The Accurate Reloading Forums THE ACCURATE RELOADING.COM FORUMS Rifles Big Bores What Nikon model is comparable to Leupold 3X9 VariX-3's?Go | New | Find | Notify | Tools | Reply | |
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What Nikon model is comparable to Leupold 3X9 VariX-3's? | ||
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2x8 Monarch..... But the lesser priced Buckmaster is very good as well... I think 3X9. I have been testing all the Nikons, and find all just excellent. Personally I think the lesser priced Buckmaster and Prostaff are every bit as good.. If not better than the Leupold. Michael http://www.b-mriflesandcartridges.com/default.html The New Word is "Non-Conventional", add "Conventional" to the Endangered Species List! Live Outside The Box of "Conventional Wisdom" I do Not Own Any Part of Any Bullet Company, I am not in the Employ Of Any Bullet Company. I do not represent, own stock, nor do I receive any proceeds, or monies from ANY BULLET COMPANY. I am not in the bullet business, and have no Bullets to sell to you, nor anyone else. | |||
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Thanks Michael. Are they glass or plastic lenses? | |||
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Michael, what do you base that on? | |||
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What do I base that on? I base it on having 1/2 dozen of them and direct comparisons..... Michael http://www.b-mriflesandcartridges.com/default.html The New Word is "Non-Conventional", add "Conventional" to the Endangered Species List! Live Outside The Box of "Conventional Wisdom" I do Not Own Any Part of Any Bullet Company, I am not in the Employ Of Any Bullet Company. I do not represent, own stock, nor do I receive any proceeds, or monies from ANY BULLET COMPANY. I am not in the bullet business, and have no Bullets to sell to you, nor anyone else. | |||
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I would assume Glass... M http://www.b-mriflesandcartridges.com/default.html The New Word is "Non-Conventional", add "Conventional" to the Endangered Species List! Live Outside The Box of "Conventional Wisdom" I do Not Own Any Part of Any Bullet Company, I am not in the Employ Of Any Bullet Company. I do not represent, own stock, nor do I receive any proceeds, or monies from ANY BULLET COMPANY. I am not in the bullet business, and have no Bullets to sell to you, nor anyone else. | |||
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Some of the lower end Leupolds like VX 1 and II I have been told are spherical lenses .aka plastic. | |||
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I also have a Nikon 2x8 , Michael put it on my rifle, for the money is there best scope out there. The drop rings on the glass for me have been off some . I got my 100 and 200 hitting with cross hairs, even though my FPS are only 2550 fps, so it may hit out at longer range than I thought, very good scope | |||
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for many years I used Leupold's 2.5-8 Vx-3. They were good scopes with enough reach for the occasional shot in the 250-400 yard range. I considered them a benchmark for the 'medium-price' range scope. Back in the 80's much of my hunting was with a 270 and 338 and the Leupold's held up nicely. I even put one on a 416 Rigby in the 90's. Then about 4 years ago I needed some scopes for some more 416's. I ran across the Nikon Monarch 2-8 Compact. The eye-relief was marginally better at the high power (3.8" over 3.6"), the scope was light and with very clear glass. It also had better range going from a true 2.0 power to a 8.0 power instead of 2.6 to 7.8 of the Leupold. So I took a risk and have been very pleased. The big question on a Rigby is reliability. I had received some private advice and recommendation that the Nikons would hold up out in the field at least equal to the legendary Leupold. When in Africa you cannot send a scope in for repair and easily pick up a replacement. Well, so far so good. Since then, I learned on this list that Michael458 solved his bigbore scope-breaking problems by switching from Leupold to Nikon. He may shoot 50 times more rounds per year than I do so that is also a helpful recommendation. Finally, I built/am-building a 500 AccRel Nyati. So I want a scope that has low-power for in close, good eye-relief, bright glass, a little range for shots over 250 yards, and rugged reliability. I have a couple of Nikon 1.65-5 power, 5-inch eye-relief Slughunter and Omega "shotgun/blackpowder" scopes for these. The scopes look great and I expect the same rugged reliability as from the Nikon Monarch Compact 2-8. UPDATE: Those 1.65-5 power scopes with 5" eyerelief may have been discontinued by Nikon! ! ! They must not appreciate my posts here on AccRel. For 5" eye-relief one must go with a 3-9 power scope. Hmm.... I might go that route in the future, if the 1.65-5 doesn't come back. The other nice option is a 1-4 Monarch, but it only has 4" eye-relief. I probably shoot with enough correct form to make that work since I've never been 'eye-browed'. But I still think that Nikon is missing out by dropping the 5" eye-relief on the lower magnification scopes. PPS: The Slughunter and Omega 1.65-5 are still on the Nikon website when searched for by numbers. They are not presented when using the filtering menus. +-+-+-+-+-+-+ "A well-rounded hunting battery might include: 500 AccRel Nyati, 416 Rigby or 416 Ruger, 375Ruger or 338WM, 308 or 270, 243, 223" -- Conserving creation, hunting the harvest. | |||
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The Monarch line is comparable and very good. For big bores, I really like the Monarch Gold 1.5-6. I have this on my .458 Win. It has a 30mm tube, is a short profile and big eye relief. They also make 2 models of Monarch African scopes, but the max magnification is 4x, and I like a bit more. Good Hunting, Tim Herald Worldwide Trophy Adventures tim@trophyadventures.com | |||
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Thanks guys. They do seem not to much difference in price though. | |||
