Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics 2.5x Leupold bright enough?

Easiest answer is leave it alone and use what you have. Shooting game at 100+ yards near dark is risky with any scope. And old eyes don't dilate to 7mm anyway.

Or, you could buy an old Vari-X III 1.5-5X and have all you need.

A lot of that depends on glass quality and optical engineering.

But, the 20mm objective is at a light gathering disadvantage compared to a larger objective.

DF

The 2.5 Leupold is a good scope. I've shot a lot of Black Bears but would never shoot that close to dark....just not a wise move.
Darrel Wick

It will do fine within relatively short ranges.

What you fail to mention is something European hunters have known for a long time: More magnification, combined with a large enough objective lens, results in better "visibility," even at relatively short ranges. This is because many European countries allow hunting all night, not just in the normal "American" hours.

This is called the "twilight factor" (you can Google it) and is why many European "night scopes" had large objectives and more magnification for many years.

Plus for me, it’s a perfect match for your rifle aesthetically.

Aside from the light issue, I find myself drawn to the heavier reticles on the little fixed power or low-range power scopes. Like the 4a.

Black Bear or Grizzly ? I used Varx X-III 2.5x8---it was an older model. It was dim especially when the grizz came in @ 2:30 AM. Go with the 42mm-- 6x. Lighted crosshair would be a plus.

That 2.5x sounds great for baited bears. I’ve used one a bit and was fine until the end of legal shooting hours. You won’t be hunting in the dark. 120 yards seems far for a baited bear, at least in Eastern cover. I might want 4x for that shot. Mine have been more like 20-40yds. My .348 had a receiver sight. I gave up some shooting time for the joy of using the old gun. Have fun and shoot a big one.

If it were me, I would get a scope with a lighted reticle.

With a conventional crosshair or even a standard Leupold Duplex you will lose the reticle before you will lose the image of the target. Anything 20mm divided by 2.5x will have more than enough exit pupil diameter to see into very dim light. A deer at first overcast light under evergreens proved that to me with a Leupold 2.5-8x36 Vari-Xlll. Nope, a heavy Duplex or post would be my choice for bears over bait. I had a 2 3/4 x 20 Redfield with a post reticle on a 10/22 and shot rats in a dump at night with minimal light. A Leupold 1-5x20 Vari-Xlll with a heavy Duplex is on my m99F and there is no losing that reticle into nearly no light. I took that rifle and another with a Zeiss Diavari 30mm 1.5-6x42 with the #8 reticle and watched through both scopes into full darkness. The Zeiss which has very heavy side vertical and horizontal crosshairs and thin center won by a few minutes, but at 4x the price of the Leupold, I was rather impressed with how long I could see that Leupold heavy Duplex into way past legal shooting light.

I guess I'm just old school when it comes to those lighted reticles. When they first came out, I bought a Bushnell scope with the lighted reticle for a varmint rifle. It worked for a while, but hunting in cold weather and bringing the rifle inside caused condensation in the battery compartment and corrosion ended any reticle illumination from then on. They might be some improved by now, but I never bought another one.

Heck of a good discussion guys. Thanks.

This is a black bear hunt in Idaho. I've shot several of them over the years, but always on spot & stalk hunts here in Washington. Want to try the baited bear experience. Maybe even get some stills and video of the bears as a bonus.



Have only taken one grizzly, up in the Brooks Range a few years ago. Quite a hunt! I think that I scratched that itch though, feeling no real desire to hunt another grizzly.

Guy

Cascade;
Top of the morning to you my friend, I hope that you're getting some of the rain down there that we are and also that you're not getting more of our water than you can deal with at the same time.

As others have mentioned, I've always thought that the little 2.5 Compact looked "about right" on a lever gun and in fact ran one on a 336 I'd modified and slicked up.



In fact when that Marlin went down the road, the scope stayed for the "next lever build" which might or might not ever happen.

