Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics Low light, deep woods scope for my .358

My wet and dark woods hunting has been in Maine and Canada. I'm very happy with a Vari XIII 1.5 X 5 with a German #1 Reticle. Those dark lines really help you get on target quick in the dark woods and darkening fields.

Good luck making that point here Balderdash....

Looking over these posts you will see that comparing a standard duplex to a heavy 4 and then making glass comparisons is par...

My 18 year old and I tonight took a 2002 32mm Vari-X III with the German 4 reticle and put it side by side against a brand new Conquest 3-9. The boy can see...

75 yards with our "deer" behind a shiny aluminum boat. We started after we couldn't see the boat with the naked eye.

We could both make the shot with either and the kid called it a tie favoring slightly the 40mm Zeiss at the last following multiple looks...

Yeah, the VX with the right reticle will work just fine fellas...

I am anticipating your use of the 1.5X5.5x38 Zeiss. The price that they quoted you is very good. Please report back how it works.

Got the scope (Zeiss 1.8-5.5x38mm) today. Great service from Doug and Neil at Cameraland again. $299 = smokin' deal; just sayin'....

A more in-depth review to follow. First impression- wow. Bright. Clear. A full notch brighter-seeming than the Leupold 2.5x8 I'm comparing it to, but that's just preliminary... It's nice and gloomy outside at least, thank goodness for that! Just think how terrible it'd be if it was sunny and bright out there... NOT!!

First impression negatives- it's a long, kind of heavy scope for the power range, compared to a Leupold. In this case I don't care; it's not a light rifle. But the sucker is a good inch longer than the 2.5x8 Loopy.

Jeff: I look forward to your review, when you write it up, could you let us know--

Usable length between ocular bells for ring mounting?
The height of rings you are using for clearance of the bells front and back?
The balance of the scope itself, is it front heavy or rear heavy or just plain heavy?

Thanks, I'm slightly interested in one of these for a Mauser I found in the safe today. I had set it back to percolate a year or so ago and forgot I had it. Time to get it back in rotation.

I'll get that info for you, OR45. It's looong between the bells. I'll measure it more formally tomorrow.

Went out after the Duke and Gonzaga games wrapped up just now. The Zeiss is clearly better in low, grey light than the VX-III 2.5x8. Brighter, more contrast, and towards the end if usable light, the L got to the "no fuggin' point" place several minutes before the Z. This, looking at my tangled treeline and trying to make out twigs, fence wire, stuff like that.

I'm both happy and sad about this. Mixed emotions.

If I could just figure out how to attach deer antlers to one if my goats, I could really do this right! :-)

I will attempt to formalize what I'm seeing in the near future.

It's for that reason I haven't pulled the trigger on that scope. I haven't handled it, just going by the listed specs on the Zeiss website. Looking forward to your review just for kicks though. In particular, it is heavier by a good bit than the Zeiss 2.5-8x32 as well as Leupold's. Of course, you are going to be comparing this to a VX-III, not a VX-3 Leupold. I'm curious about that differential as well. Leupold was supposed to have improved their glass in that regard.

My Mauser is a 458 Win Mag so the weight isn't a problem; if it is really long between the bells than it might be just the thing for a CZ 550 Magnum action, I've got one in 375 H & H calling to me from the used rack at my local shop...

Maybe they make it so long, just so it'll fit those magnum actions easily?

It does look long on my .358, which is a 20" M7.

That would be a nice change of pace; short scopes are nice for light rifles but I had to go with an old M8 6x36 to get proper ring spacing and eye relief using weaver mounts on my Weatherby Vanguard. The old "long tube" 4x's, as well as the 3x's are on all of my Ruger No. 1's, and, depending on the mount, many of my Mausers.