Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics Zeiss HD5 3-15x42 w/ TT vs Leupold VX6 3-18x44 CDS ?

I was kicking this same thing around last fall.

Zeiss makes their glass. I emailed leupold about theirs and some guy replied that their glass came from europe and/or pacific rim.

Replied back to him to be more specific as to where certain models were sourced from but he would not.

Not knocking leupolds but this was a deal breaker for me.

Ended up with a hd5 5-25x50 with rapid z800. Went on top of a 6.5x284.

Really liked magnification and clarity, though upper range was no good at the very last minutes of shooting. Found for me the happy medium was about 18x.

Will also add my hunting buddy got a leupold vx3 ( forgot exact power) with the cds to go on a 6.5 creedmore. He really loved the accuracy of the cds, but not some much the glass.

So the cds may be a deciding factor for you also.

Hate to break it to you BigDave, but Zeiss doesn't "make it's own glass". They may coat their own glass, as does Leupold, but neither one "makes" it. Nobody does. The VX6 is fantastic stuff.

Bad? I don't know about "bad". But it seems when there is a thread specifically about customer service Swarovski comes up as much as any other company. My experience with my z5 fits right in there.

When I first sighted it in the windage didn't move. Once it did it moved too much. After that it was fine and moved the correct amount. The elevation became a problem once I started practicing with the BT. I finally realized it was not returning to zero. The last straw was when the little hawk came back and hit me in the face under recoil.

Before it ever went on a hunting trip it went back for service. They told me it had a broken spring in the erector. When it came back it was what the engineer had in mind. Since the repairs it has been trouble free.

Talk about how to ruin domeones day


So i googled it, some say Schott glass ( owned by ziess) or meopta.

Still got that warm and fuzzy feeling though...

From what I know, which is far from anywhere near everything, the only two optics manufacturers that grind, polish, AND coat their own glass are S&B and Meopta. That's one reason I'm becoming a huge Meopta fan.

The only thing Leupold does regarding glass is buy it from vendors ground, polished and coated to their specs. Nothing glass wise is done in-house, except for the R&D. S&B, from what I understand, bought the glass maker of their lenses so I guess that makes them a jack of all trades. Have to idea about Meopta.

Roger that on Leupold. I do have an idea on Meopta, as I heard it straight from the horses' mouth, being Reinhard Seipp, head cheese of Meopta USA. Met him at DSC last January. That's one reason why Meopta was the OEM for so many different premium labels, including Zeiss and Leica, and now Nightforce spotters.

My dealings with meopta have been very good. Have both scope and binos.

Wish they would come out with either factory turrets or a rapid z type reticles