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Help! Leupold VX3i versus Zeiss Conquest

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tpcollins View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote tpcollins Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: Help! Leupold VX3i versus Zeiss Conquest
    Posted: November/20/2017 at 09:11
I'm wanting a different scope for my Ruger .243 for coyotes. I can get a good deal on a sealed VX3i 3.5-10x40 CDS and a used Zeiss Conquest 3-9x40. The CDS dial would be great with a starting 100 yard zero but I could also manipulate the zero yardage on the Zeiss to have a decent trajectory out to 200 yards.

I had seen an article awhile back where the new VX3i wasn't as good as it should and I also saw an article ragging on the Zeiss Conquest 3-9x40 MC, Assembled in USA.  

Don't know if these article writers had a specific agenda to down play these scopes or what but what is the skinny based on those that have actually used them. Thanks.

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote supertool73 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: November/20/2017 at 09:44
The VX3's are good scopes.  They may not be the very best in their price range, but nothing seldom is.  I really like the CDS dials, I have them on a vx5 and vx6 and really enjoy using them.  On my two samples they are very repeatable and accurate.  On the VX3 its a smaller dial so likely not an apples to apples comparison.

Maybe also look at the Meopta 3-9x models.  They are excellent scopes in that price range. 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote probably Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: December/18/2017 at 23:26
Zeiss or Meopta would get my vote. 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Lockjaw Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: December/19/2017 at 08:56
Can I give you some advice? 

I see you have about 3 or 4 different posts about a scope. You have a .243 and want to use it for coyotes. Do you have a chronograph? If not, you will need one to do a CDS dial based upon what I read. 

Another option would be a nikon with a BDC reticle. Get gun situated with ammo it likes and you can enter data in the spot on program on your phone and dial it in, however, this is what I have found with it. The bubbles don't correspond to 100, 200, 300 yard, etc. Neither do they on a burris. To many factors. 

So,,, here is my suggestion. For a 243 or any cartridge. Find an ammo the gun shoots well. You could shoot 80 grain ammo for yotes. That will be VERY FLAT SHOOTING. Thus a need for some kind of dial or trajectory set up isn't so critical unless you think you will be shooting yotes at 500 yards. Inside 200, you won't need any sort of adjusting really. 

So I would get a scope you like, that is clear and crisp and easy to adjust the magnification and then don't look back. 

I have a Minox ZA5, a Zeiss Conquest Duralyt, a couple monarchs, and 2 new Leupolds VX-1's. I had a Burris Fullfield. I have had an older VX2 50mm. MY monarchs are a 40mm, and 50mm. Minox 42mm and Zeiss 42mm. 

Between the Burris, and VX1's, there is a noticable step or difference in low light. Betweeen the Minox, Zeiss, and 50mm Monarch, my eyes cannot distinguish enough of a difference to notice in low low light. If I can see an outline of a deer I can kill it with any of the scopes I listed. I just might not be able to tell if its a spike or a doe. I have killed more deer in low light with my 40mm Monarch UCC. 

Make sense? 

Buy something you like, and don't look back or second guess it. I can assure you a Leupold will never disappoint you. Neither will a Monarch, or Zeiss. You would be much better served with whatever scope you have, practice and confidence in your scope/rifle combo than splitting hairs over if one scope is slightly better than another. 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote cheaptrick Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: December/19/2017 at 14:19
I'd snatch that 3-9x Connie and not look back. Wonderful scope and fixed 4" eye relief is a nice perk.

