Last night I got up to pee. The moon was bright and since I was awake I decided to try looking through a S & B 1.5-6x42 I recently bought.

Two things just jumped out at me. First there is a reason for the design of those German reticles! They are actually not just usable, but actually useful in low light. Those high end European scopes are really that much better. I could not only easily make out individual leaves at 150 yards in heavy shadow, but I would have had no trouble shooting a deer precisely where I wanted to at that range.

I have a couple of Zeiss 1.5-6x42 and could not distinguish a difference between them and the S & B. A Simmons Aetec 3-9 and a Leupy 1-4 VX11 were tried also. The Simmons and Leupy just didn't have the optics to pick out the individual leaves, nor the resolution to be as precise as I like to be with where I could put a shot. With either, I would have been able to tell a deer was there, but I just didn't have the sight picture to shoot until I was looking in full moonlight at not more than about 75 yards.

Interestingly, the S & B is a police marksman model with a modified German #4 reticle. It has hash marks for windage but not elevation, and has turrets. The windage hashes were visible, but not what I would consider usable.

For those of you wondering if those scopes are really worth that kind of money I would say this:

The color rendition and edge to edge clarity coupled with the light transmission is all part of the whole. My impression was that the Simmons and Leupy were probably close to as bright. I really couldn't say there was all that much difference in brightness. There was a big difference in usability though. For crawling around under spruce on a dark morning or evening looking for a moose or elk where they blend in so well being able to see what you are looking at would be well worth it. For looking at deer in aspen cuttings it would be well worth it.

From personal experience I started using these to be able to find deer faster in the brush. Looking through one of these at 1.5 you can pick up the deer much faster and follow it much better than a scope like the Simmons, which is pretty decent optically. Under good conditions, the Leupy works well enough, but given a choice I'd take the Zeiss or S & B hands down to pick up a deer in brush fast.

That is exactly why most Europeans are willing to spend much money on a good quality scope ! You can spend (a bit) less money on a rifle and be OK....but NOT on the scope !

I think that the scope quality is more important than the rifle quality.

A cheap scope is absolutely worthless when stand hunting at dusk or down (or night hunting for that matter). It is in these situations that one can see the difference between a 300 $ and 2000 $ scope !

or you just spend $400 for a 3-9x40 zeiss conquest with a #4 and see as good as the S&B

quote:

Originally posted by Ingvar J. Kristjansson:
That is exactly why most Europeans are willing to spend much money on a good quality scope ! You can spend (a bit) less money on a rifle and be OK....but NOT on the scope !

I think that the scope quality is more important than the rifle quality.

A cheap scope is absolutely worthless when stand hunting at dusk or down (or night hunting for that matter). It is in these situations that one can see the difference between a 300 $ and 2000 $ scope !

absolutely right!

@miles: and if You want the best, check with an EUROPEAN made Swarovski - more then one step better than the S&B either... I have taken a pig with mine on Friday night in the foggy moonlight shooting 140m on a 30kg pig... The shot was where it should be... Just perfect