I'd like to know how the new VX-3i stacks up against older Leupolds.

I had a Vari-X III 2.5-8x and I always liked it. I could see quite well through it by moonlight and I had no complaints about its daylight performance. A while back I bought a VX-3 2.5-8x and I had a chance to compare them side by side. As nice as the old scope was, the new scope was very noticeably brighter by daylight. So, I do have an idea how the Vari-X III compares to stuff newer by two generations, but I have no idea how much better the VX-3i might be than the now "obsolete" VX-3.

Does anyone have experience comparing the VX-3i to the VX-3?

Leupold has gotten to where they change a scopes name every few years to get people to buy the newest latest and greatest. Its mostly marketing and not much to do with changes to the line.

To answer your question.....no I have not compared the two but I doubt most people could tell a difference.

GT, I saw that and I wondered whether you were comparing the same magnification between the -3 and the 3i. I didn't want to derail that thread, and more than one opinion would be welcome (not that I discount yours).

I'm sure that sometimes the step up is not so noticeable, but as I said, when I compared a Vari-X III to a VX-3 the difference was very apparent. I know that's a two-generation skip. I never owned a VX-III---eerrr, wait, I do too. I can compare it to a VX-3 of the same magnification. I never thought to put them side by side to see if there's much difference.

Still wanna hear more about the VX-3i, though.

Sure wish we had an Optics section on this forum.

We used to have one. What the hell happened to it?

I think my biorhythms have been off all week. It's much like having a relentless attack of stupid come at you from outa nowhere.

Since I have a single Vari-X III 3.5-10x40 left in my arsenal, as well as some VX-3s, I went ahead and bought a VX-3i of the same flavor off of fleabay. I'll be able to do a one-to-one comparison that way and satisfy my own curiosity. I might even share my own thoughts on the subject.

Where those thoughts might be posted...your guess is as good as mine.

I sighted in two of them last week. Very nice scopes. My understanding is that if you happen to have bought a VX3 recently then you already own the VX3i. As far as how much improvement there is from the older VX3 to the new VX3i... well I can say not as much as there is from the old VXIII to the VX3 which was as RiverRider said substantial to my eye.
Here is a couple of pictures of the VX3i on a 6.5 Creedmoor with the new Iota rings.

Figured I'd add this here from my related post in the optics forum; I'm going to try and do a video review tonight.

I got mine delivered about 45 minutes ago.

Initial impressions (to my eyes only; this is obviously subjective) are that this scope optically is better than my 2-7x33 VXR, 6.5-20x50 VX3s, and Vortex PSTs. The glass is very clear, and the side parallax adjustment seems to just as well as my other VX3s.

I have mixed feelings about the adjustments though. I got the CDS model, and while it's great that I can dial up/down on the fly, the problem is the adjustment is a bit too loose; it could easily get knocked out of adjustment just taking it in/out of the bag. That's compounded by the fact that you can't tell what rotation you're on; it doesn't have hash marks like most turreted scopes, so you don't know if you're zeroed or 15 minutes off in either direction. I WILL have to fix this with a felt pen or something; this is a big drawback IMO.

While on the adjustments, as I mentioned previously, they're looser than your typical tactical/target turret (think the opposite of Vortex), but each click is pronounced. Another thing is that the "default" CDS dial only graduates in 3 MOA blocks. Meaning the scope will show 12 hash marks between 1MOA and 3MOA, but only the numbers 0-3 are printed on the turret; I'm not a huge fan of that for quick dialing. On a positive note, I was able to get ~54 MOA out of come up of the default zeroed position, so it's got PLENTY of adjustment.

Without mounting it to a rifle, I'd give it a 6.5-7 out of 10. I completely understand why the CDS model was made this way (the custom CDS knobs lock you into only 15 MOA of come-ups, so after swapping out the knob for your custom load, it should work perfectly; I'm just not going to do that).

More to come once I get my 77/357 back from the smith.