I have to disagree here. For 90%, of all hunters that buy a Leupold Vari-III, Burris black Diamond or Kahles or whatever over 400 dollars, I bet I could secretly change them to a lesser brand that looked alike and they wouldn't know the difference. When I say lesser, I mean to a point like around 200 dollars. I bet most couldn't tell the difference in a VXII an VariX III just by shooting and looking thru them. But recently I found the difference in a good one and bad. I have gotten into target shooting 500 yards to 1000 yards. And with my 4.5-14X40mm Vari-X III, I can change the windage and elevation back to its original position everytime with no zero change at 100 yards. But how many hunters are actually going to change elevation or windage. I bet less than 10%. Its probably less than that. I would say most will only shoot the guns once a year. It all depends on what you are using them for.

When setting my gun up for long range shooting, I got the elevation and windage centered on my scope and mounted it so that was my zero at 100 yards so I would have plenty of adjustment left. I then shot 3 round groups, and raised the scope up and to left 6MOA, then down 12 MOA, then to the right 12MOA, then up 12 MOA, then to the left and down 6MOA. It made a perfect box and returned to Zero. I tried this on a older VariXII, with friction adjustments, and couldn't get this. But like I said, most hunters never will ultilize this. I know poeple that kill boone and crockets with simmons, but they never plan on moving thier zero.

But there is a point, where you notice the difference in clarity. And that breaks around 200 dollars.