Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting What glass does your open country elk rifle wear ?

On my Gunwerks 7mm RM I have a Nightforce ATACR 5-25x56.

Meopta 4.5-14x44 with Mcwhorter ret

I like LRD reticle in Fx Leupold.

Minox variable with LRD

Ruger 77 7x57 has a Bausch & Lomb Balvar 8 B, 2 1/2 x 8 x 36.

Kind of interesting to see the large number of Leupolds guys are using on their elk rifles- if you go over to the Hunting Optics forum, the general opinion is that they are worthless junk- even the forum sponsor started up a complain campaign to petition Leupold to improve their product!!
Many of us, who have used Leupold riflescopes for many years, with great success, may have a different opinion, based upon actual field experience.........

Bushnell LRHS 4.5X18 G2H reticle, on a re-barreled Savage (.338-06 AI) Weather Warrior. Not the fanciest rig, but I shot it a lot before I went and the combination performed very well on my two elk hunts.

My MKV in 270 Wthby wears a Leupold VX3i 4.5-14x40 with side focus and a Windplex reticle. I have a dial on top for my 130gr. GMX load at 3450fps that dials out to about 850yds. Waaaay beyond my self imposed range limit!

My daughter’s Rem 700 in 270Win wears an old style Zeiss Conquest in 3-9x40 set to hit 2.5” high at 100yds with Hornady 130gr. GMX Superformance ammo.

Elk Country

Actual field experience, and more than a little, is what pushed me almost entirely away from Leupold.

My hunting rifles (the same ones that get used for elk, sheep, WT, MD, moose, bear, etc) wear SS 3-9x, SS 6x, SS 10x, and LRHS 3-12x scopes.

I still have a couple of Leups around, one is a M7 4x on a Win 88 .308, but they don’t ride on my serious hunting rifles anymore.

Leupold 4.5 - 14x.
Actually that rifle seldom gets used because it is heavy, requires a little more time to acquire target, and because I seldom hunt elk where the majority of terrain is open country.
My Leopold M8 fixed power 3x has killed many more elk and from short to long ranges.

I got rid of all my Leupold variables, save one VXII 1-4, due to wandering zeros. Normal use, not hard use by any stretch, constantly found me finding them off zero.

I switched to SWFA SSs and haven't looked back. I do still have a few leupolds, though they're fixed 6Xs and only one has lost a zero on me. I used to hunt off horses a lot and ridding in a scabbard, banging up against trees was what seemed to really cause a scope to loose zero, for me at least. The Leupy 6X42s and the SWFA SSs hold zero much better and I have really been impressed by them over the years.

This.

The only lesson besides this is to check your power ring and make sure you're on lowest power until higher is needed. I lost an old mossy horn once because he jumped up at 20 yards and I had my scope set on 6x. All I could see was hair, then he ducked into a ravine and was gone. Good hunting to you!

I've used Leupold 2.5x8, 2x7. Currently, I have a Burris Timberline 4.5x14ao and Bushnell 3200 3x9 & 2x7. I like the Rainguard coating on the Bushnells, and they are very clear. The Burris I use for coyotes and working up loads. I have never hunted with it. It just doesn't have the FOV I like. I used to hunt a lot with a 1.5x5 but found that I got by just fine with 3x9 or 2x7s. I am not a LR hunter though, so don't need a lot of magnification to read mirage, etc.

Schmidt & Bender 3x12x50 Classic on my 1968 Sako 338.

Swarovski Z5, 3.5-18x44 with ballistic turret. Same as western deer rifle and even competition AR15.

Main elk cub Vx3 3.5-10 with cds. Others 3-9 or 2.5-10. Covers everything from up close to ranges I can comfortable with.
Only time I wish I had more top end is shooting gong past 600 yards.
For that reason I am thinking my next scope might be 3-12.

I've got more elk rifles than elk hunts left in me, but I have a lot of favorite scopes on them. Leupold, Zeiss, Leica, Kahles, Swarovski, Night Force and Schmidt & Bender.
They all work well if you get to within a reasonable range.
donsm70

Swarovski Z-5 3-18-44.

I have a Leupold VX1 4-12 on my '06. I had a 3-9 but my eyes aren't what they used to be. That extra few X's on top help a lot sometimes.

This is my choice, at least for now. Also my choice for not-so-open country. Pretty hard to go wrong with at any distance I'm comfortable shooting. If I wanted more glass I'd also need more gun under it. Balance.

Tom

I've got several rifles I've used for elk. The scope I've liked the best is a Nightforce 2.5-10x42 compact NXS. I've also used Leupolds ranging from various 3-9s to a VX-5HD 3-15 and SWFA SS 3-15s.

As far as the complaints about Leupold, I have yet to see one mechanically fail on me in terms of holding zero etc. but I have seen some clicks that were maybe as much as 5% off the listed values. That didn't bother me much, but I suppose it could bother someone. In my experience Leupolds hold zero well even on very high recoil rifles. They're one of the least expensive scopes that can claim that IMO and their low power scopes appear on a large number of Africa rifles for a reason.. I am leery of random internet complaints about the repeatability of scopes, because in my experience a large number of setups have problems in the mounting system, ammunition, stock stability or with the shooter that cause "wandering zeroes" when really it's [bleep] rifle/ammo or bad shooting.

The SWFAs suffered one breakdown that I'm honestly uncertain if it was my fault. SWFA bent over backwards to replace the scope on their dime when all I asked for was a repair on my dime. That made a good impression. The glass is however rather undistinguished.