Originally Posted by
bigcountry
I own a few Ziess, several bushnell Elites, several leupolds, several nikons. Well over 25 different scopes.
You buy one VX1 for one of your what 2 guns and now you want all to listen and follow your every advise. I mean seriously man.
I can't comment on what other folks so, I can only comment on my experience. Why should I change when I have such good luck with them? When I am trying to make 500 yard shot, and I move up 5MOA, I hit 5MOA high and hit my target.
Believe me, when I was younger, I had all those banners, 8pts, pine ridges, even tascos, and weavers. None of them survived. I bought my brother a 204 and told him I would set it up. He insisted he wanted that VX1 and he would pay for it. right off the bat, right in the store, I could look thru it, and some basic scope tests and knew it was garbage. Glare was aweful, resolution sucked. I told him, I would reconsider, but he said he wanted it. These are basic tests that anyone can do in the store. You just happen to leave with it without doing these tests.
If any of my long range scopes do not pass the box test and return to zero, they get either sent back or most likely sold very quickly. I mean look at burris, that company is so dumb they put a posilock on a target turret signature scope. How dumb can a company be? Speaking of which, I have had a black diamond 30mm tactical and signature series, and both would not track corretly.
So tell me what is your experience with target scopes? Which ones do you own?
I've had two VX-I's to be exact. The second one I bought from a friend after it failed him and he was fed up with it and just wanted it gone. I got it super cheap, got it fixed and resold it. I never even mounted it. That being said the optics were pretty crappy in it too.
If you have good luck with Leupolds, then by all means use them. Not saying you shouldn't, I'm just saying my opinion is that there are better scopes out there for the money. That's not to say that Leupolds are bad, because the higher end ones aren't and they have a hell of a warranty. However, you can still get a lot better scope for the money from several other manufacturers and I'm a fan of getting the most for my money.
As for the cheaper scopes, I think you and I have a pretty similar opinion. I've not had them fail, but I'm not a huge fan of them either. In the comparisons I've written where I've compared the VX-I to the cheaper Simmons and Tasco's it's simply to show how bad the Leupold really is. Not that the Simmons or Tasco is very good. They certainly aren't a great choice.
As for buying the VX-I, you are right, it is my fault. I just try to steer others clear of making the same mistake. Soo many people just tell guys to buy Leupold. They don't specify that they really mean the VX-II and above. So lots of new guys to the shooting world go out and buy a Leupold as their friends have recommended, not knowing what to get, and get stuck with crap. I want this to happen as little as possible, as we need all the new shooters and hunters we can get in this world.
As for the posi lock, I'm not understanding why it's so bad. Instead of having the spring hold the reticle where you set it, it just use a solid piece? I've never used one of the Burris scopes with this, so maybe I'm missing what's wrong with it. Doesn't seem like that bad of an idea to me though from reading about it on paper. If your Burris didn't track correctly, I'd certainly send it back or sell it. However, there are lots out there that do track correctly.
As for owning 25 scopes, I don't own 25 scopes, or anywhere near that. Nor do I own or ever plan to own anywhere near 25 guns. I have respect for a nice gun collection which many guys have, however, for me I personally like to have guns to use either at the range, or hunting. If I can't use them, I don't see a point in having them and I certainly can't use 25 guns at once. I don't really see the point in owning more than 1 or 2 centerfire rifles, maybe a .22, a good shotgun, and a handgun. However, that's just my view on it and I know a lot of guy's opinions differ, and I can certainly respect that. For me I don't see the need to own more than a couple of guns since that's what I use.
What Leupold's are you using that are "target scopes"? IMO and this is just my opinion so take it with a grain of salt if you wish, is that the Mark 4 is really the only good target scope Leupold has. Once you get into the price range on many of the Mark 4 scopes, you are starting to get close to Nightforce territory, and lets face it, the Leupolds are no where even remotely close to Nightforces in quality, or features. Schmidt and Bender and USO are also way out in a separate league from Leupold's Mark 4, however, they aren't in the same price range either so that's not a fair comparison. The Nightforce's are just a lot more scope, for not much more money when it comes to the Mark 4's.
When you are down in the VX-III line, if you are trying to use one of those for a target scope, you can get a SWFA SS either in variable power or fixed power, and they also are out of Leupolds league imo. If you are just looking for a hunting scope, and not a target scope, the Vortex Vipers seem to be very comparable to the VX-III's at similar prices to the VX-II. Heck when on sale like now, they are even comparable price wise to the VX-I. They also have as good or better warranty than the Leupolds, so customer support is a moot point too.
Many other scopes in the VX-I's price range like the Burris Fullfield II, Vortex Diamondback, etc are comparable to the VX-II from Leupold, yet Leupold puts the VX-I out in that price range. Who knows what they were thinking.