Burnie, take those scopes outside about 15 minutes before sunset and let me know if you think that the 100-200 difference is well spent

Jorgy has the right picture. Last year at just about dark was ready to leave after it was to dark for my small bino's.
I took a quick glance through my Leupold 4.5 x 14 x40 mm. There he was the biggest buck I had ever seen while hunting.
In a month or 2 he will be back from the taxidermist and on my wall.
This was an open field and my son was next to me glassing with his bino's and never saw the buck.
I was able to get a clear picture through my scope at 228 yards and take him with one shot. After jumping up and down a few minutes we needed a flashlight to walk over to the buck.
Was the extra bucks worth a buck of a lifetime? I think so!

Kinda reminds me of my motorcycle. I got a roadking and 2 years ago, I always said the brakes (2 piston) was good enough on the front, and I haven't had trouble in 5 or so years Then one day on the Baltimore beltway, I locked the rear ones up because of a accident in front of me. If you stopped me in the middle of that 100 yard skid, and asked "Mark, would you be willing to spend that 1000 dollars on real good 6 piston front brakes now", I would have said "hell yea, I will pay double".

Well, your sitting there in the morning, its nasty, cold drizzle, and you see a 11pt walk out or you think you do but with the early morning fog and drizzle and low light, your not sure. You raise up tasco, and its all fogged up, and really doesn't illuminate the animal. In fact you can't find it in the scope. Somebody, comes up to you and asks, what would you be willing to pay for a good scope now.

Jorgy
I have many times. I hunt with every gun I own. When I night hunt for hogs, my best scope is a simmons 2*26*50. It gathers light better than my leupold of similar specs. This is one of the reasons I question the line of reasoning as to whether you get what you payed for. I paied about 130 bucks for the simmons, I paied over 400 bucks for my leupolds. When I night hunt, I grab the 7mm mag with the simmons on it. I pass up my 30-06 with a leupold 6-18X 40mm.

By the way, no I dont think the difference is worth 200 bucks. My personal oppinion. Funny thing about this, I tend to like the guns I have set up with the cheapies better than the ones set up with the expensive ones. Example; I have a rem. 700 Bld, 30-06 with a leupold, I have the very exact gun, same claiber with a simmons whitetail on it. I have used the one with the whitetail more than twice as much as I do the one with the leupold. Reason, I dont really know. They both work about the same. It might be Im afraid of damaging the expensive one. I live in the sticks, so I have a rifle with me almost all of the time. I shot coyotes skunks, hogs etc. on a daily basis, so I get a lot of use out of my guns.

I would hope you would smart enought to pass up a 6-18X50 for hog hunting.

Well, all I can say is your a lucky man. Lucky because he doesn't have to spend the same amount as most to get what they want. congradulations.

What kinda of scope did you get for 400 dollars VXII?

Bigcountry, that is it, VXII

I do have to confess, I love my redfield. Ill keep buying the expensive stuff. Cant get it out of my system. People have been using the motorcycle analogy, I can relate. I use to ride a harley XLT, I could put on 500 miles with no problem. Nothing wrong with the old sportster, just wanted better. I went to a ultra, then a roadking. Each one did the job, but some looked a whole lot better, and had a better ride.

I guess this is also part of the reason I just bought a leupold for my 300 monster.

I had hunted with a 4x Refield for years. Never thought much of it until 2 years ago. Started looking at new scopes and ended up with a Leupold Euro and a Simmons Aetec. They both looked good at the store but it wasn’t until I got to the range and saw ho w clear the were compared to my old Refield. They have both served me well so far. I would love to get a top of the line scope to compare with my others but maybe later not now. So all I have to say, it all depends what someone wants to spend. After all the person who makes the money should have fun spending it too.

I've looked through a lot of scopes that are very clear both expensive and cheaper ones, but i don't buy a scope based on that alone!

Take your scope, put it in the freezer over night, and then the next day drop it directly from the freezer into luke warm water!! "If" you see any bubbles, i wouldn't want it on any of my big game rifles no matter what it cost!!!

All of my "so called expensive" scopes easily pass this test! When i hunted for weeks at a time in weather from freezeing to warm all on one hunt, i just did not need a scope that would fail, because i tried to save $$ on my scope!

BTW, although i do own several brands of scopes, i don't own even one Simmons, or Tasco scope, i have more Leupolds than anything else.

Drilling Man

I have Leopold down to tascos and cheap is not the way to go. I have found this to be true: that is refurbished scopes are better than new ones. It's like this, buying a new scope you run a chance that something is flawed. They can't check every scope. You buy a refurbished scope and not only do they fix what ever was wrong but they check everything else and you get an unflawed scope. I have 4 now and they all have been great at half the price.

Natchez had an airrifle scope 6x18 with target knobs refurbished gauranteed water proof, fog proof and......shock proof. Well I'll just see about that. I put in on my 7 rem mag and 1000 rounds later it workes great.

It's refurbished for me from now on.