| Hawke Frontier SF 4-16x42
| Leupold VX-3 4.5-14x40 (4.9-14.2 actual)
| Vortex Viper 4-12x40
| Sightron S2 Big Sky 4-16x42 (just for reference)
| Sightron S2 Big Sky 4.5-14x44 (just for reference)
| Nikon Monarch 4-16x42 (just for reference)
| Bushnell Elite 4200 4-16x40 (just for reference)
| Weaver Grand Slam 4.5-14x40AO (just for reference)
| Zeiss Conquest 4.5-14x44 (just for reference)
| Burris Signature Select 4-16x44 (just for reference)
|
Length, in
| 12.6
| 12.6
| 14.4
| 12.9
| 12.56
| 13.5
| 14.4
| 14.3
| 13.9
| 15.5
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Weight, oz
| 20.4
| 15.1
| 15.6
| 16.6
| 15.9
| 19
| 18.6
| 16.5
| 17.1
| 20
|
Field of view, ft@100yards
| 24.6 - 6.2
| 19.9 - 7.4
| 27.1 - 9.2
| 24 - 6.1
| 25.3 - 7.0
| 25.2 - 6.3
| 26 - 7
| 22.5 - 10.5 (**)
| 24.9 - 8.4
| 26 - 8
|
Eye relief, in
| 3.8-3.6
| 4.4 - 3.7
| 3.4 - 3.1
| 4.0 - 3.8
| 3.9 -3.8
| 4.0 - 3.7
| 3.5
| 3.5
| 3.5
| 4.0 - 3.5
|
Side Focus or Adjustable Objective?
| SF
| AO
| SF
| AO
| SF
| SF
| SF
| AO
| SF
| AO
|
Click Value, MOA
| 1/4, 18 per turn
| 1/4
| 1/4, 12 per turn
| 1/8, 10 per turn
| 1/4, 20 per turn
| 1/4
| 1/4
| 1/4
| 1/4
| 1/4
|
Adjustment Range, MOA
| 80
| 71 (*)
| 57
| 80
| 80
| 40
| 50
| 50
| 42.8
| 32
|
Objective outside diameter, mm
| 50
| 50.8
| 45.7
| 55.9
| 52.6
| 49.3
| N/A
| N/A
| 50
| 60
|
Eyepiece outside diameter, mm
| 42.4
| 40.6
| 38.1
| 41.4
|
|
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JF4545
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Posted: May/20/2009 at 01:02 |
Thanks Koshkin,
Very Interesting article! Changed my closed mind on Leupold. I enjoy your (Honesty)writing.
JF
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puppezed
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Posted: May/20/2009 at 02:19 |
Excellent article! Thanks.
Hawke scopes are substantially cheaper in Europe if you compare other scopes non-European brands. This makes Hawke pretty good bang for a buck even though the warranty isn´t as good as it is with other manufacturers.
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lucytuma
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Posted: May/20/2009 at 05:37 |
Excellent review as always, glad to see leupold properly dressed for the party.
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"The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not." - Thomas Jefferson
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bugsNbows
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Posted: May/20/2009 at 15:57 |
WOW, very thorough. I was glad to see that (in your opinion) the VX3 has improved. Thank you sir.
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If we're not suppose to eat animals...how come they're made of meat? Anomymous
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mike650
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Posted: May/20/2009 at 16:11 |
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“A hunt based only on trophies taken falls far short of what the ultimate goal should be.” – Fred Bear
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Bitterroot Bulls
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Posted: May/20/2009 at 16:30 |
Hmmm. Many choices in my budget ... well, looks like time to start putting my own eyes to those lenses. Thanks for the great review.
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-Matt
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RifleDude
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Posted: May/20/2009 at 16:47 |
Nice review, Ilya!
Thanks!
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Ted
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Kickboxer
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Posted: May/20/2009 at 17:18 |
Bang up job, old man... jolly-o.
Thank you, ILya. Great info.
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Opinion,untempered by fact,is ignorance.
There are some who do not fear death... for they are more afraid of not really living
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swtucker
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Posted: May/20/2009 at 19:43 |
Excellent as always. Thank you for taking the time to do these.
