Best low light glass?

[tomsd]

I little behind in the thread but I'd like to do an update to what I've found. I did low light non scientific tests on a few scopes and this is what my eyes have been able to tell. Here are the scopes. VX3 4.5-14x50, VX3i 4.5-14x50, VX5HD 3-15x56 firedot, NF SHV 5-20x56, Swarovski z6i 2.5-15x56, Vortex VIper PST 4-16x50. Now here is how I rank them simply, based on low light visibility and clarity alone. Vortex-VX3-VX3i-SHV-(vx5,Z6). To be a little more descriptive. The VX3 scopes are equal to my eyes and are a fair amount brighter then the vortex. The VX5 is slightly brighter than the Nightforce but not by much. The VX5 makes the VX3s look terrible in comparison. There was 7.5 mins of light difference on the day I tested the VX3s and VX5 with the VX5 trouncing on the VX3. The VX5 and Z6 were very VERY close. Perhaps there was a very slight edge to the Z6, but the firedot reticle is so good that it makes it a much better scope in these conditions.

Again I want to stress I'm ONLY talking about low light clarity and visibility, not hardiness, tracking etc. SIMPLE low light clarity.

I bought a VX5HD.

Could you please list your preference again, as in 1. 2. 3.... Not sure I understand the ranking.

 

[tomsd]

Any top tier glass should have you shooting at all legal.hunting light.

But, it you want the brightest....
Schmidt & Bender 3-12×54 or 4-16×56 Ultra Bright.
Unless you want to sell your house and get a Hensoldt ZF 6-24×72...

LOL

 

[tomsd]

I've hunted southwest of Monroe along the Quachita River with friends from Franklin Farms.
Another really good hunting scope for the money is Burris.
I've used several for years and still have em mounted on rifles. They've been carried and used extensively and held zero since they were put on.

 

[tomsd]

IMO - can't beat the Burris for price and their warranty.

I have compared them within a couple hundred dollars to their Vortex and Leopold Models - and while Vortex was the brightest in that side by side - they all did the job - and I got a 4.5 -14/44 in the Burris for under $200.

As far as the top end models - the best I have tried is Zeiss - and also did look through a Zworski (sp) once - verrrrry nice both - but that money is going for my travel budget.

Hey - with young eyes in thick timber in Oregon - an old 4X fixed Weaver did just fine. Dos.

 

[tomsd]

I own the following scopes and all are pretty dang good at low light:

Zeiss Diavari 6-24x56
Leupold VX6 3-18x50
Bushnell LRHS 4.5-18x44
Swarovski Z6i 3-18x50
S&B Klassik 3-12x50

There isn't a whole bunch of difference between them, all are very good glass. But the top two performers in that list are my Swaro Z6i and S&B Klassik, with the Schmidt taking the crown for low light. It doesn't do as good edge to edge (some tunneling as its FFP) and is horrible with glare, but at true "low light" it kicks ***.

But if I could only pick one, the Swarovski just excels at every metric you can possible measure for "glass".

Note: I will say, for the money, the dang Bushnell hangs in there pretty well, excellent glass for a budget.

Thanks for the review- and Bushnell can do some surprising stuff - espec as you note - for the $.

 

[gyrfalcon]

Burris Veracitys are on most of my rifles. Can't beat em for the money.

5 years ago I bought a 2.5x10 Burris and have been very impressed by repeatability and accuracy of its tracking system and quality of its glass!. I value reliability of controls as much or higher then clarity and brightness, not demeaning those fine and desirable qualities in any way. Our hunting regs only allow us to shoot from 30 min before sunrise to 30 min after sunset. The Burris gives me plenty definition for my 81 year old eye balls. All that for a very affordable price. In our hunts our rifles get handled a lot, in and out of trucks, on quads, Argos etc. Hard bumps scrapes are not uncommon unfortunately, therefore I be hesitant to use very pricey glass on my economy but extremely accurate Tikka .308.

 

[Rich Coyle]

I have a ton of Leupold, Nightforce and Swarovski. I have 4-6 VX5-HD- I'm sorry but they do not compare to Swarovski Z6.

Maybe you have a very good z6. When I compared a friend's z6 5-30X50 with my Bushnell Elite 6500 4 1/2-30X50 both the owner and I concluded the Bushnell was noticeably better. He sold it the next week.

When I compared my VX5HD 3-15x56 with my Swarovski z5 5-25X52 on deer antlers 131 yards away in the woods the Leupold smoked the Swarovski by six minutes!

 

[edgecrum]

Could you please list your preference again, as in 1. 2. 3.... Not sure I understand the ranking.