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I really the Nikons glas is a touch better than Luepolds ........but the "scope" part of the Luepold is better than the Nikon.... Tracking and consistancy in adjustment. You just cannot beat Luepolds warrenty and customer service. just my experience..... . | |||
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They're still listing on Nikon's website... http://www.nikonsportoptics.co...roductTabs-TechSpecs Jim  "Life's hard; it's harder if you're stupid" John Wayne | |||
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Unless you've been in the Nikon factory & the Leupold factory and observed manufacturing, techniques, procedures QC controls etc... basically that is a subjective opinion. That's like 2 guys with trucks; one guy has a Dodge with 300K miles, and his buddy has a Ford with 300K miles, and they are arguing as to which is better. They are both certain that they have the better truck... | |||
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It's interesting how webpages can work. When I was here: http://www.nikonsportoptics.co...-1342536894925-tab-1 the page only provided 2 examples of shotgun scopes. But when I came to the similar/same page through your link the same picture came up with 6 examples of shotgun scopes. http://www.nikonsportoptics.co...-1342536894925-tab-1 Both had the specs available, if you knew how to call them up. The first link went through the 'hunting optics' tab. +-+-+-+-+-+-+ "A well-rounded hunting battery might include: 500 AccRel Nyati, 416 Rigby or 416 Ruger, 375Ruger or 338WM, 308 or 270, 243, 223" -- Conserving creation, hunting the harvest. | |||
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I'm not sure that one must tour the factories in order to have an objective statement. If half a dozen trucks of one brand all need to have their transmission replaced after 150k miles and a full dozen of another brand go the full 300k miles with only one transmission, then one has some objective data for discussion. My friend's advice, not on this list, four years ago had mentioned that he had heard of several Leopold scopes going to the factory for repairs. Yes, Leupold has great service, and that is something to consider in North America where in 90% of hunting situations a person can go out and buy an emergency replacement while the Leupold will be sent off for repairs. Not so in Africa. So I went with Nikon on three 416Rigbys and have not been disappointed. Now my testimony is too narrow to add significant data to a discussion. It would be like your car owners, both of whom had 300k with one transmission. One thing for sure. There is a new player on the block when it comes to medium-priced, high-quality, rugged scopes, designed for hunting. I've busted WEaver and Redfield in Africa and then migrated over to Leupold. In the 80's Leupold was THE name for reliability. Now we have a newcomer. Nikon has earned its reputation as being TOUGH. For some people it looks like Nikon has turned out to be tougher on multiple occasions, which is quite a compliment. +-+-+-+-+-+-+ "A well-rounded hunting battery might include: 500 AccRel Nyati, 416 Rigby or 416 Ruger, 375Ruger or 338WM, 308 or 270, 243, 223" -- Conserving creation, hunting the harvest. | |||
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^ So 416Tanzan you have had Leupolds that failed? | |||
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Personally, my Leupolds all held up, but they were used on lighter calibres like 270, 300WM, and 338. The Leupold 2.5-8 was the standard to measure by and its still a great scope but starting to drift up in price. A Rigby in the 90's in the US had one but the rifle never made it to the hunting fields. As I said, my personal data is limited. (I should add, though, that my "friend's advice" was a gunsmith.) At the momemt all of our rifles are topped with Nikons. Nikon Monarch 2-8s on the 416s, Prostaff models on the lesser calibres, even trying out a 4-12 power on the 243 for fun. A Slughunter is waiting for the new barrel of the 500 AccR Nyati. In answer to the question on the thread: a Nikon Inline muzzleloader 3-9 with 100yd parallax and 5" eye-relief would better the Leupold Vx3 3-9, at slightly under the price. The main restriction would be the 4.76" mounting space that might require an extension ring on some long actions. +-+-+-+-+-+-+ "A well-rounded hunting battery might include: 500 AccRel Nyati, 416 Rigby or 416 Ruger, 375Ruger or 338WM, 308 or 270, 243, 223" -- Conserving creation, hunting the harvest. | |||
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I have a Nikon Inline on a .30 caliber gun that my 12 year old twins will be hunting Africa with in July. I usually use Monarchs, but I loved the big eye relief of the inline, so I put it on there for them. Good Hunting, Tim Herald Worldwide Trophy Adventures tim@trophyadventures.com | |||
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Speaking of vehicles.. Currently right now I have 60 vehicles on our Insurance... 98% of these are F350 Crew Cab Fords, the rest are various smaller F250/F150 trucks. These trucks are worked very hard 6 days a week, normal payload daily is 2500 lbs + 4-5 guys in each crew, and every day in the woods. A rough life, which normally runs 4-5 years MAX.... and 250'000 miles give or take, all rough miles. A few years ago a few of the guys decided they liked the ride of some of the "Off Brand" vehicles, which a few were purchased. A couple of these went to 5000-10000 miles before the transmissions went out, and a couple more went to between 50000-70000 miles before the engines gave out. We no longer bought that "Off Brand" vehicles.... In fact, those were given back, and traded for the Fords..... Now, I really don't think I need to visit the Ford Factory... Nor the Off Brand Factory, to be able to make a business decision on what either works, or don't work for our line of work. With a vehicle down for any given time, its not the cost of the vehicle that is expensive to us, its the down time for that crew which is grossing $3000-$5000 per day. That truck being down 4-5 days getting a new transmission has cost us more than $12'000 in revenue +...... Experience trumps a Factory Visit, in which you are not going to be shown anything disturbing anyway. Nor, am I a Vehicle building expert that I would know the difference anyway..........