Leupolds, including my last 2, have non fixed eye relief and it "bugs" me, frankly. Love the scopes, but I hate sliding my head fore and aft, depending on power setting, to obtain a perfect sight picture.    
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Scrumbag Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: December/20/2017 at 07:18
Zeiss or Meopta would get my hard-earned...
Was sure I had a point when I started this post...
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote gdpolk Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: December/25/2017 at 12:58
Between the two I would do the Leupold on a good deal over a Zeiss at retail.  That said the optics of the two are going to be pretty similar.  For what it's worth, I don't own a Conquest but have used them before and found them quite similar to my VX3's which I have several of that I've picked up on good deals here and there.  All of my VX3's can place bullets where they need to go through legal hunting times.  None of the VX2's that I've had quite make it to dark thirty.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Urimaginaryfrnd Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: December/25/2017 at 21:45
For coyotes I would want lower power like a 1-4 or a 2-7. Often a 3.5 on the low end for Leupold is rounded down but actually much closer to 4x than to 3.5.  I tend to like an illuminated reticle. Have you considered a red dot?   Of the two the Zeiss because 3x is lower than 3.5 but 2x or 1x on the low end would be prefered on fast moving coyotes.  Trajectory between 100 and 200 yds should only be a few inches with most rifles I tend to zero at 200 and go with it.  





Edited by Urimaginaryfrnd - December/25/2017 at 21:58

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote cbm Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: December/26/2017 at 10:13

My Dad is running a VX3 2.5-10X40 right now and a 3-9x40 Conquest. Both are plex reticles.

He says they are about the same for low light and all. He did say he likes the Conquest reticle better but besides that, he says they are about the same.

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote cheaptrick Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: December/26/2017 at 13:25
Conquest: Better eye relief less critical head positioning than a VX-3 or 3i.

IMHO. 

 

    

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote cheaptrick Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: December/26/2017 at 13:28
WHY the honchos at Zeiss stopped making the 3-9x I'll never understand. 
OR the 4x Connie. 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote probably Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: December/26/2017 at 14:16
very disappointed with the vx3i I got.  I'd say that my older zeiss conquest 3-9x40's are just as bright.  (And that leupold has the larger 50mm obj). 

A couple of years ago I started hearing glowing recommendations about the Meopros.  I was told that they were an updated version of the Zeiss conquests made by meopta, just with newer coatings.  So I bought a few.  They were clearly superior to my VX3's.  Then the 3i came out and numerous individuals told me how great they were in low light, and how I'd prefer them to my meoptas.  So I bought a 3i duplicate of my last vx3 (3.5-10x50).  The 3i might be a tiny bit brighter than the vx3 in low light, but it's hardly noticeable.  And because the buck around here usually wait until the last minutes of legal light to walk out, I'll still carry the meoptas into the woods before the leupolds. 

that's my opinion for what it's worth. I don't have any newer zeiss conquests, but unless they are worse than the older ones, I'd take them over a leupold vx3i.

The thing I like about this site is that there are some experts here who have done professional tests or at least extensive side by side comparisons of different optics, and have qualified opinions. So I like to see what they have to say. So many other times in the past I've gone on recommendations by some guy who says his xyz is the greatest thing ever ...... but then I find out he only owns maybe 2 scopes, and never had them out in the woods side by side with anything else before.......and with money being tight, I can't afford to make the same mistakes and do-overs with optics.  
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote probably Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: December/26/2017 at 14:26
edit to the above post:

My comments are based on the glass itself, not any mechanical aspects of the scope.  If someone is shooting in normal daylight and needs something like a CDS, I have nothing bad to say about the leupolds. I have used leupold varmint and target scopes for years.  I might not buy another one, but I have not gotten rid of my old ones either.   I simply do not think they measure up in low light.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote cheaptrick Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: December/26/2017 at 17:36
Old Conquest's are just more user friendly, IMO. Lift up to your eye and....BAM! Sight picture is right there.
The Leupold's are really good scopes, but the old Conquest's are better. 

Put a Firedot reticle in the Conquest and that would be a tough scope to beat. (For the money)   
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Sparky Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: December/26/2017 at 18:47
Originally posted by cheaptrick cheaptrick wrote:

WHY the honchos at Zeiss stopped making the 3-9x I'll never understand. 
OR the 4x Connie. 
+1
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