Anyone own a Leupold VX-6 4-24x52?

[Country Bumpkin]

I have the exact scope you are looking at (same magnification and objective). Mine is the original model with the varmint reticle.

I use it for the same intended purpose as you, elk, mulies, whatever else I get a tag for. Mine sits on a custom lightweight 7RM, prior to that it was on custom 300WM. The varmint reticle is awesome, I got lucky and it matched perfectly with both of my preferred loads (in both cartridges) out to 600 yards. I never needed to dial.

just for fun, this year I finally ordered my CDS for the factory Barnes 139 LRX. works perfectly.

the ONLY thing I don't like about my scope is how hard it is to turn the magnification ring. I'll need to order an extender eventually.

ive used this scope now for 4 years, I beat the crap out of it. Extended backcountry trips, riding on ATV's, bouncing in the truck. It handles it all, never a POI change.

 

[LDHunter]

Great!!! Thanks for the feedback... Is it the 4-24 model or the 3-18 model?

 

[Country Bumpkin]

Great!!! Thanks for the feedback... Is it the 4-24 model or the 3-18 model?

4-24

 

[LDHunter]

4-24

One more question please...

When you moved it from one rifle to another do you remember if the reticle clicks exactly matched MOA when you had to sight it in again?

That's critical to me because I want to be able to dial windage and elevation clicks from a ballistics program for true long shots when necessary.

I have a light weight 7SAUM that shoots under 1.5" at 300yds and with a 5-25x56 ATACR it literally moves the POI 1 MOA per click predictably. It's such a pleasure to be able to count on that after years of putting up with reticles that moved you somewhere between .2" and .8" per click on the various scopes I used for hunting and target shooting.

Back then I always just used hash marks for elevation and held off for Kentucky windage so when a scope finally got zeroed at 200yds (my favorite) it stayed there and was never moved unless I changed loads or rifles which was rare. Almost any premium ($400 or higher cost) scope will do that.

After discovering the true tracking accuracy of the high end Nightforce scopes namely the NXS and ATACR series I finally started thinking that I could move beyond 400-500yds with confidence and start dialing out to the truly long (to me) ranges 600yds and beyond.

The only bad part about that is the weight of the NF scopes. It's fine for a rifle for the range and if you're going to mostly be driving or riding around and maybe completing a stalk at well under a mile or so on foot but for climbing around in the high country humping a pack plus a heavy rifle it just doesn't make sense even considering I work out regularly to stay in shape.

Enter the Leupold VX6 line with their quite light weight and higher end power like the 4-24 and 3-18 and their HD optics and now I'm feeling like I may have the answer I needed.

I know that the SHV line of NF scopes compare favorably in the weight category but despite what I've heard about them being as reliable as the NXS and ATACR scopes I've not found them to be quite as accurate in the adjustments and I just had a 5-20x56 SHV fail on me just before a hunting trip destroying my confidence in the SHV line of scopes. I know some might argue that my problem is very rare and isolated but there you have it.

Boy oh boy am I rambling but I'm betting there are a lot of people that share my frustration at scopes that simply don't move POI predictably as far as they are supposed to unless they spend multiple thousands and put up with heavy optics.

It takes a very accurate rifle to reveal that problem with any reliability but I've had a few of those through the years and still have a few.

 

[Country Bumpkin]

One more question please...

When you moved it from one rifle to another do you remember if the reticle clicks exactly matched MOA when you had to sight it in again?

That's critical to me because I want to be able to dial windage and elevation clicks from a ballistics program for true long shots when necessary.

I have a light weight 7SAUM that shoots under 1.5" at 300yds and with a 5-25x56 ATACR it literally moves the POI 1 MOA per click predictably. It's such a pleasure to be able to count on that after years of putting up with reticles that moved you somewhere between .2" and .8" per click on the various scopes I used for hunting and target shooting.

Back then I always just used hash marks for elevation and held off for Kentucky windage so when a scope finally got zeroed at 200yds (my favorite) it stayed there and was never moved unless I changed loads or rifles which was rare. Almost any premium ($400 or higher cost) scope will do that.

