I'm looking at putting a Sig Sauer Whiskey 5 or Leopold VX-5HD scope to put on a rifle to shoot out to 500 yards or so, probably nothing past 800 yards. Do a little target as well hunting with. How does the glass compare to each other? How does Sig's SBT turret work compared to Leupold'd CDS system? Both come in 3-15 power range that I want to with.

Caveat: I have not looked through the Sig. The glass in the Leupold is extremely good.


Just reading your post I would have thought the Leupold would run away with this. However, for me, I really like the Sig reticle and am a huge fan of the center dot like their MRAD reticle has. Also for me, it comes in MIL adjustments, more points in the Sig's favor. Price seems to be about the same, which surprised me. I think Sig is a little proud given their lack of optics history.

I suspect you're going to have to look through them. If this is mainly hunting, I'd probably lean to the Leupold at even money. If you're going to run to 800 2-3 times a year/200 rounds of target, I'd check the glass on the Sig and likely go that way (between those two).

I had the chance to look through a VX-5HD 3-15x44 with the impact reticle. I was impressed with the brightness and clarity of the glass. The trees and brush I was looking at just seemed like is was brighter than what I was seeing with my naked eye. Although the impact 29 reticle was a little too busy for my liking. I played with the elevation turret too. The clicks seemed a little soft but I still knew when I went from one to the next.

Well I obtained both scopes for myself. The VX5HD glass is better than the Whiskey 5. I had a number of other folks look thru both scopes and we all had the same opinion. The Leupold parallax adjust is much easier to turn and access than the Whiskey 5. The whiskey 5 has an illuminated MRAD type reticle and anti-cant lights. So it has more options on the reticle but the view seems more cluttered to me over the VX5HD's windplex reticle. The elevation clicks are very close together and you can turn past your intended number very easy on the whiskey 5. it's also heavier than the VX5HD. My first impressions of the two scopes is the Leupold VX5HD is a better scope. I mounted up the Sig on a Savage mod 10 FCP-SR to see if it changes my opinion once I start shooting with it. Like was said above "I think Sig is a little proud given their lack of optics history". Both scopes came with a free offer of ballistic turret once you figure out rifle load.

I have both and the Sig is going on the block soon if that tells you anything.

Do you have the Gen I version or Gen II?