This will explain where the conquest parts come from,John Barsness got this straight from the head of zeiss engineering - lenses are made in Hungary in a plant zeiss has used for years.Erector system is assembled in Germany,and tubes are made in the US with the lenses and erector systems installed stateside.I didn' t find the lenses to be the problem as the conquest lenses were slightly better than the Leupold and the top line zeiss,swarovski,and schmidt&bender will have even better glass.The shifting POI and tracking problems seem to be dogging the conquest and according to the optics boards which I am paying more attention to of late the A-Line swarovskis.I think the schmidt&bender will serve you well and is above my budget at this point.These scopes are a grand+ down here so I can only imagine what you will be looking at.I believe the Vari X lll will allow me to see anything that moves during legal shooting light here(with the heavy duplex) so I think I' ll see how the good conquest behaves on the only night time gun I will use for coyote calling.Your eye can tell you what lens is brightest and clearest but it seems only shooting will tell you what scopes will hold up and preform the best.I' ll hold any decisions till I put the new Leupold on the gun and shoot it.

woods