I HAVE........... In one 18 month period of time I sent 13 various Leupold Scopes back for repairs! I quit keeping up with it after that. Then it was normal operating procedure here that I would ALWAYS have 3-4 at Leupold for repairs, and 3-4 on my bench ready to send out for repairs. This is a fact. Finally a couple of years or maybe slightly longer now, I got fed up with it and tried several other brands of scopes, one being a Nikon, the other being a Trijicon. In all this time, being on many big bore rifles with lots of recoil, I have yet to bust either, and have yet to send one back for repairs. Both Trijicon and Nikon APPEAR to me and MY EYES to be clearer than the leupolds, I personally can see with them better than the Leupolds, and Yes, I concur, that is totally my personal opinion, but none the less, absolutely true for me. The fact that after two years I have not had to send any back for repairs, after even more rounds of heavy recoiling rounds shot with them, I really don't see any reason for me to have to visit the "FACTORIES" Of either, to be able to make a fairly simple decision on either how tough a scope is, or how they work for me. Fairly simple it seems to me, that on one hand with Brand A I am in a CONTINUOUS REPAIR mode, 3-4 at the factory, and 3-4 waiting to send for repairs on a continuing basis year in, year out, and BRAND B, that I have yet to have to send for repairs... NOT ONE.... Then I am going to make the decision to get RID OF BRAND A..... And resupply with BRAND B....... Which I have done. I went with Nikon myself. At one time I had 35+ Leupold scopes on hand... It took that many to keep me running from having 8 + always broken or busted. I no longer have those. Currently I am running something like 25+ Nikons and have had zero issues, zero repairs, zero anything............. Do you really think that is just a "Subjective Opinion" (based on or influenced by personal feelings, tastes, or opinions  I have no financial interests in Nikon, No personal feelings one way or the other, I could care less whether it said Nikon, Leupold, Trijicon or anything else on it, what I care about is "DOWN TIME" and having to start over when a scope fails, and has to be replaced. This takes up MY TIME, when I could be more productive doing something else, other than repairs. Not to mention having to place TRUST in something when on a "Dangerous Game Hunt"....... Now Duke asked a question, I gave him an "OBJECTIVE" answer concerning it, based on experience with many various scopes and many various conditions, and reliability, and a comparison, I gave such an answer base on experience. Visit the factory to make that determination? I don't think so. Now I know what I am doing, and going to do, one can choose listen, or not, it is really of little or no consequence to me one way or the other. And hardly a "Subjective Opinion"... In MY OPINION ANYWAY.. HEH..... You are right about one thing however, the Leupold Factory Warranty is as good as one can asked for, I have used it so much that Leupold Reps have called me and made some nice offers to replace my broken scopes......... Michael http://www.b-mriflesandcartridges.com/default.html The New Word is "Non-Conventional", add "Conventional" to the Endangered Species List! Live Outside The Box of "Conventional Wisdom" I do Not Own Any Part of Any Bullet Company, I am not in the Employ Of Any Bullet Company. I do not represent, own stock, nor do I receive any proceeds, or monies from ANY BULLET COMPANY. I am not in the bullet business, and have no Bullets to sell to you, nor anyone else. | |||
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Thank you sir. What I have summed up here is Leupolds are engineered and tested for traditional hunting rifle calibers and not Express Rifles. With that said 458 I will surely use Nikons for larger caliber Express Rifles. | |||
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Interesting observations. Do they make a 1.5-6x variable? | |||
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The Accurate Reloading Forums THE ACCURATE RELOADING.COM FORUMS Rifles Big Bores What Nikon model is comparable to Leupold 3X9 VariX-3's?
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