A woman in my recent Hunting Rifle Seminar brought a wonderful old pre-64 Winchester Model 70 in 30-06, and it was topped by an equally old 4x scope in Weaver mounts. Her father had hunted with it long ago, and it was in great shape.

She was new to bolt action rifles, and to scopes, though she had done a lot of open-sighted lever action rifle shooting.

Struggled a bit to find the correct eye relief. Had the typical "shading" problems, but was doing more or less "okay." On a whim I handed her my 25-06 Rem, with the new 6x Leupold.

She got behind the scope and instantly I heard "Oh my!"

She spent some time with that scope, was so impressed with the clarity, the light, and how forgiving the "eye box" is. I'm not sure she did so, but said she was going to the sporting goods store on the way home, and shop for new scopes!

Optics... Things have changed over the years. For the better!

Guy

Ain't that the truth! It is amazing to watch the reaction of people peering through fine optics for the first time. Even more amazing when they are looking after having struggled to see through some of the older scopes of another era or less forgiving scopes, even of recent manufacture.

Absolutely- finally shot Dads 7Mag a couple weeks ago. Had the sun over my left shoulder and the reflection and shadow through that K4 Weaver was so bad I almost couldn't see a 3 inch circle at 100 yds. Those of you who know me, know that I have touted the lack of shading, relative clarity and forgiving eye box of that old Weaver. It was very disappointing. Still accurate and "on". OK for a 50+ year old scope but I'll take my VX-II. CL

I would surely agree that in the last 10 years the quality of Optics has improved 10 fold .

Blessings,
Dan

I have an old Lyman All-American scope from the 60's and a steel tube Weaver from the 70's and a Leupold from the 80's, a Burris from the late 90's, a Leica from the early 2000's and a Zeiss Conquest that's just a year old.

Setting all on the same magnification, it's amazing to see the difference from each decade.

Yeah- when it comes to sporting optics...we are living in the salad days.

I'm always amazed to look through vintage optics...just wow. Even the high end stuff looks like a Tasco from Walmart these days.

Absolutely. A new scope will breath new life into an old rifle.

JD338

I purchased several Leica scopes back around 2000. Used them to replace several (now) vintage VX 2 scopes from the early 80's. Was always amazed and the clarity etc.
In the last two years I have replaced those 'old' Leica's with a variety of Zeiss Conquest HD's, Minox HD5's and one Sig Whiskey 5 scope. Comparing the optics from the 'old' Leicas to the new stuff is amazing.
When I compare what I paid for the Leica scopes back just 17 years ago to what I paid for these scopes, I not only figure I got a better 'deal' price-wise but much improved optics. All of the improvements in less than 2 decades of development by manufacturers.
We are living in a good time optics-wise.

I have some old Varri-X II Leupold 3X9X40 scopes and the newer VX2 are much sharper. Even the old ones I have sent in to be refreshed.
The VX3i scopes are better than the VX3 or the older Varri-X III scopes I have.
When I get some cash again I think I will be replacing some of the older scopes for new models.

I had one of those old K4's on my 06 for awhile. It was okay, but man, the difference between it and the old but new condition M8 4X Leupold was amazing. It is almost hard to find a scope that doesn't look pretty good these days.

Four good Friends have recently spent an arm and most of a leg on the very very good Swarovski Z8i scopes. And I have to admit, they are very good indeed, even though one of the scopes belonging to one of these guys has a defect. It must have a defect because he has shot several of the wrong sex of deer in their ‘close’ season since buying it!

I chose not to spend well over £2,200/$2400 of my English pounds on these and find I haven’t shot any fewer deer and they haven’t shot any more than they normally would have done.

So, my conclusion is my twenty and thirty year old Zeiss, S&B and Swaro 8x56 fixed power scopes are doing just great.
The steel tube ones, (Swaro) tho’ heavier, I think are better, but I do like the benefit of a lighter weight all round rifle/scope combo and have mixed feelings about the 30mm tubes rather than a 1” or 26mm tube.

A good advantage of people upgrading to the very latest scopes is that some of the older high quality scopes are going for very acceptable prices.

An excellent point. One of my brothers is still using a vxII I took off a trade rifle in 1974. I gave him the scope, he's had it on a couple of rifles, the last 10 years a 300 RUM. Kills elk with regularity.


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I feel the same way ET. Just about any of the newer sorta optics are darned good. Heck, I spend more time trying to find older M8 Leupolds on EBay. I’ve been shooting a bunch of SWFA SS scopes lately because they are relatively inexpensive and don’t break. I’ve lost the draw to buy scopes that are stunning optically but fall flat when it comes to zero retention and decent tracking.

As much as I like my Ziess and Meopta scopes I still have a few cheap Bushnell Banners ( made in Japan ) that still preform well. The Leupold VXIII I have on my 30-06 has never had to be adjusted since it was installed back in the 1980's when I bought it new. The Leupold VX-3i I have on the 338Win is holding up well but I haven't shot any heavy for caliber bullets threw it yet so it is still being tested.
I would like to get one of the SWFA SS for my 257 Bob and may do it before spring arrives. I haven't played with the Bob in a while.

