Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics U.S. Army Chooses Leupold Mark 5HD for Sniper Use

Beaver,

Out of the local options to us in Oregon, Leupo, SIG, and Crimson Trace, I'm still rooting for Leupo

You may already know this, but several of the Leupo guys went across town to Blount to wait out their non-compete agreements, then went to SIG Electro-Optics. I'm not sure if they were part of the problem, the solution, or neutral in terms what was going on in Beaverton. I don't have a background in optical design, so don't know.

However, it would be interesting to see what scopes were designed by the defectors, and what has come from new blood if anything.

Maybe ILya can shed some light on this.

J

I do know that I've gotten good feedback on the military version of the SIG Tango6T.

On the flipside, two SIG Kilos that my bud's have gotten can't keep up with my old Leica 1600b. One replacement still sucks. Haven't seen the other yet.

Obviously the military T6T and consumer LRF are different animals.

4th point: I do to!
Great choice there, Army.
Buy American.
Long live Leupold & Stevens Incorporated!
A fine American company.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

Bsa’, keep posting target pics adnauseam and patting yourself on the back, it’s all you’ve got.

yeah, its not like the US Army decided to piss off 24 hour campfire, by purchasing Leupold Scopes on contract..

good for Leupold !

Hey J, just saw this, for some reason I don't get email notifications for threads anymore, and don't see where the option to enable them is.

Not too shabby, been playing around with an old 7x57R, lots of fun stomping around the lake pretending to be grumpy!

Oh...and it loves 120gr TTSX's a hair over 3", go figure.

Almost mounted one of my mini Hubble FFP Henny's on it, but couldn't decide whether the 34mm or 35mm would look uglier, so I slapped on a period vintage 4x, been rediscovering the joys of a German #1 after all these years.

I meant to pick yer brains on a couple "Scout" rifles that I haven't handled yet, need to take a young 'un to get his very first rig.

I'll take this over to PM/text.

Good luck & have fun with that Yogi...I hear today's Level 3 clad bruins don't go down unless you step up to well above a .338 cal ;-)

About the poor reliability of the Mark 5? Pretty sure no one has read those posts by Form, because they don't exist.

I too was aware that some of the design guys headed across town. It’s was supposed to be some of the better team members that left and found a home at Sig.

I dove headfirst into first base with this knowledge and bought a couple Whiskey5 hunting scopes and a Tango6 scope that was like new.

I was feeling pretty sexy about the scope buys with knowledge of the Exodus of team Leupold until Form crushed my dreams by saying they’re almost junk.

I kept the Whiskey5 scopes, but moved them to varmint rigs. So, far no lenses have fallen out, but I’ve got only a little under 200 rounds fired underneath both scopes combined. The Whiskey5 is or was Sigs highend hunting scope.

I sold the Tang6 scope because the reticle was duplex. That T6 scope was a heavy girl and all levers and knob functionality was very good to excellent.

I actually sent the Tango6 scope to one of our hardcore LR member shooters with the instructions to use the scope however he wanted, except as a hammer...

The member had it for 4-5 months and said it seemed like a solid scope with good glass. He hated the duplex windshield obviously, aside from that, he didn’t find any tracking issues with it.

😎

That's rich! John Burns has posted proof of himself being a successful "real western hunter". You've posted one picture of one coyote...

I got to spend some time with a platoon from Team 5 in 2002. What they had then was scary awesome and just as expensive. Can't imagine what they have now....

I was fascinated with their gear teal, for sure. That's been a year and a half ago too. I will also say that the Seals and Rangers I was around, although relatively briefly, would dang sure make you proud to be an American. Unlike some of these clowns around here like BSA who loves to run his mouth and post numerous pics of his paper punching prowess, these guys demanded respect by the way they carried themselves, conversed, and mingled with an avg Joe like me. Those Israelis, I was told, were just stone cold killers and didn't care what anyone had to say about it, showing little emotion. Which reminds me......one of those Israeli guys was commenting about the onslaught of these Central Americans and Illegals demanding entry into our country seeking asylum. He says...."you know how we handle that where I'm from? We issue Ruger 10/22's and shoot the first liners in the kneecaps. That sort of takes the desire of entering our country away from the ones behind them". He had a good point.

The gentlemen met and were friends with in the TEAMS were all very professionals in that regard. Good dudes. Some better than others - everyone has their own personality but I enjoyed my time with them over a year or so. Was fortunate to have that experience. One guy, was a former BUDs instructor loved to say "Why be a Volkswagon when you CAN be a Ferrari" - I pointed out he drove a 75 Bronco, neither one of those things...

Good dude, none were "Hollywood" with us at all.

I’m sure many on here are waiting to hear from the Oracle of Form’ before they run their little necks out on this one! LMAO 😂

LOL

(snip)

The MK6 was literally designed under SMU weight and length restrictions.

Had to be short enough for clip on IR/NV units.

Leupold was the only manufacturer that could meet the spec.

MK6 is a complicated build.

Formey chiming in would be 24hr Gold. [/quote]

I'm going to disagree with the bolded statement above. While the MK5 maybe the one that Leupold produced to fit those specs, they are not the only manufacturer able to do that. Not by a long shot. They may be the only American manufacturer, but not the only one in the world.

I'm not sure why it's germane to say the MK6 is a complicated build, since we are talking about the Mark5 here.

For instance, March has a scope that is superior in almost every way compared to the Mk5 5-25X56. This scope is the March-FX 5-42X56. Right away, you see that it has a greater magnification range with an 8.2x zoom, compared to the 5x zoom the mk6,
The March-FX is 14.1 inches long compared to the 15.67 inch of the Mk5.
The March-FX is 33 oz compared to the 30oz of the Mk5, but is has features not found on the Mk5 than could be removed to lower the weight some, and 3 ounces is not "significant."
The March-FX has 140MOA of elevation adjustment compared to the 120MOA of the Mk5.
The March-FX has 14MIL of windage compared to the 17.5MIL of the Mk5.

The March-FX has a 26 degree eyepiece that provides 30% more FOV at any magnification compared to standard riflescopes like the Mk5. For instance at 100 yards @ 5X, the FOV for the March-FX is 26.19ft. At the same distance and setting the Mk5 has an FOV of 20.5 feet. This will be the same at all magnifications, well, up to 25X because that's where the MK5 stops while the March-FX keeps on going to 42X.

Now, Schmidt & Bender have introduce a similar scope the S&B 5-45X56 High Power. It's a little longer than the Mk5 at 17.1 inch and 39 ounces, so it's possible that's what you're thinking about.

I'm actually glad that the US Army has selected an American scope, but let's be real when talking about the competition.