Worst to best. Viper PST, then VX3/VX3i,then much brighter is the NF SHV, then barely brighter yet VX5/Z6. The glass quality coupled with the firedot reticle made the choice easy for VX5 over the swarovski. Accounting for price it was easier yet.

I want to state that this is not meant to be an all incompassing scope review/test response from me. It's anecdotal. It's my eyes, my preferences, and a very limited sample size of scopes. It's not intended to be a scientific evaluation of all scopes made, simply my observations with the scopes listed above.

I will state that I've hunted with my vx3 scopes for years and honestly held them in pretty high regard. My honest opinion is that I was utterly shocked by how much brighter and clear the vx5 was compared to them. The VX5 is closer to my BX4 Leupold 10x50 binoculars than it is to the vx3 scopes.

I'll explain my testing method. I have a certain deer stand in a cutover of 5 foot tall grass. The lane to the feeder is 180 yards and 50 yards behind that is full grown hardwood timber with the usual short bushes/timber at it's foot. One scope was mounted on a rifle, the other was sitting in my window shimmed up to point at the exact same spot. I could simply move my head from one scope to the other as light faded. I also payed close attention to set the magnification exactly the same. The vx3 is 14 power, the vx5 is 15 so I turned the vx5 down to perfectly match the magnification of the vx3. As light faded I noticed the line of underbrush at the foot of the forest. The vx3 lost the ability to distinguish this from the black of the forest 7.5 minutes before the vx5. Crosshair visibility was similar. This was performed on a bright sun shiny day with no cloud cover and little moon. So the point of that is that light faded rather fast. When I could no longer see through the vx3 at ALL, I could still have made out horns at my feeder, still see the wood feeder, still easily see crosshairs. It wasn't subtle.

 

[tomsd]

5 years ago I bought a 2.5x10 Burris and have been very impressed by repeatability and accuracy of its tracking system and quality of its glass!. I value reliability of controls as much or higher then clarity and brightness, not demeaning those fine and desirable qualities in any way. Our hunting regs only allow us to shoot from 30 min before sunrise to 30 min after sunset. The Burris gives me plenty definition for my 81 year old eye balls. All that for a very affordable price. In our hunts our rifles get handled a lot, in and out of trucks, on quads, Argos etc. Hard bumps scrapes are not uncommon unfortunately, therefore I be hesitant to use very pricey glass on my economy but extremely accurate Tikka .308.

Bought a Tikka T3X in 6.5 Creed - and plan to pit a Burris on it too - but still wrestling with the State of Cal - who ae using every excuse to not release firearms.

 

[tomsd]

Could you please list your preference again, as in 1. 2. 3.... Not sure I understand the ranking.


Worst to best. Viper PST, then VX3/VX3i,then much brighter is the NF SHV, then barely brighter yet VX5/Z6. The glass quality coupled with the firedot reticle made the choice easy for VX5 over the swarovski. Accounting for price it was easier yet.

I want to state that this is not meant to be an all incompassing scope review/test response from me. It's anecdotal. It's my eyes, my preferences, and a very limited sample size of scopes. It's not intended to be a scientific evaluation of all scopes made, simply my observations with the scopes listed above.

I will state that I've hunted with my vx3 scopes for years and honestly held them in pretty high regard. My honest opinion is that I was utterly shocked by how much brighter and clear the vx5 was compared to them. The VX5 is closer to my BX4 Leupold 10x50 binoculars than it is to the vx3 scopes.

I'll explain my testing method. I have a certain deer stand in a cutover of 5 foot tall grass. The lane to the feeder is 180 yards and 50 yards behind that is full grown hardwood timber with the usual short bushes/timber at it's foot. One scope was mounted on a rifle, the other was sitting in my window shimmed up to point at the exact same spot. I could simply move my head from one scope to the other as light faded. I also payed close attention to set the magnification exactly the same. The vx3 is 14 power, the vx5 is 15 so I turned the vx5 down to perfectly match the magnification of the vx3. As light faded I noticed the line of underbrush at the foot of the forest. The vx3 lost the ability to distinguish this from the black of the forest 7.5 minutes before the vx5. Crosshair visibility was similar. This was performed on a bright sun shiny day with no cloud cover and little moon. So the point of that is that light faded rather fast. When I could no longer see through the vx3 at ALL, I could still have made out horns at my feeder, still see the wood feeder, still easily see crosshairs. It wasn't subtle.

Seems like a very good field test to moi. Geesh - went through the Leupold factory about 20 years ago - and just have not bought a scope of theirs yet. The VX5 I must check out.