex in a VX5 HD 3-15x44.




The illustration on the box it came in.

Thanks!! That helps.

How do you like it? Too thin/fine for hunting or do you think it's completely usable?


Andy

No I don't like that they changed the wonderful old Firedot to this piece of crap. And then act like nothing happened and retain their old illustrations.

That said it is adequate in most conditions and one can rely on the illumination to help out. I like the features on the rest of the scope so well that I bought three of them for my go-to hunting rifles, but I sure wish they had left the Firedot the way it was before.

Hello All!

As you've all noticed the thumbnail images on Leupold.com and some of our packaging are not always to scale. The example of Duplex reticles on VX-6HD and VX-5HD scopes is probably the most obvious, and we apologize for any confusion. The Duplex and FireDot Duplex reticles that are designed for the VX-5/6HD scopes could be better described as Wide or Wide Fine Duplexes, but the images provided by the fine folks above tell that story better than I can.

We are always trying to improve our information, especially around reticles, so this feedback is great. If you ever want to pick our techs' brains about reticle layouts and subtensions, give us a ring at 1-800-LEUPOLD.

Thanks for the update, but why are the reticles between the VX-5HD and VX-6HD different?

Not being "to scale" isn't the problem, so please don't try and pass off the issue as that. What many are upset about is that the VX-5HD firedot duplex is a completely DIFFERENT design altogether from the firedot duplex in the VX-R and the VX-6. And apparently some of the folks at Leupold don't even know the difference because I was told not once but twice that the FD duplex in the VX-5HD is IDENTICAL to those in the VX-6 and VX-R series. Obviously, they were wrong -- just as one of the techs was wrong when he told me -- adamantly and repeatedly -- there was no way possible that a brand-new VX-R 3-9x50 left the factory with a TMR reticle, even with me supplying images of the scope, the serial # and the reticle itself. 'Thank goodness the next day I was able to speak with a different tech -- Robert Hinze -- who apologized for the way things were handled and promptly replaced the scope -- and told me that, yes indeed, that scope left the factory with the wrong reticle.

I don’t have a VX6 with the firedot, so I can’t compare it to my VX5 firedot. What I can say is that I really like the reticle and firedot in my VX5. It was just what I wanted - a variable intensity illuminated dot that could be dialed down to almost no illumination at all. As for the scope with the TMR that couldn’t possibly have that reticle, well stuff happens. Reminds me of a decade ago when a salesman walked into my 7th floor office, and had a pizza with him. I knew the guy and liked him, but there was no possible way he got through 3 levels of security to get to me with a pizza. But there he was. I was hungry anyway, so we ate some pizza, and I called the head of security to tell them that the 3 layers of unbeatable security had failed. He denied the possibility, so I invited him up for pizza. And I asked the salesman, George, how he had managed to get to my floor. He said “nobody stops the pizza guy”.

So I’m guessing that Leupold did a custom order for that reticle in that scope and it somehow got sent to the wrong address. Geez, I had that reticle installed in one of my scopes, which could not have had that reticle originally. I just wish it was the TMR with firedot. I’m liking the firedot. And I’m liking Leupold. Been using them for maybe 45 years, though not exclusively.