When I stop hunting at the end of the day because there is not enough light to identify targets with my naked eye -- and this is about 30 minutes after sunset, the end of legal shooting light in at least a couple of states -- I find there is still plenty of visibility in my Leupold VariX-III 3.5-10x 40 mm scopes. Maybe other scopes are brighter, but what does this greater brightness do for me when I have to be packing up and heading back to the house by law before the Leupold's brightness fails?

I have Leupold VariX-III 3.5-10x 40 mm scopes on my .243, .25-06, and my sporterized springfield .30-06; I have a Leupold VX-III 3.5-10x 40 mm scope on my Remington ADL .30-06. These scopes have never given me a lick of trouble. I see targets very well through these scopes. Why would I change? To save a few dollars? I don't find the price of these scopes outrageous. I don't feel like taking chances and experimenting with other scopes to see if they are at least as good but cost less. My experience thus far in my 50 years of living is that generally if you pay less you get less. Something is liable to not provide as good service in a less expensive scope: either customer service, repair turn arounds, warranty service, or heavy use in the field is liable to let you down. I'm confident that the Leupolds will not let me down, and if that means I have foolishly overpaid by $100 for this level of confidence . . . that is no big deal as far as I'm concerned.