After discovering the true tracking accuracy of the high end Nightforce scopes namely the NXS and ATACR series I finally started thinking that I could move beyond 400-500yds with confidence and start dialing out to the truly long (to me) ranges 600yds and beyond.

The only bad part about that is the weight of the NF scopes. It's fine for a rifle for the range and if you're going to mostly be driving or riding around and maybe completing a stalk at well under a mile or so on foot but for climbing around in the high country humping a pack plus a heavy rifle it just doesn't make sense even considering I work out regularly to stay in shape.

Enter the Leupold VX6 line with their quite light weight and higher end power like the 4-24 and 3-18 and their HD optics and now I'm feeling like I may have the answer I needed.

I know that the SHV line of NF scopes compare favorably in the weight category but despite what I've heard about them being as reliable as the NXS and ATACR scopes I've not found them to be quite as accurate in the adjustments and I just had a 5-20x56 SHV fail on me just before a hunting trip destroying my confidence in the SHV line of scopes. I know some might argue that my problem is very rare and isolated but there you have it.

Boy oh boy am I rambling but I'm betting there are a lot of people that share my frustration at scopes that simply don't move POI predictably as far as they are supposed to unless they spend multiple thousands and put up with heavy optics.

It takes a very accurate rifle to reveal that problem with any reliability but I've had a few of those through the years and still have a few.

I'll be very honest, my scope is probably closer to 1/3 MOA per click. If I needed to move 1" at 200 yards, I would be slightly too far if I did 2 clicks. It's ever so slight, but just being honest. My rifle is pretty consistent at .5-.6 MOA, so it's probably not so frustrating for me as it is for you, because it's likely not as noticeable. That and I limit my game shots to 600. I don't get to shoot steel beyond 800 currently.

 

[IanCo]

I have the VX6 HD 3-18x42 and really like the scope. After reading through this though I am questioning if mine is dialing at more than 1/4 Moa per click. I tried stretching out over 500 yards the first time a couple of weeks ago and was hitting consistently 6" high.

With that being said I don't know what scope I would rather have for the price point, weight and glass quality. I have the TMOA reticle and haven't played around with using the reticle for quick corrections yet. I do like the TMOA reticle, it seems to be visible enough and not too cluttered.

I had a VX-3i that I liked but after getting used to the VX6 I sold it and found a VX5HD with a wind plex reticle. Don't think I could ever do a duplex or standard reticle ever again.

 

[LDHunter]

It's so funny that I've never heard anyone in all the years I've been on hunting forums mention that 1/4 MOA isn't truly 1/4MOA when dialed but I've been experiencing it for over 15 years with Bushnell, Nikon, and Leupold scopes to name a few.

I just assumed that it was what we had to put up with and wondered how so many people claimed to be turning turrets according to ballistic charts and hitting accurately out to long ranges if the adjustments aren't precise.

Then I bought my first Nightforce NXS a few years ago and VOILA... I'd only had it out to the range 3 times and had it shooting for the first time at 200yds to get a precise zero and I realized that one click equaled 1/2' at 200 yds. I shouldn't have been surprised I guess but I actually was. I just assumed that most scopes were only approximate. Y'all can laugh if you want but I almost refused to believe it but with other Nightforce scopes I've found it to be very repeatable.

I'd LOVE to hear that not all Leupold scopes aren't able to closely approximate 1/4" at one hundred yards per click but so far I'm still waiting for someone to chime in that it's working for them. Please be sure if you are going to claim it. It's important to people making multi thousand dollar decisions on optics.

I'm looking for "hunting weight" scopes with truly precision and measurable 1/4 MOA adjustments. It takes a truly accurate rifle to reveal this unless you want to clamp a scope down and do a box test on a target with 1" boxes not just to return to zero but to actually measure the amount of movement per click or number of clicks.

I've only found one video so far illustrating that any Leupold and in this instance it's a VX5 HD 3-15 and it was reasonably close. You can see it here and the actual shooting test was only at 50 yards but it's pretty convincing. The actual test comes at 5 minutes and 20 seconds if you're impatient.

