Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics S&B 6x42 riflescope?

BTW, Mule Deer gets a lot of respect here (and rightfully so!!!) from guys/gals looking for sound opinions/advice. I would also like to see more commentary from tsquare. To borrow from EF Hutton's tag line, when he talks you should listen. That's just my 2 cents.

Kinda like some who think an Escalade is better. Bling costs extra. Practical or not.

That’s the truth, John. That would make a good movie title, too.

Math is not my subject—but a number of posters on this board got real skills. It shouldn’t be an issue to come up with some kind of a discount formula to apply to nits for optics and cartridges. The Campfire could then test assertions for the necessary significance level where statistical differences and opinions become an actual practical difference. Wouldn’t hurt to have some modifiers for euro premiums, experience, currency rates of exchange, concept loyalty, general hardheadedness, 1960’s loading data…stuff like that.

Mathman?

Quantifying optical ox goring is above my pay grade.

Don't waste the effort, it's all about distance from what I see.

How far you willing to stretch a shot when the lights are dim? Had a Buck show up late last year. Literally minutes left at around 220. The Zworavski binocs showed wide main beams, but we need to count points and the Leupold 6x42 would have been enough to put a bullet into him, but by the time I would have got there he had better have been there or things would have got ugly.

Cut the yardage and things would have been different. The Leupold 6x42 would have been good to go.

Correct me if I'm wrong. The Europeans can hunt past our legal shooting times and use tracking Dogs when things go wrong?

All use what they want and think they need, but our top end scopes give up little if any practical advantage over here. Some seem to think just because they can see it, they have the right to shoot it.

full time w/staff by page 2...

I guess I'll wade in and add my paltry two cents.

Optics/glass aside, I was never impressed with the S&B 6x42mm as the eye relief and eye box is inferior to the FX-III/3 6x42mm. I've owned and used a lot of optics over the years. Lowly Burris/Nikon through the high end Euro, and the FX3 6x42mm remains a bargain IMHO for what it brings to the table.

Having said that, for hunting the night shift it isn't my first choice. Here in Texas we can and do hunt exotics, feral hogs, and predators well after the sun goes down, and well before the sun rises.

The various Euro scopes with an illuminated reticle was the ticket for a long time. Until NV and thermal prices started to come down where the typically Joe could scrounge up enough pennies to buy one.

Yep. Any discussion of scope brightness is worthless without also discussing reticles--and even the brightest conventional scopes with illuminated reticles don't do as well in dim light as the cheapest NV scopes.

Agreed. On that note JB what is your fave reticle?

Depends on the rifle and it's uses, but have plain plexes, heavier plexes, and multi-point reticles in various scopes.

The one I really hate is anything resembling the Leupold Wide Duplex, and unfortunately some other scope manufacturers have similar reticles, including S&B. Like most hunters, I quit using plain crosshairs many years ago after plex reticles appeared, because plexes have several advantages. But the Wide Duplex and similar models from other companies all are essentially crosshairs with stumpy little posts way too far from the aiming point to have any function.

Agree with your thoughts. My first WT was called in using a deer grunt in 1986 - used a K-4 plain crosshairs. Held zero but at dusk very dim and the thin wire was barely visible. It worked at 30 yds but quickly upgraded scopes.

For the life of me I just never understood the WIDE Duplex. Do the folks in Oregon do any Field Testing? Surveys? Geez! It's as if they want to force consumers to upgrade to a more ex$pen$ive model just because.

Any thoughts on post duplex and German #4 - realize not all 4's are spaced alike. Again - some simply too Wide.

As great a product Leupold 6x 42's are the optics don't hold a candle to the Swarovski glass.

I honestly wish they did. I would prefer using them exclusively. None of my variables have moved off of 6x since they were sighted in.

The duplex type reticle was one of the simplest and greatest leaps forward in scopes. It provides some range finding capability and frames for quick centering on a target.

The wide reticles are a giant step backwards; they do neither.

Would you please elaborate a bit for me on what "doesn't hold a candle means"?

And while you're at it, please answer the question Mule Deer asked you in another thread.......doesn't hold a candle to which Swaro glass.....Z3, Z5, Z6?

I have no idea what "...doesn't hold a candle..." means, particularly with regard to the Loopy / S&B discussion, and really don't have much of a dog in the hunt. I do have two data points:
1. My eyes tell me as much.
2. http://precisionrifleblog.com/2014/07/01/tactical-scopes-field-test-overview-rifle-scope-line-up/ (Read till your head explodes and I don't feel one way or another about the testing process/variables. Pretty unbiased, however, and OVERALL the Loopy's test out fairly well. Glass, middle of the pack or less. )

Do I think a $2k NightForce is 4 times better than a $500 Leupold? No (Although the Loopy's he tested were not your average V whatever). The same way I don't think a $7k Hensoldt is 3.5 times as good as the NightForce.

MY question to you is why must you so vehemently argue that owning a Loopy is the end all because it is just as good as any other scope and just appreciate that others see things differently? Let it go......and by the way, I have a 1.25-4 Loopy with German #4 reticle on my 375. So I'm not anti-Loopy.

Enlighten me Hank. What post of mine are you referring to?

I couldn't agree more.

I'll play....

The Z3 shows me nothing over a Leupold VX3 ( IMO the 3.5-10X is the best of that bunch base on using it and several other Leupolds in Alberta).

The Z6 beats them all.

Never used nor looked through a Z5 outside a store,so can't say.

I'm no math whiz....but I can provide at least some quantification.

Up in Alberta,a guide and I watched a large bodied deer emerge form the brush line along the Battle River into a snowy field in that dusky light at about 200 yards,with shooting time metering down.

He stuck pretty much to the brush line. Problem was even with Swaro10x40's we were both using,his antlers blended so well with the brush and the light was so bad,we could not tell anything about him. I was not looking for a 140 class buck so did not shoot,which was only possible when his body contrasted with the snow. When he was against the brush, I could not see well enough to aim.It was very frustrating because we could tell he was a very big bodied buck but could tell nothing about the rack.... I let him walk.

It was not until he was too far away,contrasted against the snow, and shooting time was gone,that we could tell enough to know that he was likely in the 160 class. Blown opportunity.

You could contrast this to a friend on a September whitetail hunt up in the Peace River country,who could ID enough about a B&C candidate buck through his bins at last light,but could not see to aim through a 2.5-8X Leupold to shoot.

When the outfitter pulled into the field after dark to pick him up, he saw the buck well enough to confirm it was a once in a lifetime whitetail.The outfitter knew of the buck....the reason my pal was situated on that field....my buddy had blown it . He couldn't see to kill what he came for.He still moans and wails about that one.

Statistically, he wasn't supposed to run into a 190+ class typical at last light,even though we all know they live in Alberta.His gear let him down. Tough lesson.

I say this TIC because my own biggest bucks have all been killed with Leupold scopes;but that doesn't mean I won't someday run into a situation where another grand worth of optical goodness won't make a difference. It can, and does happen,even if it doesn't happen to "us".

When it comes to hunting, the last thing I trust is other people's statistics. There can be a lot of long but very thin experience in those numbers

I also have a friend from Amarillo who took a 2.5-8X Leupold into blind on an African nighttime leopard hunt. He got it done but in hindsight said it was one of the stupidest things he's ever done. He has been around the block a time or two.