Steiner and Burris are good choices, almost always.

The "first and last legal light" claims must be from people in deep east Texas, in heavy woods.

All my scopes have got me well past legal light from Hunt to Brewster counties. I always know when official sunset is. And I glass with my rifle scope past that, just to test. All of them would give me a clean shot past TPWD official stop time.

Well, I’m not sure exactly what you mean by decent holds but I’ve currently not had any issues hitting animals in the vitals with any one of my rifle/scope combos. The VX-6 I’m referencing , I can shoot accurately at 400 yards and that’s as far as I shoot at most game, so it’s a good combination for me.

Grew up thinking Leopold was by far the best. Now after owning a few I prefer Meopta scopes. They are clearer to my eyes.

Count me in with the regular hunting scope crowd. I have no use to dial or check windage etc. I understand their use at the range but not in the woods. I don't shoot anything at 500 yards. I think the giant turrets just look stupid/tacticool and I absolutely hate the reticles that look like an Excel spreadsheet.

Briscoe, Foard & Hardeman counties for me and Leupold in the panhandle. Sometimes it's that lone boar that has slipped in at dark, and my Leupold HD's are great, definitely able to take a shot on a pig. These are VX5HD, 3-15 x 44 and the VX6, 3-18 x 50. I have not put my VX3 HD, 40mm obj to this test.

Lmao!!!

Don’t act surprised when I say I’m a Leupold fanboy sir!

I agree with cbump. Old school for me too.

Leupolds work.

Just because they are "Out Of Style" to some people does not mean they don't still work. I have yet to find a scope company with customer service even remotely close to Leupold, and 99% of the time you won't have to use it.

LeonCarr is 100% correct. They warrantied my 20 year old binos this week and were more than generous with the replacements.

I have several of them, most of them being ones I bought new in the early 1990’s, they still work great for a lot of my needs, and get me well past shooting light. My only hang up with buying one now is the capped windage turret. When some of my needs changed, and I started dialing, I went to the Kahles scopes. If it were not for that, I would probably go for a Mark 5 and give it a try.

I’ve got 3 old vxII 3x9’s and a 4x12. All been good hold zero and good In low light but the 1/4 inch adjustment at 100 yards is BS a click might move it an inch or 3 might not move it at all. But once it’s set your good to go. They are not any kind of dialing capable, I’m sure the modern ones are different.

I have that one VX5 3-15 with CDS and fire dot, and I am very happy with it. Haven’t dialed a critter past 400 yards, though I have tested it further out on paper. It’s a great scope for what I use it for. If it ever breaks, I’ll man up and tell ya.

As for what’s a good scope, if we go back a number of years, I remember that many folks (knowledgeable folks, not to mention names) on here were high on Vortex PST ffp scopes. I bought a couple based on that. I still have the 4-16 gen1. I suppose the praise was prior to problems with the scopes.

Anyway, that VX5 is just exactly what I was looking for in a scope.

Im not a sniper like the general forum crowd, just hunt. For hunting, the VX 5HD has been great. The VX 3HD has also been good for my uses. Im sure theres better options for those consistently shooting a gnat at 500 yards, but my choice is leupold for hunting. The firedot dot and twilight hunter makes them sweeter for my uses.

Good to know Lefty. Ive got a pair of 30 year old Leupold binos. If I EVER have a problem them maybe they will work with me. I keep thinking they will go bad and I will upgrade and spend a lot more money, but until then......

Biscuit, it depends on your needs.
I dable some with long range stuff outside of hunting seasons. (I’m not good enough to say the wind does not give me fits). At this discipline Leupold is not the best. It will work though and has decent glass.

I am also a trophy whitetail hunter. I have no exposed dials on my deer rifles. The scopes all have heavy duplex reticles. Holding zero and glass quality are what I require. Leupold is still not the best but in this capacity they ar pretty good. For simple target acquisition till the end of legal lots of scopes work. Swarovski and Zeiss victory are the best I’ve used for resolution of detail in low light.

The serious long range crowd spend their money on turrets.

The serious deer hunters spend their money on glass.

On a dedicated hunting rifle leupold is still a good value on a good scope.

Capped adjustments that do this drive me crazy! Makes for a waste of ammo. Especially in these times, that is no wano.

Old school turrets with a leaf spring under the spool. They work when the spool is compressing the leaf but can get wonky when you decompress the leaf. Referred to as backlash. The remedy back in the day was when dialing counterclockwise go well past the desired adjustment and comeback clockwise. Improved erector systems in the better turrets eliminated backlash.

I’m not a sniper. I just want my adjustments to work consistently and be accurate. I don’t think it’s an unreasonable expectation for a customer. They can be capped or uncapped. Just want them to work properly.

I have 2 of the Leupold scopes and 1 of them must be 40 plus years old. Had to send one in for repair, they have a great warranty. Very good scope In my opinion.

I have had no problem with Leupold Mark 5HD or Leupold VX-5 HD I have two of the VX-5s one is a 3-15x44 with HTMR reticle and mil turrets which is nice and the other is a 3-15x56 with a metric 4 fire dot reticle and mil turrets which sets on my dedicated 22-250 varmint rifle. The Burris XTR ii is a good option if you want a first focal plane scope .

X5I is a sound scope. Very repeatabke and reliable, but heavy @ 30oz(pretty sure Kahles engineering probably had to design it for them)