Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics Scope choices DAUNTING

Hey there guys, as a new member and a guy trying to sift through the rubbish sell points on scopes and get to the real quality (or rubbish), I thought I would ask here who has some views or actual info on these 4 brands following;

Leupold VX3HD in any magnification but 50mm lens
Zeiss Conquest V4 any magnification but 50mm lens
Meopta Optika 6 any magnification but 50mm lens
GPO any magnification but 50mm lens (model mentioned below)

These all seem similar price here in Australia

Now it's no secret the Leupold have been a fantastic scope for many many years, but with new supposedly better scopes coming out on the market promising the world, it can be a bit daunting for a new buyer. I am just trying to learn as much as I can along the way.

The GPO have the Spectra models listed but local gun shops have the Evolve model but the GPO site does not have these listed, any real first hand experience on what the differences are? Bit hard to find any info on this at all

A lot of guys want to make sure they get the right scope for their hard earned money, this site has provided a lot of info but not much in the way of comparing these similar priced scopes together.

Cheers guys, keep up the good work

The best thing to do is try and actually look through as many of the scopes you are interested in.

While various articles and websites can offer great insights nothing beats actually seeing for yourself.

Welcome to the Fire.

Hey bizzlenator,

Welcome to the forums! I wish I could be more helpful with your very first post but unfortunately I'm not able to provide much useful input to this question as asked. I'll be curious to see what some of the other answers are because I know that a few members here have some strong opinions about specific brands. Especially the ones they have had bad experiences with. There's a few members that are not fond of Leupold's because they've had a problem with theirs. I own three Leupold's (none of them 50mm) and they have all been great for me so I like the quality & dependability that I have experienced personally. My one Meopta has been great too but it is a top of the line R2 & not the Optika 6 you mentioned. Most of the time I use smaller scopes with 42mm objectives. The only 50mm I have is a Swarovski z5 2.4-12x50 which I really like a lot. Good luck with your research because there are a lot of options to consider. Generally speaking, the more specific the question asked (i.e. type of hunting, expected distances & caliber being used) generally results in a more focused answers. Wide open generic questions are always open to unhelpful side tangents & irrelevant arguments. But sometimes having your thread highjacked by a different discussion is one of the enjoyable bonus features of the 'Fire.

First off, my suggestion is get a hold of our own John Barsness' books.
He has more optical knowledge and experience than 90% of us combined.
Great reads and helpful advice from a true professional.

It may be more helpful to define how you are going to use the scope. Do you value long range capability (dialing) , light weight, optical quality? If you let us know what kind of hunting situations you typically encounter the recommendations will be more useful.

Hey guys thanks for the feedback.

The type of use will be hunting. Both thick scrub with open paddocks. Glass clarity and low light performance is the main factors. Would like illuminated too. Longe range isn't something that's high on the list but maybe eventually it might tickle my fancy, I currently don't have a range finder either but could be a purchase after a quality scope

Have you considered the Hawke Endurance 30 WA 1.5-6x44 - L4A Dot Illuminated which during our Dad's and Grad's Sale is only $349.99
Capped Low-Profile Turrets
30mm Mono-Tube Chassis
Illumination
Ultra-Wide Angle 24? FOV
High Volume Eyebox
100mm Eye Relief
Multi-LED High Intensity Reticle
High Grade, Low Dispersion Crown Glass
18 Layer Fully Multi-Coated Lenses
High Torque Rubber Zoom Ring
Fast Focus Eyebell

Start by eliminating anything produced in America hating communist China. After you get all of that crap out of the way, it won't seem so daunting.

A B C ???

Anything But China.

But maybe an Aussie doesn't care that China hates America.

Scope choice is like brand choice, caliber choice and truck choice......everybody has an opinion. I like Leupold mid range priced scopes. They have the best eye relief for me for the money and have always worked. Some people say they are trash. It is useless to argue, so just find one you like and go with it. After a certain price point, there's not that much difference in quality. They all make cheaper options, middle prices ones, and higher priced ones..... it's a matter of personal preference.

Forget what you think you know about scopes and find a scope that does what it should. Scopes need to hold zero, dial precisely, return to zero and they need to do it under field use They also need a functional reticle.

Sadly, most scopes don’t do anything they should.

Do your due diligence.

If you don't have a rangefinder you're probably not going to be shooting much at longer ranges. If that's the case, dialing is not a major consideration. And if you sight your scope in for 200 meters that will probably handle nearly all the shots you are likely to take. In that case, the main thing is that the scope holds zero and has good glass and a reticle you like. So I would suggest concentrating on those things.

If you are interested in low light shooting you probably want to spend a bit more to get high quality glass in order to get a high level of light transmission. Just my thoughts about factors you may want to consider in evaluating your choices.