Our eldest ran it on her Swede carbine for a few years too and it worked well for her.

All that said, a couple of my shooting friends have been fooling with lighted reticles the past few years and in particular for your purposes, one chap is running a straight tube Bushnell LPVO which he really likes. Sorry I think it's an AR series scope but which one escapes me now.

Anyways Guy, if you're so inclined and for the sake of science and all that, I'd at least take a look at a few of the lighted reticle options out there as they do have merit in low light situations perhaps?

Good luck whichever way you decide and good luck on the bear hunt for sure.

Dwayne

Not as compact as a 20mm tube, but great in low light and with lighted dot and duplex type reticle, good for the woods.

I like it better than my straight tube scopes, although it's bigger. This 3-9x40 Trijicon is on my pre-64 .358 Win FTW in Signature rings.

It's killed deer and is one of my fav WT rigs, esp in the woods and over food plots. I have other rifles for long range stuff, although this one will whack'em pretty far. Just gotta know the trajectory. As posted before, fav load is the 178 gr. Shock Hammer over RL-7.

DF

Guy...the 2.5 worked just fine on this Saskatchewan bear.

That is a good looking bear and a great photo.

All but one of my scopes have a thick reticle. FWIW, I lose the reticle before I lose the image. An illuminated reticle or red dot sight on a dark target in dim light would be a plus.

FWIW, had a 2.5x 'standard plex' on a 357 Marlin, at dusk, could not make the plex out on a raccoon that happened by....not that I was going to shoot it as I just wanted to see the optical performance, but a thin black plex in a low power scope, range around 75 yds, was just not what you wanted and almost useless on that dark hair.

SO, if me - a heavy duplex if you use a 2.5x, and better yet, good suggestions above, any type of lit reticle will show it's worth on dark haired animals in dim light.

Happy hunting.

John has already given the best answer, twilight factor is what you want to look at.


This was positively demonstrated to me in South Africa. We were looking at a small herd of wildebeest just at full dark. I had a Leupold 3-9X40 set on 4X - which I figured was better due to a big 10mm exit pupil - but couldn't see the animals at all, the herd was just a big dark blob set against a slightly lighter sky. JJ Hack was my guide and said to turn the scope up to 9 power, which is only a 4.4mm exit pupil, but doing so immediately let me make out the individual animals. The twilight factor of a 4x40 scope is 12.6, √(4 x 40), a 9x40 scope is 18.9 √(9 x 40) .

I still couldn't make out the standard duplex reticle well enough to be comfortable with the shot, but that "higher magnification in dim light" thing was a real revelation.


Also, just to do the math, the twilight factor of a 2.5x20 is 7.

Guy, I have a 1.5-6x42 Hawke Endurance scope on a muzzleloader I use for deer and elk hunting. It has an illuminated reticle (center crosshair area) and that's my favorite feature of the scope. The scope works extremely well in low light.

On a side note, I enjoy your collaborations with Gavin on Ultimate Reloader. Good luck on your hunt.

I’ve shot a lot of deer and hogs in thick, dark woods at last light, with 1-4 variables in both 1” & 30mm tubes….but ALL had very heavy reticles or were illuminated. Twilight factor is great, but seeing the reticle trumps it in thick woods/short ranges. If you can get both, go for it….but inside 100, the LPVs have been fine at dark. Hunting fields, where I might need or want last light image/reticle past 100 yards? That’s where bigger objectives/twilight factors are desired….for me.

Guy,

What you might want to do is take one of your black bear hides and hang it over a branch or bush toward evening, then test how well you can see the reticle and/or hide as light gets dimmer.

Maybe 5 years ago I was asked by a scope company to use one of their variables on a black bear hunt here in Montana. Said I'd give it a try, and I made the same test described above. Could see the hide fine, but toward the end of shooting light could NOT see the relatively fine, multi-point "ballistic" reticle against the black-furred hide.

Have also found that, of course, a cloudy day changes things some....

John