Leica Reticle Issue

[tmwtrfwler]

Quick tip. When you receive something in the mail check it out immediately. I didn't and now may have an issue.

I bought a Leica ER5 2-10x50 with a mag ballistic reticle for my 300 win mag from EuroOptic in mid November.

I then ordered a second one for my 280ackley improved. That rifle was my go to for this deer season and had a Vortex on it. I didn't want to change it mid season so I stashed the scope in my gun room without ever taking it out of the box.

Now that deer season is over I planned on installing the new ER5 on this rifle last night. When I unpacked the scope from the box and the reticle looks very different than the first. You'll notice it's much thicker and almost has a black outline to a red middle on all the lines.

I've sent a note to the Leica rep asking for his advice. I'll keep you all posted.

Pic one is the good one on my 300wm
Pic two is the bad one I discovered last night (it's a bit blurry but you can see the difference)

 

[dirthead1]

Did you focus the reticle with the eyepiece adjustment?

 

[tmwtrfwler]

I did. adjusted parallax, eye piece, magnification, etc. Looks the same throughout all adjustments.

 

[tmwtrfwler]

I spoke with the Leica rep that helped me with some previous questions. He said that the ER5's originally had thicker crosshairs and that after customer input they changed them to narrower ones. He feels like I may have one of the older models with the thicker crosshairs. Eurooptic had not heard of that change which is a bit curious.

After hearing that I went home for lunch and did a daylight test from the kitchen window. That's a much better spot than my basement like the first pics in the original post. It appears totally fine in the daylight although certainly thicker. Maybe the Leica rep wasn't blowing smoke when he told me that they changed the reticle to be thinner some time ago.

Below is a side by side with 1 being the mounted one and two being the one in question.

I will do a low light test tonight when I am at home. I'll report what it looks like then. There hopefully is no issue at all now that I've done this test at lunch. Stay tuned.

*all pics are at 2 magnification (the lowest mag in the scope's range). Important to note as each pic looks a bit different. it's difficult to make them exact with the iPhone.