Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics What is the Best scope for low light and clarity.

I hunt with Zeiss scopes now i have a 3-12x56mm V4 on my 270 and a 4.5-14x 50mm with side focus parallax (which i like) V4. on my 308. I am looking for a scope with a more generous eye relief mainly for my 308 its my main gun these days. What scope is there that has a more generous eye relief for 1K or there abouts of equal or better quality? I love the zeiss scopes nothing at all wrong with the quality i hunt without my glasses now and just want a little more forgiveness so to speak in that area. I have had Leupold vx3’s back before switching to Zeiss.

I doubt you’ll find better at that price but I’m interested in seeing the others opinions.

Thats kind of what im thinking also. I like Leupolds eye relief but like Zeiss scopes better. Just wondering what else is out there.

Trijicon accupoint

Give me an old Zeiss Conquest 3-9x40 and I'll be happy. I've never looked through a scope that offered as much clarity, eye relief and light gathering capability as the 3-9x40 Conquest. I know everyone says it's simply a Meopta Meopro re-branded with the Zeiss name, but I've yet to find any Meopta that even remotely matches up to the Conquest.

I've had a little success using a Leupold 6x42 with a heavy duplex reticle.

for $1,000 and down you have the best imho with the v4 3-12x56. i've never considered my v4 3-12x56 to be picky about the eye relief personally. If you want something diff check out meopta meostar. it will be equal to your v4 but if you want different.
Big Ed

I use Swarovski and Steiner with 50mm objectives. Both seem equally good in low light. The Steiner has a bit too thin of a reticle and it's not illuminated, so even though I can see game well, the reticle is a bit hard to pick out. I am talking very low light. I took all my scopes out a few times in the late evening to see how well they did. Leupold with 50mm, Viper with 50mm, Nikon with 50mm, and the 2 mentioned above. I now only own Swarovski and Steiner.

Thanks i just sent a 50mm Swarovski back today. I shoot without my glasses Zeiss and Leupold adjust out enough to clear things up Swarovski didn’t go far enough to clear it up for me to shoot without my glasses. I ordered the Leupold VX-5HD 3-15x56mm. I am ordering a Meopta Meapro 4.5-14x44mm for my muzzle loader in the morning.

ask bobby tomek, he probably will pipe in. he is the low light guru

stump, step up to the meostar to get v4 performance. don't get me wrong i love the meopro series but its not a meostar.i've got a meostar 3.5-10x50 #4 ret in SILVER,gosh did i say that?,on my encore ph in 35 whelen.
Big Ed

The #60 Zeiss reticle might be the greatest lowlight reticle available.

Here, where a lot of the shooting takes place at night with nothing but moonlight I have yet to see a scope as bright as the 2.5-15x56 Z6i by Swarovski.
If the Swarovskis dont adjust far enough for you, I would give the Schmidt&Bender Polar series a look. Sure, they come with a pretty bulky 34mm tube, but they are supposed to be very bright.
On the flipside, the Zeiss 2.8-20x56 Victory V8 was rather disappointing in terms of clarity, brightness and handling. I would have expected more from it seeing how it costs as much as it does.

For the money my bushnell 4200 4x16x40 are hard to beat

For whatever reason, I always thought those scopes were really bright and clear too. Not sure why zeiss dropped that line. They were very popular.

Certainly no expert on this topic, I can share several scopes that seem to work well in low light for me.
> Meopta 6x42mm w/ a #4 reticle
>S&B Klassic 6x42mm w/ a #4 reticle
>Zeiss Conquest DL 2-8x 42mm w/a #60 reticle
>Zeiss V4 4-16x 44mm w/a plex reticle
>Swarovski Z3 3-10x 42mm w/a #4 reticle
> Meopta Meostar R1 4-12x 40mm w/a #4 reticle
> Meopta Meostar R1 3-10x 50mm w/a #4 reticle

My most recent addition is the Meopta Meostar R1 3-10x 50mm and it is a joy to look through.

I have gravitated to number 4 reticles over the past 20 years and they work for me and the hunting that I do.

YMMV

StarchedCover

Those were made for Zeiss by Meopta and their contract with Meopta ended and Meopta didn't renew it. It was basically a Meopta Meopro

For me, the reticle makes all the difference. Nice glass is great and all, but lose the reticle and you’re not going to get a shot.