Light Weight Scope

[ronstone09]

looking for a light weight scope. Hunting to 500 yards practice to 1000. $2000 max

I really like the zeiss 5x25 for longer range ! Very clear and about in your price range

 

[cohunt]

Night Force is advertising a scope that weighs 2.5 ounces. Don't have one, never seen one but if it really exists and it isn't just a typo, spoof or fake news, that is going to be the lightest scope I ever heard of. For lightweight and good magnification I like the Swaro Z5 series. Hard to beat a scope that weighs less than a pound and goes to 18 or 25 power.

either a typo, or you read it wrong--that would be the 2.5-10x42 and it is 20.5 oz not 2.5 oz--pretty sure any optic that weighed 2.5 oz would not have any glass in it or be a 1x with only 1 piece of glass like a red dot--you can get red dot optics for that weight though, vortex venom weighs 1.1 oz

 

[SavageHunter11]

I really like the zeiss 5x25 for longer range ! Very clear and about in your price range

Would you use a 5-25x??mm scope for hunting though? I have no problem seeing a whitetail clearly enough to be confident at 500 yards with 8 to 10ish power. I feel like some 5-25 is just too much for hunting. That's my opinion though and maybe i am in the minority. I would think a 3-15, 4-16, 2-12, etc power scope would be more than sufficient for 1000 yard targets and 500 yard hunting.

 

[Dean2]

Would you use a 5-25x??mm scope for hunting though? I have no problem seeing a whitetail clearly enough to be confident at 500 yards with 8 to 10ish power. I feel like some 5-25 is just too much for hunting. That's my opinion though and maybe i am in the minority. I would think a 3-15, 4-16, 2-12, etc power scope would be more than sufficient for 1000 yard targets and 500 yard hunting.

When I had young eyes, 9 power was plenty of scope all the way to 800 yards, now that I am getting older, 18 power works just fine for the longer distances. As I have aged the upper end magnification on all my guns, even those I use for gophers, has steadily increased. The only lower power scopes I use now are on my 375 and 45-70 as field of view up close is usually far more important than magnification.

Cohunt

I am pretty sure it was a typo, they left out the 0 in 20.5. Thought it made a good funny for this thread, should have put a moji on it.

 

[SavageHunter11]

When I had young eyes, 9 power was plenty of scope all the way to 800 yards, now that I am getting older, 18 power works just fine for the longer distances. As I have aged the upper end magnification on all my guns, even those I use for gophers, has steadily increased. The only lower power scopes I use now are on my 375 and 45-70 as field of view up close is usually far more important than magnification.

Cohunt

I am pretty sure it was a typo, they left out the 0 in 20.5. Thought it made a good funny for this thread, should have put a moji on it.

I'll admit I wasn't think about older eyes only about the field of view for most 5-25

When I had young eyes, 9 power was plenty of scope all the way to 800 yards, now that I am getting older, 18 power works just fine for the longer distances. As I have aged the upper end magnification on all my guns, even those I use for gophers, has steadily increased. The only lower power scopes I use now are on my 375 and 45-70 as field of view up close is usually far more important than magnification.
That's fair. I hadn't thought about older eyes. I should though as I'm sure I'll be dealing with it soon enough
Cohunt

I am pretty sure it was a typo, they left out the 0 in 20.5. Thought it made a good funny for this thread, should have put a moji on it.

 

[BrentM]

Would you use a 5-25x??mm scope for hunting though? I have no problem seeing a whitetail clearly enough to be confident at 500 yards with 8 to 10ish power. I feel like some 5-25 is just too much for hunting. That's my opinion though and maybe i am in the minority. I would think a 3-15, 4-16, 2-12, etc power scope would be more than sufficient for 1000 yard targets and 500 yard hunting.

I have run 5-25 for years. Aim small and miss small. Realistically you can turn the scope down and make the shot but you can only turn it up to it's max power. The question of it is needed is subjective as it is preference vs need. I've used a 14x to 1500 yards and it does fine. I'd rather use a high mag tho. The real question is quality. I'll take a lower power and higher quality over high power and lower quality. In the end I do fee like a good quality scope from with a nice power range has advantages.