I put an old Weaver V9 on a Rem 722 .222 I bought because it looked right with the older rifle. I took it out coyote hunting in New Mexico last year. It now has a new Leupold 6x on top. The older scope just didn't have the light gathering.

Scopes do NOT gather light. They do TRASMIT thru them more or less light depending on the quality of glass/coating.

O.K. I stand corrected they TRASMIT!

Learn something new every day.

I have been sitting on the fence with my 6mm Rem Model 700 BDL it still has a Steel tube Weaver 3x9 40mm and mounted with Weaver rings and it has been a solid performer for 40 years.
I have shot groups as small as 7/8inch groups at 300 yards, for night shooting I once shot a Beaver and night without the aid of a light with snow on the ground and went to go pick it up after the shot and tripped over it.
I could see it fine in the scope but could not see it and tripped up on it when I went on to retrieve it.
I have thought about replacing it with a new Leupold a VX 2 but now I found out there phased out.
I have been leaning twards a smaller scope 2-7 or 2.5x8 power scope.
I do feel I would gain clarity in the optics but I just don't know how much. It's most likely me as I'm 56 and do not wear glasses yet but I can tell my vision is not as sharp as it once was, worst part is my right eye is worse than my left and I shoot right handed.
Now the question what has Leupold come out with better to replace the VX 2 or should I spend the money on a VX 3i ? What to do. Yes I want Leupold because of Made in USA.
I also wished Leupold made a 5 power scope as 4 is not enough and I feel 6 is just a little to much sometimes.

Last week a gunsmith friend asked me to come look thru
Some, VarX3 scopes he accuired that he was suspect were probably copys from China...... I took down
a new Vx3 that was the real McCoy, to compare to the suspect counterfeit ones; the conclusion was:
Wow are they well done! They come in a Leupold box with owners manual and warrantee papers??? The scopes are not as good as a real Vx3 , however they are about 90/95%
as good! And the price is 20% of what the real deal costs!
Of course there is NO warrantee.( just the hokey one in the box) So the day it breaks you simply throw it away, so that is weak.
But it may blow folks away, how many have actually bought a "fake" and dont even realize it!
The avg person probably would NOT, know how to look for
Clues to tell the difference........ They appear almost identical. Sorta strange they can make an almost identical
product for 15/20% of what we have to charge for a similar product? Sad but its the reality of it all. These
Cheap copys are optically superior to the older VxII's
for very short money! Gun shows and Ebay buyers beware.
However if you realize you are not getting a real Leupold and there really is no warrantee, the truth is they look very nice in all ways..........,.

My friend had an older VariX II 3-9x40 mounted on his muzzleloader this year and he slipped and fell on it bending the tube. Leupold sent him a brand new Freedom series as a replacement. I got to look though it. It's quite an upgrade. Better optics, finger adjustable turrets that click, and the power adjustment ring is deeply knurled and moves very easily. They are definitely worth looking at as they seem to be truly be a revamped scope and not just a name change.

Well- Looks like Leopold decided to discontinue the VX-2 !! If I read right the replacement had better be good- They aren't giving them away....

https://www.leupold.com/scopes/rifle-sc ... om-4-12x40

I have long ago rid myself of most of my weaver scopes. We had a large number of them at one time, and they were a great asset in my early years of hunting. I use two different brands now, Zeiss and Leupold. I think the Zeiss is slightly better but not by a large margin. They are both great scopes and are a 'HUGE" improvement over the weaver. I really like the 4 X 14 or similar and the 40+ mm lens. I wouldn't go much smaller because of the light gathering capabilities in the early morning and late evening. I was 56 once, and you need to upgrade to truly appreciate the advantages of newer glass. Buy the best you can afford as you may have the newer ones for a long time.

The truth about this is the optics have gotten so far superior to what was available even 10 years ago it's spooky! I just got in a new Bushnell Trophy Extreame 4/16 with 30mm tube and 44mm Obj lens. China I have a
Rifle here that has a Bushnell 6500 series (Japan) that's a couple years old..... and I can tell you this: I would hate
To have to have paid 3X as much for the 6500 after looking thru this new Trophy Extreame! It is razor sharp right to the edges, VERY bright in low light, side focus for parallex, has resettable to zero turrets, and is flat amazing for the money! To own a scope this crisp with all its features 10 years ago would have been from Europe and about 2 grand! I have no clue how they can now do that for $250??? But of course that doesn't
Address the mechanic's of it ? But I did notice it has there new "no question " guarantee ??? Even if you drive over it with your truck! Bushnell has a 30% rebate right now on their stuff, There has never been a better time to buy one! Amazing

Bout time Bushnell got there stuff in a group. I'm sure the high line stuff was always good. There stuff that the average mortal could afford ($400 or less) was always hit or miss IMHO. I know that's not where most of you guys are at price point wise, but its the reality for lots of folks. In my experience, they never stayed where you put them. don't know what the price point for the new stuff is but I hear Vortex is getting some traction at that price point. CL