Swarovski Z5i vs Z6i

jlarose85

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Looking for some help hammering down a scope for a new bolt gun and wanted some opinions on the difference between these two Swaro units. I'll try and explain how I'm going to be using this and what my experience is with higher end optics (hint, it isn't much).

Previously on our hunting property the longest shots we've had were give or take 100 yds or so. Lots of woods hunting and a couple small food plots. I've always used my AR-15 chambered in 6.8SPC w/ a Trijicon Accupoint 2.5-10x56. That rifle has never done me wrong taking whitetails in this application and I've always been very impressed with that scope considering what I paid for it. We recently had some logging done and had some new food plots put in and we've stretched out a lot of our shot distances so I'm looking into putting a bolt gun together (pretty settled on the Bergara Wilderness Terrain in .308 but that might be a different thread). Longest shot we have now is about 300 yds according to my range finder. In all honesty my 6.8 would likely do the job just fine but there's something about hurling that little 100gr bullet 300 yds down range at a deer that isn't inspiring a lot of confidence in me so I decided to step up to something bigger. Plus, who doesn't need an excuse for a new gun right?

Now on to what I'm looking for in a scope. My main priority is brightness & contrast right at the first and last minutes of legal shooting light. An illuminated reticle is definitely something I want as I've gotten really used to having one on my Trijicon and really like it for low light situations. Twisting turrets isn't something that I likely need to be doing (or necessarily want to be doing) with only 300 yard shots so turret feel and return to zero and all that I don't think is going to be a huge deal as long as it holds a rock solid zero once I put the caps back on. A ranging reticle would be nice but I don't think it would be a 100% deal breaker considering the distances I'll be shooting.

I did my first round of research, and my initial plan was to go with the Z5i in 2.5-12x50 with BRH reticle. Idea being that I could get into a higher end scope at a decent price and that with better glass I would be miles above my Trijicon even with sacrificing the 1" tube and 50mm objective on the Swaro but I've started to rethink that. So that got me looking at the Z6i 2.5-15x56 also with the BRH reticle and stepping back up to a 30mm tube and 56mm objective with way better glass.

So my questions are am I right in my thinking that the better glass on the Swaro will make up for the smaller tube size and objective diameter on the Z5i vs my Trijicon? If the answer to that one is yes, in your opinion, is the Z6i that much better than the Z5i to justify the extra $1200 in cost or am I splitting hairs here? Is the 30mm tube and 56mm objective on the Z6i going to make enough of difference to justify the extra cost?

Let me know what you guys think. Hopefully there are some folks around here that have tried both.

I've got a few other scopes that I'm looking at but I want to rule one of these out before I go any further.

Thanks for the help!
 
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There's no optical difference between a 1" or 30mm tube. It has to do with travel. The objective size will make a difference at dawn and dusk. Either Swarovski will be optically superior to the Trijicon
 
You posted brightness and contrast.

For that reason I would suggest Leopold VX-5 3-15×56. It beat my Swarovski z5 5-25X52 by six minutes in low light comparison. There's not a noticeable difference in contrast.
 
You posted brightness and contrast.

For that reason I would suggest Leopold VX-5 3-15×56. It beat my Swarovski z5 5-25X52 by six minutes in low light comparison. There's not a noticeable difference in contrast.

Wow! What power were they on for the comparison? Assuming an exit pupil of about 6, at about 9x it should be an apples to apples comparison.
 
@KoolBreeze,

Following is from my notes.

Today the new VX-5 arrived. It is a delight to look through. I adjusted the ocular until the reticle was as sharp as I could get it. Then I placed the VX-5 (21.9 oz) on a sandbag and aimed it at the military chart 127 yards away. The magnification was set on 15X. The side focus was adjusted until it was as good as I could get it in the 95* temp. Finally I could see 3-2. Then I brought out the Bushnell 6500 4 1/2-30X50 (22.6 ox) and set it on 15X. I could make out 3-3 and then 3-2 and then 3-3. By turning it to 16X I could easily see 3-3 without any wavering. More magnification is a wonderful thing.

Next is the low light comparison. I brought out the Swarovski z5 5-25X52 and the Leupold VX-6 4-24X52and VX-5 3-15X56 set them all on 12X to look at the deer antlers 131 yards away in the woods. The antlers are small at 13" wide. To my astonishment the VX5 smoked the the others by six minutes! This is more like the Nightforce 12-42X56. The z5 and the VX-6 went down at 8:00PM. The VX-5 lasted until 8:06PM! Positively I discovered higher magnification allows a scope to last longer than lower magnification on the same scope in low light so I turned up the z5 to 16X and could easily see the antlers again.
 
@KoolBreeze,

Following is from my notes.

Today the new VX-5 arrived. It is a delight to look through. I adjusted the ocular until the reticle was as sharp as I could get it. Then I placed the VX-5 (21.9 oz) on a sandbag and aimed it at the military chart 127 yards away. The magnification was set on 15X. The side focus was adjusted until it was as good as I could get it in the 95* temp. Finally I could see 3-2. Then I brought out the Bushnell 6500 4 1/2-30X50 (22.6 ox) and set it on 15X. I could make out 3-3 and then 3-2 and then 3-3. By turning it to 16X I could easily see 3-3 without any wavering. More magnification is a wonderful thing.

Next is the low light comparison. I brought out the Swarovski z5 5-25X52 and the Leupold VX-6 4-24X52and VX-5 3-15X56 set them all on 12X to look at the deer antlers 131 yards away in the woods. The antlers are small at 13" wide. To my astonishment the VX5 smoked the the others by six minutes! This is more like the Nightforce 12-42X56. The z5 and the VX-6 went down at 8:00PM. The VX-5 lasted until 8:06PM! Positively I discovered higher magnification allows a scope to last longer than lower magnification on the same scope in low light so I turned up the z5 to 16X and could easily see the antlers again.

Awesome, thanks for the details. With them both at 15x, seems like a pretty fair comparison to me. I'm surprised the VX5 did that much better. Makes them that much more tempting.
 
That's definitely interesting! I did some looking on the VX-5HD and it seems like everyone really likes them. I'm starting to think that I should just stick to 56mm scopes because while glass has this kind of "magic" factor to it that you can't really measure a bigger bell is going to gather more light and give you a bigger exit pupil period.

I've modified my choices a little bit after looking some more and doing some more research on a few other scopes. VX-5HD 3-15x56, Z5i 2.5-12x50 & the Meopta R2 2.5-15x56. They're all within $200 of each other and I think between the three I'd rather go with the Leupy of the Meopta. Doesn't seem like I'm gaining anything with the Swaro other than the name and potentially less low light performance with the smaller bell. If I was going to step up to the Z6i I think you could make a case for it but I'm not sure I want to spend the extra money on that when I could pretty much buy two of the VX5's or Meopta's for the same price.
 
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