What Buffalobob said x 2 .
I reckon dollars has a lot to do wth scope mfg as well . I have the pleasure to shoot nightforce side with my Leupold mk4 8.5x25x 50 ( wish it was a 56mm)
The nxs 56 most readily apparent advantage to me is the extremely noncritical eye relief . Colors don't seem as rich to me as the Leupold either . A few days ago I visited Preston Pritchett at his Surgeon Rifles shop close to Prague , Ok.
He was a great host but that is another story . He took us to his residence and drug out his toys as all us boys do when folks come along .
He had a Schmidt and Bender PMII ( what is it ? 5x22x56? ) Whatever it was an epiphanie for me ( means I had to go take a leak out behind his house )The function knobs / tactile feedback and the reticle in the ffp with its associated information as regards the reticle was just about enought to convince me to switch to metric and also pay the high bucks ( what 2500 or so ? )
I said " almost " . I have been a Leupold fan / user since they put out their first scope ( yeah, I'm that old ) . They brought a new level of performance to rifle scopes at the time . I feel like that they have continued to do so up to date ...................almost !
I am very much on Leupold's side as an American company but they need to ramp up their efforts to stay competitive . I don't think their current offerings of laser range finders are a step in the right direction .
The vxl ( shrugs ) I don't know either . In the current climate of long range shooting hacks ( I started to say afficionados but realized I didn't know how to spell the word ) I feel like that scope height is not such an issue .
Leupold needs to offer a higher power variable as well , why none of us are clamoring for it is a mystery to me .
Nightforce .......... as I said I have experience with them . There are two of them laying around downstairs as I type. Also one on the Lazz I sent to Kirby . I am sure the etched reticle is a good idea but it is a teensy bit thin for me for hunting early and late , illuminated reticle notwithstanding .
Unles certain capital ventures pan out for me I doubt I will ever own a S&B. Nightforce is a viable choice as far as cost goes but there are the points I raised to think about .
Leupold , even though they are not " getting it " at this time is still a good choice and I hope they will gwet it and step up to the plate in the near future .
Well, at the current rate of server interaction that longwinded monologue took about 5 minutes to get to the point of being able to type it and I ain't saying how long to type .
Jim B.
