cheap Good FFP scope

[kcstott]

In the interests of full disclosure I'm Kind of a leupold Shill or fan boy

But I just seen the New leupold VX 3i 8.5-25x50mm FFP TMR MSRP is $1299 and i'm sure you can get in on eBay for less. But holy crap FFP for less then my Mk4?? with the same reticle and Mil turrets..

This is what free market competition does. you get companies like Vortex and NF pushing FFP at low prices and it forces older companies to follow suit.

[Scottie15]

Interesting find. They have it for $999 at Cabela's.

[ExtremeX]

Depending on the type of shooting you like to do I could see missing a little FOV on the low end with this scope.

Looking forward to hearing some comparison/reviews.

These days I think they are trying to gain back lost market share and they have a long way to go IMO. Lots of players in this space with very established reputations to fight against.

[kcstott]

Depending on the type of shooting you like to do I could see missing a little FOV on the low end with this scope.

Looking forward to hearing some comparison/reviews.

These days I think they are trying to gain back lost market share and they have a long way to go IMO. Lots of players in this space with very established reputations to fight against.

No I think Leupold just didn't follow every new whim that came along.

If you look at the top of the mark and Vortex and NF are not even included on the A list of players, Ziess, US Optics, and S&B, didn't just spit out every conceivable model you could make. Neither did leupold. Yes they fell short in the military tactical area, and didn't get suitable products released in enough time to be on the band wagon. But, and yeah I don't like it either, but they were slow to advance, Cautious a little overly cautious.
The only other brand for me would be S&B and they are double the price and more of a Leupold. NF and Vortex don't have features i like and what they do have is all the stuff i hate. Looking through some of the NF Horus reticles is a bloody nightmare.. What the hell would you fill your field of view with so much useless crap?

[Duy12B]

So I'm guessing you're not weighing any of the SWFA SS's scopes? They're pretty cheap, but great value for the money.

If we're talking the 1200 (+/- a hundred) range: SWFA 5-25, and the Vortex Viper PST Gen 2 are also nice scopes in that realm.

Whether you like Leupold or not, they're losing market share. They have been great in 2014, but, I see no reason to purchase their scopes until they start innovating or being more competitive in their pricing.

http://precisionrifleblog.com/2017/03/03/long-range-scopes-pros-use/

[kcstott]

I'm impressed with Vortex but I don't care for the Reticles. The leupold I mentioned has the reticle that I favor the Leupold TMR. I don't like a Busy reticle, i don't need a wind and range tree. I just need mil graduations that don't clutter up my field of view. SWFA?? I'd have to see but I'm also very wary of buying cheap stuff. Not saying it's bad just saying i don't have any trust.

[LynnJr]

March got the ball rolling on the latest technology and the others either had to follow or get swallowed up.

[Scottie15]

SWFA?? I'd have to see but I'm also very wary of buying cheap stuff. Not saying it's bad just saying i don't have any trust.

I've been using a couple of their 5-20x50 and 6x fixed power scopes for years now. My buddy got a used 5-20x50 for about $1k last year. We have both been quite pleased with the quality and performance, but I do wish there was a zero stop on it...

[kcstott]

but I do wish there was a zero stop on it...

Leupold has hash marks for a rev count. My 308 is two marks exposed = 100 meter zero.

zero stops not needed. I had a former Seal ask me the same question.. "well they don't have zero stops" and you can buy aftermarket turrets that do but if you know WTF you are doing you don't need zero stops.

[kcstott]

Keep in mind this wasn't a Bash everybody but leupold thread.
Personally I have no faith in SWFA in a FFP for a few hundred bucks to be a quality scope. Notice i say "No faith" That means i freely admit to never have handled one and never looked through one. I do However have trust in Tiborasaurusrex and his eye for quality and how he reviews things, That said I do have a rifle in need of a better scope but I'm not wanting to dump a bunch of money on a $200 installing a higher end scope that won't get used that much. so a decent Vortex or SWFA might fit that application.

My other personal preference Is i want all my scopes to have the same reticle be it FFP or SFP I want the same reticle. I don't want to have to remember that this scope is this and that scope is that, I want .1 mil clicks mil reticle with graduations at half an hole mil not dots and not Horus busied up wind and range tree crap. I just want consistency from rifle to rifle.
Like looking through Iron sights, to me there is nothing better than the classic M1 Garand sight picture, which came from the 1903A3 Springfield improved on the Garand, relatively unchanged on the M14 and only slightly changed on the M16 rifles.

This thread was started to show that Leupold, A company with a great track record for building solid optics albeit slow to change and upgrade, having a top notch warrant has finally produced a FFP scope in a magnification range on par with your LR needs at half the cost of any of their other FFP scopes. Thats a huge step for them. and it put a quality product that can be trusted out of the box to work and if something should fail mail it to oregon and get it taken care of no questions asked.

I'll say it again I'm a fan of Leupold

[kcstott]

Depending on the type of shooting you like to do I could see missing a little FOV on the low end with this scope.

Looking forward to hearing some comparison/reviews.

These days I think they are trying to gain back lost market share and they have a long way to go IMO. Lots of players in this space with very established reputations to fight against.

They start out with a 4.5-14, have a 6.5-20 and then the 8.5-25 to cover all ranges of magnification

I see this as nothing but a direct response to SWFA, Vortex, and NF having FFP scopes in the $1200 range

[ExtremeX]

I think you are underestimating how good of a scope you are getting with someone like SWFA.

If you compare apples to apples... SWFA 5-20 out of their SS HD line, you would need to spend 3 times more money with Leupold to get to that optical clarity.

It has been and probably will be one of the best values in optical performance. Leupold makes good stuff, you just need to pay more for it. Its not like they didn't have the product this entire time.

Problem is once you get to where you want to go with Leupold, there are other brands worth considering yet again.

Sometimes just looking at price doesn't give you the full picture.

[NorCalFocus]

In the interests of full disclosure I'm Kind of a leupold Shill or fan boy

But I just seen the New leupold VX 3i 8.5-25x50mm FFP TMR MSRP is $1299 and i'm sure you can get in on eBay for less. But holy crap FFP for less then my Mk4?? with the same reticle and Mil turrets..

This is what free market competition does. you get companies like Vortex and NF pushing FFP at low prices and it forces older companies to follow suit.

I'm glad Leupold finally got on board. They make a great scope, I just could not see why people would spend more money on a scope that had less features.

[kcstott]

Guys ask me why i don't use NF?? One answer.

Not in business long enough...

[lower lover]

I have a falcon menace I have enjoyed it so far