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Leupold VXI VS. VXII

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Opticsdude View Drop Down
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    Posted: August/14/2006 at 10:25

My eyes are getting old, and I'm having trouble seeing the target at 50 yds, even with my excellent Williams peep sights.  I'm shooting a Marlin 336 in .35 Remington.  I shoot it for target and plinking, no hunting.  I'll be shooting mostly 50-75 yds, 100 yds MAX.   I like the Leupold 2-7 scopes.  They come in VXI & VXII.  The VXII is $100 more.  As best as I can tell by the descriptions, the only difference in the 4-coate optics on the VXII.  Since I won't be hunting or shooting in low light, will the VXI work for my purposes (target/plinking), that is, will I really see a difference between the two??

 

Opticsdude

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koshkin View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote koshkin Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: August/14/2006 at 12:54
I suspect that you will see the difference even in decent light.  VX-1 is really not worthy of Leupold name, in my opinion.

There are other scopes that easily match VX-II perofrmance for less money. I would suggest you look at these:

Weaver Classic V7 ~$150
Burris Fullfield II 2-7x35  ~$160
Sightron S2 2.5-7x32 ~$250
Nikon Monarch 2-7x32 ~$280

All of these are as good as (V7) or better than (the other three) VX-II.

ILya


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Opticsdude View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Opticsdude Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: August/14/2006 at 14:44

The Burris Fullfield is a great deal at $160.  This will match or exceed VX II performance?  Wow!

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mwyates View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote mwyates Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: August/14/2006 at 19:44

The question is, matches it it what respect?  The Fullfield II may have image quality as good as the VX II, but it is not as good a scope.  The adjustments are not as precise and repeatable, the finish is cheesy, and materials are inferior. 

 

There's so much more to a scope than the view, and that often is forgetten here.  Scopes are not binoculars;  they are sighting instruments. 

 

Get the Leupold VX II and enjoy it the rest of your life, and your heirs will have a good scope after you're gone.

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koshkin View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote koshkin Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: August/14/2006 at 19:47
Originally posted by mwyates mwyates wrote:

The question is, matches it it what respect?  The Fullfield II may have image quality as good as the VX II, but it is not as good a scope.  The adjustments are not as precise and repeatable, the finish is cheesy, and materials are inferior. 

 


I've had both.  I disagree.  The adjustments on FFII are just as good as on VX-II.  Which materials are inferior?

FFII has a reputation of being very tough and sighting implies being able to see what you are aiming at.


ILya


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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote ceylonc Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: August/14/2006 at 20:10
Originally posted by koshkin koshkin wrote:

Originally posted by mwyates mwyates wrote:

The question is, matches it it what respect?  The Fullfield II may have image quality as good as the VX II, but it is not as good a scope.  The adjustments are not as precise and repeatable, the finish is cheesy, and materials are inferior. 

 


I've had both.  I disagree.  The adjustments on FFII are just as good as on VX-II.  Which materials are inferior?

FFII has a reputation of being very tough and sighting implies being able to see what you are aiming at.


ILya


 

I have to agree with Koshkin on this one.  I have owned a VX-II 3x9 50mm and a FF II 3x10 50mm (I think, can't remember the exact variable mag numbers but it did have the 50mm bell).  In EVERY respect the Fullfield II was at least equal or, as usually the case, superior to the VX-II.  This includes optical quality and mechanical function.  There is/was nothing wrong with the VX-II but it lost when compared to the FF II.

Just my $.02...

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mwyates View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote mwyates Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: August/14/2006 at 20:35

I've had several of both.  I've never found a FF II that 1/4" adjustments are always 1/4".  VX II's do.  I've never had a FF II that always held it's zero banging around in my truck and on my four wheeler; VX II's do.  The one FF II I still have looks 20 years old; it's 4 (Burris matte finish scratches more than any other).  I could go on, but it goes back to my original question, "matches it in what respect?"

 

John Barsness, in "Tough Scopes" in the July 2004 issue of Rifle magazine put it this way:

 

"The one part of riflescopes we can't really see is how long they'll last, but we can look through various scopes and decide which seems to be the brightest to our eye.  This, apparently, is the main criteria among many hunters, most of whom apparently believe that high optical quality means the scope is top notch in every other way.  This notion is not only often erroneous, but unfortunate."  All should read this article.

 

I think the majority of folks, a lot on this forum (see the thread from a while back on most important scope factors; image quality had a huge majority)  fall into this fallacy.  I want to see good enough to shoot, then several other factors are more important.

 

The FF II is a very good scope for the money, but it doesn't "match" the VX II.

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote koshkin Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: August/14/2006 at 21:53
What can I tell you?  Everybody's mileage is different.  It is interesting though that you bring up John Barseness who continuously praises FFII as being very tough and able to survive his hard kickers.  He was also the writer who, I think, claimed that Burris, had a very low customer return ratio. 

I have not been around long enough to see how well FFII does after 20 years in service.  I also have not had a whole lot of opportunity to bang the scope around to check the finish quality.  Nor do I care a whole lot about finish quality, to be honest, so I never really paid much atention to it.  I want to be able to see the target and I want the scope to hold zero.   I've had a few FFIIs, and I still have one.  The ones I sold, I did because I was moving up to higher grade glass.  I never had a problem with them not holding zero.  I've only played with two VX-IIs, but both changed POI when changing magnification and both looked worse in low light than FFIIs.  Also, of all the scopes I had, VX-II had the most change in eye relief when you change magnification.  Now, for the most part these are not a big deal and Leupold customer service is very good.  However, if I get two scopes from the same company that have to be repaired, I get tentative about doing business with them, especially considering the fact that the competiton is cheaper.  Both experiences were fairly recent and were with a 6-18x40 and a 4-12x40 (one was my experiment and the other was helping an acquantance who wanted a Leupold scope set up on his rifle).

That having been said, I know Leupold takes care of its customers, but how come I always hear about someone having to deal with leupold's customer service?  I do not think I hear half as many stories (good or bad) about customer service from any other maker.

ILya
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mwyates View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote mwyates Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: August/15/2006 at 07:28

We all have our opinions, and that's a good thing.  I bought my first scope 40 years ago, and I sure have mine.  If we all liked the same thing, there would just be one scope company, and they could charge whatever they wanted

 

All scope people should read the Barsness article.  He's also very complimentary of the Elite 4200 and the Weaver Grand Slam.  His comment on returns comes from a single large dealer, who said they got fewer Burris FF II's back.  But they also said that the Leupolds they got back were usually 20 years old or more.  They last so long and there's so many of them out there that there have to be more returned.

 

There's no problem at all with people having preferences, but they should be stated as that.  "I prefer ....." would be a lot better than "X is better than Y". 

 

There's plenty of people out there who think a $49 BSA is the best scope, and for them, it is.

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Opticsdude View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Opticsdude Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: August/15/2006 at 09:39

Thank you everyone for your opinions and preferences. You have given me a lot of info to go on and consider.  Thank you.

 

Opticsdude

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Tip69 View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Tip69 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: August/15/2006 at 11:47

You can get the Sightron S2 2.5-7x32 ~$179

take em!
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