 

[Andrew Massi]

Current leupold scopes in the quiver that track correctly, accurately and return to zero. If they didn't I would send them back to leupold. I dial and after reading post on here and rokslide about how terrible leupold scopes were I got nervous so now all new scopes go through the ringer before landing on a hunting rifle
Lrp 8.5-25
Lrp 6.5-20
Mark 5 hd 3.8-18
Vx5 hd 3-15x44
Vx6 hd 3-18 44 (2 of these).
Vx6 3-18 44
I've sent 1 first gen vx6 back when the elevation erector froze up. The first gen vx6 also had an issue with the battery cap on the illumination
Now to remain independent here I also shoot scopes from.nightforce, Swarovski, vortex razor and zeiss.(took 2 v4 4-16x44 before I found 1 repeatable)
The only scope i dont dial is the swaro z5 3-18x44 bt it's been serviced by Swarovski twice but still wont dial corrections
it's such a wonderful light and crisp scope I just shoot it mpbr, it's never failed to deliver there.

 

[Andrew Massi]

I have the VX6 HD 3-18x42 and really like the scope. After reading through this though I am questioning if mine is dialing at more than 1/4 Moa per click. I tried stretching out over 500 yards the first time a couple of weeks ago and was hitting consistently 6" high.

With that being said I don't know what scope I would rather have for the price point, weight and glass quality. I have the TMOA reticle and haven't played around with using the reticle for quick corrections yet. I do like the TMOA reticle, it seems to be visible enough and not too cluttered.

I had a VX-3i that I liked but after getting used to the VX6 I sold it and found a VX5HD with a wind plex reticle. Don't think I could ever do a duplex or standard reticle ever again.

Did you try correcting balistic data for the 5" high and shooting that correction at a further range?
In other words are you 1000% positive your dope is correct

 

[LDHunter]

I have a couple of Mark 4 Leupold scopes that I've never tested carefully for accurate POI distance when reticle is adjusted but it's on my to do list to test them both very carefully and I'll report back here.

I know my other 2 Mark 4 scopes yield about .35" per click but I haven't measured carefully. They're certainly a good bit more than .25".

 

[LDHunter]

Current leupold scopes in the quiver that track correctly, accurately and return to zero. If they didn't I would send them back to leupold. I dial and after reading post on here and rokslide about how terrible leupold scopes were I got nervous so now all new scopes go through the ringer before landing on a hunting rifle
Lrp 8.5-25
Lrp 6.5-20
Mark 5 hd 3.8-18
Vx5 hd 3-15x44
Vx6 hd 3-18 44 (2 of these).
Vx6 3-18 44
I've sent 1 first gen vx6 back when the elevation erector froze up. The first gen vx6 also had an issue with the battery cap on the illumination
Now to remain independent here I also shoot scopes from.nightforce, Swarovski, vortex razor and zeiss.(took 2 v4 4-16x44 before I found 1 repeatable)
The only scope i dont dial is the swaro z5 3-18x44 bt it's been serviced by Swarovski twice but still wont dial corrections
it's such a wonderful light and crisp scope I just shoot it mpbr, it's never failed to deliver there.

Andrew,

Thanks a bunch for the detailed input.... Maybe there's light at the end of the Leupold tunnel after all.

I'll test all of mine carefully including a new VX6HD 3-18 as soon as I get the time.

LDH

 

[IanCo]

Did you try correcting balistic data for the 5" high and shooting that correction at a further range?
In other words are you 1000% positive your dope is correct

I am not positive on my corrections. I need to shoot a lot more yet. I will pay more attention to tracking in the future to be sure it's accurate though. I definitely am not trying to say anything bad about Leupold, for my money I haven't found anything I would rather have in the same price range.
It's good to read that some people have had tracking not quite be at 1/4 Moa. Once I decide what bullet I want to shoot primarily I will get serious about verifying drops and get my CDS installed.

 

[Andrew Massi]

I'd politely reccomend you opt out of the cds and keep it in moa. That way you can dial an accurate correction as weather, pressure and elevation change.

 

[IanCo]

I'd politely reccomend you opt out of the cds and keep it in moa. That way you can dial an accurate correction as weather, pressure and elevation change.

Very true. A couple of cheat cards would be more useful.