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koshkin
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Posted: May/20/2009 at 19:56 |
You are welcome.
The other day, someone brought up an interesting point, that most of my reviews are pretty favorable to the products I review. Well, actually, that person implied that I am not exactly un-biased with my reviews.
After thinking about it, I think that the products I have been reviewing are, by and large, a self-selecting sample for a couple of reasons 1) I do not get paid to do the reviews, but I do get to choose what I review 2) I have been mostly reviewing the products that are of interest to me, so I have been, for all practical services, pre-screening stuff.
As I start looking at products that the manufacturers send me, as opposed to the stuff I buy, I wonder if that trend is going to last, since I am looking at some stuff now that I probably would not buy for a purpose of a review.
We'll see.
ILya
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Roy Finn
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Posted: May/20/2009 at 20:09 |
Nice review ILya. Glad to see Leupold is making some upgrades in the glass dept. If they could just fix that eye relief issue..............
Roy
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Bitterroot Bulls
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Posted: May/20/2009 at 23:08 |
ILya,
It may not be that your reviews are unnecessarily positive, but optics companies, due to competition, are putting out gear of increasing quality. Good for them ... good for us.
I, for one, find your reviews quite informative.
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-Matt
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stickbow46
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Posted: May/20/2009 at 23:16 |
Thank you so much for a terrific review,detailed,honest & very time consuming on your part.Also my hat goes off to you for keeping it simple so non tech people like myself don't get board with the article " The Pearls of Wisdom are Heard not Spoken"
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Pearls of Wisdom are Heard not Spoken
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JGRaider
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Posted: May/21/2009 at 10:01 |
Roy Finn wrote:
Nice review ILya. Glad to see Leupold is making some upgrades in the glass dept. If they could just fix that eye relief issue..............
Roy |
I agree with Roy. It's way overdue IMO.
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pyro6999
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Posted: May/22/2009 at 16:39 |
the more i read about the new vx3 the more im tempted to give leupold another chance. thanks for the great info as usual ilya!
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They call me "Boots" 375H&H Mag: Yeah, it kills stuff "extra dead"
343 we will never forget
God Bless Chris Ledoux "good ride cowboy"
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Roy Finn
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Posted: May/22/2009 at 17:26 |
JGRaider wrote:
Roy Finn wrote:
Nice review ILya. Glad to see Leupold is making some upgrades in the glass dept. If they could just fix that eye relief issue.............. Roy |
I agree with Roy. It's way overdue IMO. |
When you consider all the positive attributes of Leupold scopes (great customer service, tons of options, lifetime warranties regardless of the owner status and a good reputation for reliability) and durability, the variability of eye relief would seal the deal for me and many others I'm sure. While the glass upgrade was probably a fairly simple upgrade, the changing eye relief is probably a somewhat more difficult task to undertake. I am only guessing, but this would probably involve a more costly redesign of the optical design/system. Like I said earlier, the glass improvement, beefed up erector assembly and more accurate adjustments are very big steps in the right direction for this consumer. The fact that all the improvements thus far were brought to us at a modest price increase is wonderful news. I am now considering purchasing a Leupold FX3 6x42 for my 280 Ackley just because most of my shooting for whitetails up north don't really require very close snap shooting. It will probably save me a few ounces as well over my present B&L 2.5-10 Elite 4200.
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Duce
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Posted: May/27/2009 at 13:17 |
Thanks for a great review and information Ilya, we appreciate all your time and trouble to test and write up the reports.
Duce
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Duce
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SamC
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Posted: July/30/2009 at 20:25 |
Thanks ILya,
Glad to hear Leupold is making progress, maybe it's nostalgia on my part but but I'm happy they are getting back on track.
Sam
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Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery. Winston Churchill
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Tip69
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Posted: August/02/2009 at 09:55 |
Wow.... thanks for taking the "time" to do these tests! Great writing, as this was easy to read and understand!!
Would be interested in hearing more about your "perceived" bias! Maybe you need to include a POS scope so you can at least give one unfavorable review.
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take em!
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