I am looking for reviews on the Z5 rifle scopes. Thinking about ordering one this evening while Midway has them for around $500 off.

Is it worth it to get the z6 over the z5? Light gathering capability with the 1" tube/44mm

Specifically looking at the 3.5-18x44. This will be my more expensive rifle scope purchase as normally I purchase a Leupold or Vortex.

Thanks!

IIRC both the z5 and z6 have four helical springs behind the erector tube instead of the usual flat spring(s) along the lower sides of it. While these probably help when mounted on S/S double rifles, which recoil to the right with one barrel and left when the other is fired, I don't see the point of them for single-barrel rifles. In fact, I worry about the lack of the cushioning effect the normal side springs would give.

The z5 and z6 nomenclature also indicates the zoom multiples in the scopes, and I am rueful of the developments making these values ever bigger, as I suspect they add greater inertial loads to the front of the erector tube, esp. at higher powers.

As mentioned in another recent thread, old-timers like me also dislike the trend to high powers for use in big-game rifles - reasons that have taken that other thread five chapters to tease out.

My only problem with 1" tubes is that since most makers seem to have gone off steel, I wonder if they are strong enough. I only say that because whenever the Germanic makers have offered a dural alternative on the Continent, they always add another two to four millimetres to the diameter and provide a mounting rail, which further stiffens it against bending. How we get away with less in the rough-and-tumble colonies is a mystery to me.

A 44mm objective is not over large these days but, as Atkinson will attest, the more scope you have sticking out, the more likely it will get bumped and knocked out of zero.

So, while Swarovski have an excellent standing among big-game hunters, if I wanted to spend big money I'd be more inclined to the Zeiss Victory Diavari 1.5-to-6x42 or something with a smaller bell - and forget about illumination.