 

[DRock]

I have had this same debate for the last several rifles Ive built. For a hunting rig, its hard to beat the Leupold VX5 or VX6 for quality and weight. My latest venture was the Zeiss V6 and I would say its a slight upgrade in glass and turrets are a little more robust. Slightly heavier but has a larger objective also but still around 22 oz. There are lighter and smaller scopes but you lose objective size and magnification which honestly are worth a few extra ounces to me when wanting to be consistent at longer ranges and hunting in lower light situations.

 

[B23]

Totally.

For my lightweight rifles I have upgraded from leupy vx3's and Zeiss Diatal/diavari to Vortex Razor LH's. I have a couple 1.5-8's and a 3-15x42.

3-15x42 is a great lightweight scope at 16oz. It tracks well, but I would look at Zeiss V4 and Leupold VX5hd if you like to dial, clicks are way more positive, but they weigh a few oz more.

I have three of the Vortex Razor HD LH 3-15x42 and for a lightweight hold over shooting scope, they are hard to beat for the money. The glass is very good and for holdover shooting the HSR-4 reticle works pretty well. As was mentioned above, they track fine, but the clicks aren't particularly pronounced and IMO are a little mushy. Other than that, these are a great little scope with really good optics.

 

[FIGJAM]

looking for a light weight scope. Hunting to 500 yards practice to 1000. $2000 max

I have 2 VX5HD's on my hunting rifles - they are the 3-15x56. I have killed animals out to 600 easy and bang steel out to 1000 whenever I break them out. I had my 6 creedmoor out last saturday and I was spinning from 300-750 every other shot and it tracked perfect - its going to be some bad medicine for coyotes. The VX5HDs are sweet for the money. I have two PSTs, one a gen II on my range gun which is a 5r gen 2 260. Just put this together, but mechanically it has been perfect. The other is on a varmint gun in 223 that has been through the ringer for several years and has functioned flawlessly.

Just traded for a Zeiss V6 5-30x50 which runs right at $2k. It is on its way to me and should arrive at my house tomorrow. I didn't know much about them before the trade, but I have extremely high expectations for it. The V6 uses FL glass which is a step above this HD stuff. I am hoping I love it and it will go on a 280AI I am putting together for some long range hunting.

 

[FIGJAM]

Would you use a 5-25x??mm scope for hunting though? I have no problem seeing a whitetail clearly enough to be confident at 500 yards with 8 to 10ish power. I feel like some 5-25 is just too much for hunting. That's my opinion though and maybe i am in the minority. I would think a 3-15, 4-16, 2-12, etc power scope would be more than sufficient for 1000 yard targets and 500 yard hunting.

For big game and coyote hunting I think the 3-15 or 3-18 is the sweet spot. I would keep it to 3 or 4 on the low end and then I really don't think you can go too high - you just have to pay for it. The VX6HD in 4-24 is sweet, and lots of people like the march that goes from 3-24 - you just have to pay for that magnification range.

 

[skipglo]

It should be mandatory that a poster include parameters such as power, FFP/SFP, weight, reticle, tube size, W/E travel, zero stop, etc. He did state price and that's it.
There are hundreds of "What scope should I get ?" threads on here that you can search(and read and learn) then make a great decision.
Len should make it a "sticky" in this section.

Now that would be taking all the fun out of it. He might only get 2-3 possible answers instead of the 1000 possible....makes things way to direct to the point.... lmao

 

[GoatHerder]

This is exactly the response I wanted. Several options to research, didn't want to waste time researching junk. Lots of great info on here. Most of you have forgotten more about shooting than I know.

 

[Flatbow]

For light wait it's hard to beat Leupold and good quality.
Put a VX3 I on my mountain gun. 17oz

 

[FIGJAM]

For light wait it's hard to beat Leupold and good quality.
Put a VX3 I on my mountain gun. 17oz

There is a lot of leupold haters on here - probably for good reason. I didn't own a Leupy until my VX5HD's, so i think I missed the bad stuff. My buddy has a VX3i 4.5-14x40 with the 30mm tube that has been awesome and is lightweight. I am in agreement with you - they are hard to beat - and american made to boot which seems to matter more to some than others.