Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics Vortex Viper 3-9x40 Review

The Vortex Viper 3-9x40 scope arrived today from Doug at Camera Land(quick shipping as usual).My 1st impressions of the scope was that it seems well built externally,it is a tad on the heavy side compared to my VX II 3x9's. Seems similar in design to the Zeiss Conquest 3x9x40.Just finished some low light testing and the Vortex held a slight edge over the VX II. the Vortex seemed a bit crisper as well as a tad brighter.The eye relief as well as the "eye box" where better on the Leupold. I'll give a more in depth review and post some pictures after I get it out on the range and see how it tracks and how repeatable it is...

Here is the balance of the review after testing the Vortex Viper scope at the range. As stated above the image is crisp and clear.The scope was mounted in Leupold QR low rings on a 7mm-08 LVSF(Tried to mount it on a 25-06 with the low rings, but because of the large magnification adjustment knob I would have needed to use medium rings.The knob just barley touched the base and seemed functional but still was rubbing slightly)Again as stated the eye relief and especially the "eye box" were less than the Leupold VX II that I compared it too. Neither was a great problem as both where adequate.The scope was zeroed in with 3 shots after bore sighting.The adjustments where crisp clicks that where audible.The scope tracked well as I moved it vertically and horizontally.The Vortex also was repeatable as I brought it right back to the same point of aim after moving it about. Vortex seems to be putting out a very nice scope, as far as how durable these scopes are is something that time will have to bear out.They have Vortex's VIP warranty so should a problem arise it would be taken care of "no questions asked".The other bonus with this scope is the turrets which are able to be re-indexed to zero after sighting in without disturbing the settings. I would recommend this scope if you weren't putting it on a light weight rig as you give up a couple Oz. of weight and it's a bit larger than a Leupold. Of course if your a Zeiss Conquest fan this scope should be right up your alley as I feel that Vortex looked at the Conquest for their inspiration. I give the nod to the Vortex for image and an edge in low light conditions.Also the turret knobs are a plus.The Leupold was a winner in the size,weight category as well as eye relief and large "eye box". Here are the spec's on the Vortex Viper 3x9 as well as the Leupold VX II 3x9 for comparison.


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Here are some pictures of the Vortex Viper 3x9,also some comparison shots next to a Leupold VX II 3x9 [img] [img]http://img186.imageshack.us/img186/9898/img0534xh6.jpg[/img] [/img] The Vortex is on the left ,it's lenses have a green tint to them [img]http://img402.imageshack.us/img402/3430/img0537nl0.jpg[/img] [img]http://img518.imageshack.us/img518/4646/img0526mo7.jpg[/img]

Dan,
Thanks for taking the time to get involved and do this review. I have just PM'd the info for ILya (AKA: Koshkin) for you to send it to for our next review.
Who else wants to get involved?

Price?

Where is it made?

Don't knock it till you see it, in the Philipines.
http://www.cameralandny.com/optics/vortex.pl?page=vortexviper3-9x40

Truth be told I was very close to keeping it,just didn't need it right now!

Sounds and reminds me more of a Nikon. Are they affiliated?

No,I had a Nikon Buckmaster scope and this one IMO was a better scope

Was thinking more along the lines of a Monarch.....

Pretty steep in price for trying to enter a saturated market IMO.

It does look tremendously like a Nikon product.