Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics Nightforce - are they worth it

Magnum_Man
Most of my experience with Leupold has been with military issue gear. I've only owned 3 leupolds personnally. The M3A is a 30mm tube 1 MOA elevation 1/2 MOA windage fixed 10X that was built like a tank.

Your Leupold doesn't track right?

From "lowlight" on Snipers Hide.

"So what do you tell the guy who traveled 1200 miles to take a class.. he paid $1500 for the class, plus rental car, hotels, meals, and by the first day it fails... now he goes from what he thought was a solid optics with a stellar reputation to being the guy holding up the class while we run up, get a new scope for him, usually I am pulling one of my NF off to switch it for him. If you want to play the one up and working, the NF I use is heavily used, my S&Bs too, and guess what, of all of them, with more combined rounds than I can count, and only one scope has ever gone back for repair. They well worn and definitely show signs of use.

yes, other brands fail, but not nearly with the frequency as we are seeing with Leupold. it's every week in some cases, and even in the military classes we have Nightforce on the unit rifles next to Leupold... but I don't see the NF failing nearly as much, it's stark the reality of it, especially when you see more than 1 or 2 a week.

It's easily 20 to 1 when you compare the Nightforces on the line with the military units, this last class had 4 Leupolds on the line, 1 failed the first day, the remainders where USO, NF, and S&B... Do we see others fail, sure but not nearly as much.

If you want to start a generic scope failure thread go ahead, but don't be surprised by the results. Facts are what the facts are, in a class of 15 Leupolds on the line I expect and account for anywhere from 2 to 5 scopes to go down, I don't figure that with the same number of NF on the line. Its closer to 1 per every six months of classes, not 1 for every six people."


Don

NF rules the BR and competition. That's obviously a fact. Now I'll turn it around on you BR guys.........I've seen one NF out of 110-120 scopes in hunting camp.

So, would it be reasonable to say that the new Leupold variables with the double bias spring track more dependably than the older single spring variety?

In my experience with several scopes, yes.

But am always interested in hearing the results of other people's experience.

I think everyone including me is saying NF isn't really a hunting scope, especially in the sense that most think of a hunting scope. if the guys is asking about NF I think he is asking if its worth it in relation to other scopes in the same niche. in that regard its one of the best values out there, more expensive S&B and USO scopes are nearly twice as much as NF with no added reliability.

NF rules the BR and competition. That's obviously a fact. Now I'll turn it around on you BR guys.........I've seen one NF out of 110-120 scopes in hunting camp.

I wasn't directing that to you Bob, my friend. That's why I made the statement that the avg hunter will never wear out your basic VX3, VX6, conquest, etc.

pointer.....The VX6 and VX3 have the dual springs, maybe a couple of others but not sure.

In my trips to Canada the hunting scope I saw the most was the Zeiss.I was always the odd man out running the S&B.We played pass the scope many a night.No one,including myself felt, I was giving anything up.Once and awhile a new guy would show up with a loopie.Anyone I ever saw who showed up with loopie for there first hunt, ever came back with one.

dave

In my trips to Canada the hunting scope I saw the most was the Zeiss.I was always the odd man out running the S&B.We played pass the scope many a night.No one,including myself felt, I was giving anything up.Once and awhile a new guy would show up with a loopie.Anyone I ever saw who showed up with loopie for there first hunt, ever came back with one.

dave

Nightforce Compact is not a "heavy piece of crap" lmao

One of my favorite hunting scopes.