Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics Zeiss V4 or V6

The exposed turret model is known as the SWFA 3-9.

Fair enough, but a manufacturer that makes very high quality stuff “knows things”…. can’t see them cheesing out. At any rate, my (5) V4’s have tracked great for me and are optically brilliant. To my eye- and that’s an important disclaimer. The turret design is really good; so is the illumination. The parallax knob is a bit stiff.

At the “demo unit from Red Hawk” price point, I’m a big fan.

Fair enough, but a manufacturer that makes very high quality stuff “knows things”…. can’t see them cheesing out. At any rate, my (5) V4’s have tracked great for me and are optically brilliant. To my eye- and that’s an important disclaimer. The turret design is really good; so is the illumination. The parallax knob is a bit stiff.

At the “demo unit from Red Hawk” price point, I’m a big fan. :)”

Jeff, those demos from red Hawk are exactly what I’m looking at. The one before I have from them has performed well for my eyes. But this time I’m going to go with illumination. Glad to hear they are working good for you

I bought the 6-24x50 V4 for my Bergara 6.5 creedmoor from RedHawk and my cousin bought the V6 model for his thinking he’d like the next model up. Neither of us can tell the difference optically but we like my V4 better than the Nightforce he started with. I’m a big Zeiss fan & their glass looks better to me than Leupold & most other scopes. In binoculars I use Swarovski & a Leica rangefinder but the have chosen Conquests without disappointment yet.

Last year I replaced my VX3 4.5-14 x50 on a 7mm with the illuminated 4-16x50 V4 and it is a terrific hunting scope. Again compared to son in laws Nightforce & Vortex Vioer PST models it suits my eyes better.

I’ve dragged Conquests through steep nasty oak brush filled elk country with many clumsy slips & falls and the recoil of a 300 Weatherby & not lost zero on any of them. If you need Nightforce to have peace of mind get one. I have piece of mind with Zeiss Conquest for almost 20 years & have recommended them to half a dozen other hunters who’ve killed elk with them.

I have never had a Zeiss product have to be sent back to Zeiss for anything. They will build their scopes in Japan to their specs which obviously work well. Jeez

I am no fan of that scope 3-10x42 SHV. They do not sell a scope with a decent hunting reticle except in Europe.

You guys are delusional if you think that V4 scope is anywhere near as good as a Nightforce. You better go get some sleep and think some of this schidt over until you come to your senses for fuggs sake.

Almost as dumb as you saying the Burris FF is an upgrade over a Zeiss V4. That and confusing a SHV with the rest of the NF lineup.

I’m sure your nightforce nameplate makes you feel cool. The fact that they are actually produced by the same manufacturer LOW of Japan very probably in the same plant might give you pause. With SWFA, Trijicon, Tract & others.

But my opinion isn’t based on reputation of the maker or cool nameplates - it’s based on lots of dead elk & deer over 2 decades of use. They have performed after 40 miles of difficult hiking on average in a week with another hundred in a scabbard on a UTV. Even the scope on my Creedmoor that’s primarily for target use killed an elk on a 300 Weatherby before swapping. Conquests work in the real world. My more recent Conquests are easier to look through than the handful of Nightfoce scopes I’ve looked through or shot with only a couple side by side.

If money were no object I’d buy S&B or top of line Zeiss but in the under $1k price range the Conquest is about as good as it gets.

Wait….. is being delusional a BAD thing?!

Asking for a friend—

LOW builds all kinds of scopes from low end to high end. They build to contract specifications. Some get built to much higher standards, some not. LOW has cranked out their fair share of cheap stuff over the years. That’s not their fault, that’s what the contract specified. Not everything is the same that goes out their door.


As an aside, many Nightforce scopes source parts from LOW, but then they are assembled and QC’d stateside.

I have used a V4 for three seas and really like it. I looked at the VX 5 and actually preferred the eye box and glass of the VX 4.

I would buy another.

Lefty

Thanks, Lefty. Shared experience is super helpful.

And thanks to everyone for keeping the conversation going I am enjoying reading.

So much of this glass stuff is subjective and personal to your eyes, if you have glasses etc…

I have owned LOW Japanese made scopes branded by bushnell, weaver, and NF. All were without fail mechanically reliable and optically excellent within their price range, to me the LOW weavers and Bushnell 3000/3200 batted way above their price range optically, the 4000/4200 and 6500s were also great but more in line with peer competition glass wise.

In the NFs I have owned, maybe 6 or so, all NSXs I think their mechanical features and durability were more than other optics at their price point but their optical quality was on par or slightly less when considering their brightness, color transmission and edge to edge clarity. But they were still optically all I could ever need for hunting and then some.

The same can be said for my LOW weaver classic 4x38. All I would ever need for hunting, but sometimes I want a little more.

Pick what looks good to you for your budget and don’t look back.

Your first call should be to Doug at Cameraland when you decide to buy.

Be safe all. Spence

The V4 (or mine anyway) have a great combo of a truly excellent elevation turret, with a zero stop, capped windage, and very effective illumination that has a VERY low setting for hunting when it’s pretty much dark. I’m forgetting the reticle # now, but there’s a simple (IE, not xmas-tree) MOA-hash reticle that looks like a duplex when you want it to.

Nightforce SHV and NSX are all LOW; parts, assembly, everything. Can’t speak to their other models.

I’ve done enough direct low-light comparisons between my SHV and V4’s to know for a fact the V4 kills the SHV in that context. With that said my SHV is an early one with parallax adjustment. I’ve heard they did do a glass upgrade on the SHV and NSX at some point, don’t know when.

Jeff, not sure and I might be mistaken but I thought the NXS and higher up scopes were assembled in Idaho.

You are correct.

I’ll verify but my big NSX says Made in Japan right on it. And I’ve read that that’s the case. Always learning so if I’m wrong, I’ll adjust accordingly. Thanks.

Here’s a good read on LOW:

https://sageratsafaris.com/light-optical-works-japan/

Jeff,
I've looked at that same website and I thought at one time it said the NXS Compacts where made in Japan by Low. In looking at it now it seems to of changed?? Anyway, just looked at a NXS Comapct I bought about 8-9 months ago and appears to be "assembled" in the USA per the scope. But is machined in Japan??