Everyone looks for different features in the scopes they buy (especially in America where most of the members of this forum are) because of the wide range of terrain & hunting situations. The thing that I noticed about your follow-up reply was that you would be hunting in thick scrub & that long range wasn't a priority at the moment. This has some similarities to the type of hunting I do where shots over 200 meters would be rare with 50~150 meters being much more common.

Because of this, I tend to prefer scopes with lower magnification ranges. My illuminated Schmidt & Bender 1.5-8x42 Stratos and my Swarovski z6 1.7-10x42 are a couple of favorites. If I was going to be hunting in thick scrub, I personally would not favor a scope that starts at ~4x as the minimum and goes up to 15x or 18x. But that is often the ranges you'll see when you limit your choices to 50mm objective scopes. For the type of hunting I do, the magnification levels of many 50mm scopes are higher than I prefer.

So looking at the criteria you specified in your original post, for me the Meopta Optika6 3-18x50 RD SFP is one that I would want to take a look at. Mainly because its magnification starts at 3x and it has the features you were looking for. Also with a 6x range going up to 18x, you could do long range shooting with it.

With a Leupold, I would be looking at a 2.5-8x36. But for you the 3.5-10x50 FireDot might be a better choice. Again, I'm simply favoring the 50mm scope with the lower starting magnification. The Zeiss 50mm scopes start off at a minimum of 4x~6x so I would be favoring the 3-12x44. The GPO 2-12x50i has what I consider to be a good range on it but it's also the most expensive scope of all the choices listed in this post.

The most important thing I would want to stress is that these opinions are based on my personal preferences & what works for me in some of the tangled woods of Arkansas, Mississippi, Louisiana & Texas that I find myself in most of the time. The best scope for you might be quite different on the opposite side of the planet.

You are correct that there isn't much information out there. A quick look at the Evolve seemed to indicate that it might have been simply a different model name they used to distribute their scopes to companies with .uk & .au websites. What I didn't figure out was if they're the same as Passion or Spectra branded models.

I just reviewed many options in a similar search and after consideration I converged on the Leupold VX3HD series, most likely either the x36 or x40 model. I don't like the duplex simply because I haven't gotten into dialing but overall the scope seemed to fit for intended use, desired work content origin, and features. Intended purpose was a lighter weight scope, low starting magnification, and less parallax error in case of shots out to 500. Maven RS.2 was looking good until I read it sets parallax to 100yd whereas Leupold sets theirs to 150yd. The error effect at 500 yards was a little over an inch in each direction so I considered that worthwhile / significant in a scenario where I would already be pushing my capabilities.

Your intentions may differ, but I recommend a selection process similar to what I used (list your desired features in order of preference) and just compare models.
Good luck!

Leupold is a piece of schidt

Do you have an alternative within those guidelines to suggest that is better for a specific reason?

No mate, just that they seemed to be within my price range and offer what I was looking for and appear to be made in the US or European countries. Not so keen on Chinese optics


Yeah very strange, it must have been a model for the Aus market but once again, cant find any info to confirm this. But it doesnt say really where they are assembled which worries me a tad.




Bro why do you have to bring that into it, sounds like your holding on to a lot of hate for Aussies for no reason, are you okay? Dont assume something and contradict yourself mate. They stuffed everyone over, not just America. You know, the other places OUTSIDE of your own world.


Cheers for the replies guys, just wouldnt mind knowing if anyone has had any warranty issues or defects from either of the brands or models

I have had good usage out of my Leupolds & Meopta with zero problems. I don't own a Zeiss or GPO. As I mentioned in my first post, I've seen some dislike by several members from their Leupold experiences (reference the informative "Leupold is a piece of schidt" quote from a few posts above). I stumbled across a post in another forum that said GPO's were assembled "...in the Philippines, Japan, China & other Asian countries..." with nothing to back that up. The 2023 GPO catalog says "Our products are built to our high-quality standards in some of the largest global production facilities in the world." There does appear to be a bit of vagueness there which probably alienates some buyers who like to know the provenance of the products they're buying.

Do exactly the opposite of what this clown says

It seems the OP has already narrowed it down to 4 scope Manufactures.

Leupold VX3HD in any magnification but 50mm lens
Zeiss Conquest V4 any magnification but 50mm lens
Meopta Optika 6 any magnification but 50mm lens
GPO any magnification but 50mm lens (model mentioned below)

I will agree that there are some better choices out there. I'm sure the OP went through some sort of process of elimination to end up with the 4 that were chosen. When it comes to glass, you get what you pay for. But I'm not going to try to tell the OP that what I have is better than what he has chosen for his application. Or what he might be able to afford. From the list posted, I would probably pick them in the order you listed them. Jmo, I'm sure others will disagree with me.