Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics Absolute best hunting scope for pure contrast, resolution, sharpness...

Sample variation on top scopes is imo almost more important than the name on the scope, usually as optics go anyway, again I’m talking all top tier glass. Any good sample swaro, zeiss v8, or Schmidt, NF,leica or Steiner will generally be about as good as anything while a bad sample will always seem off. Right now the smaller companies like zco or tt are really consistent from scope to scope, but if you can inspect and get a good sample swaro, Schmidt, Zeiss, Leica magnus, Steiner, it’s gonna be as good as it gets.

Zeiss and Swaro stand out in low light imo, Schmidt’s are awesome but the glare at power thing kills them for me. Minox zp5’s and the Blaser scopes are also tops as glass goes.

If buying sight unseen tt, Minox, zco are all gonna be very consistent, but a great sample of a Zeiss v8 or swaro z8 has no equal imo, especially during low light.

Which Schmidt models did you experience this with, never encountered it with a Classic or Polar? Less than impressed with Swaro Z6 scopes in lowlight but I do own a Z3 and Z5 with 50mm objectives and they are as good as the Z6 is under same circumstances(30 minutes after sunset hunting). I have experience with a Zeiss Victory HT and thought that was a great scope unfortunately I did not hold onto it. I would like to try the Zeiss Z8 and possibly the Swaro Z8 at one point. .

You are welcome. Being able to see the animal clearly is my main objective , I already know if he is shootable because he was glassed with my Binos.

If it has Schmidt + Bender, Kahles, Leica, or Swarovski on it, it’s likely as good or better than the rest out there. Fact

I'm not Xycod but regarding the glare I've only seen it in the 3-12x42 (2 of them) and an 8x56 (only 1). I use several S&B Klassik's in 6x42 and a 1.5-6x42 and it hasn't been an issue in them. I haven't seen it in a 1.1-5 Stratus or multiple 6x42 PMII's. In my experience, it's only been in harsh direct or angled light (setting sun) with the scopes mentioned and a hand over the front objective was the fix. I need to throw a sunshade on to see how much difference it makes but I've not done it yet.

This is spot on. I’ve had Z3 and Z5s that had better optics than Z6s, and one Z3 that reminded me of 30 year old cheap Burris glass. When my expectations are high, I wont mail order unless I know I can return sub par glass—-far better to look through at a store if they’ll let you inspect.

I have seen it only one time and I had a Z3 3-10x42 , the stand was facing west and I could see 10 minutes after sunset and that was it.

Testing is still inconclusive, I have been using Swarovski Z5 3.5-18X44, but Ringman has me convinced the Bushnell is a better scope…

There's a lot of Swarovski box's there. If a scope does not work well for me, I would not buy a second one. I don't think most others would either. Thats a pretty impressive pile of box's.

My 1970's - 1980's vintage Tasco 3-9 kicks arse.

Nightforce scopes are still a better scope just go to a bench rest shoot and see what they use the most for accuracy , Nightforce has the better accurate turrent adjustments and great glass. but there is a cost to use the best too .

It was mentioned by the OP so I'll note it... One thing the NXS scopes I use really stand out on is the ability to fine tune resolution with the parallax adjustment. I mainly use the 2.5-10x42 and the on target resolution can really be set with the parallax. I don't think any of the scopes I use do this as well as the NXS 2.5-10x42. When I was shooting crows yesterday, this really made the scope stand out. It went from a shootable image to seeing the shimmer of the sun on the detail of the feathers.

Pro/con on it - super detailed resolution on target but a limited depth of focus and the need to adjust if you need the finest resolution. In most cases it's plenty fine for shooting without adjusting but the resolution is always impressive to me after adjusting...and the design on the adjustment makes it really quick.

Sounds to me like you are way too picky. As Stick always says,"A scope is a bullet steering device, not a spotting scope".

Only the Tasco scopes with the Antelope on them....lol !

Truer words never spoken!

Say I own an "ABC Brand" 5-10x40 Scope, then watch the chit-storm brew! lol

KB

Oh no, you break my heart not using the scope to glass up a target.

I am convinced those who claim Swarovski z3, z5, z6 are as good as one can get lack experience with them side by side with noticeably better glass. The z8 is another story.

I expected to be getting the pop corn out and watch the show on this thread. This thread has actually turned out to be quite civil, useful, and even amusing in a good way.

The OP obviously has a passion and taste for superb optics, above and beyond most of us do. Passion drives excellence. I am thoroughly enjoying learning about those scopes that exist above the normal suspects in the Alpha Glass category.

There was a mention of the Veronico Simplex earlier in this thread I've never heard of. Google yields nothing on this. Is this a real scope or humor?

+1 did not even know that Zero Compromise even existed.

Damn man. There's some interesting Feng Shui going on in that garage.