Replacing Leupold with Leica

[morgaj1]

I was on a big $$ Sonoran mule deer hunt. Outfitter knew I was a 'glass freak' and wanted some objective comparison. Since we were driving in, he said to bring all the good stuff. I brought Swarovski, Zeiss, and Leica. I had them all in 8, 10 power + another Swarovski in 20 power. We're talking about Hours of glassing for 6 straight days. Day one, we placed our bets - me on Swarovski, him on Zeiss. On day 6 there was a clear and unequivocal winner - Leica by a mile. It was a total no brainer. I admit I was surprised!

On our Tanzania hunt all the professional hunters were carrying the little geovids. No Swarovski, no Zeiss. Geo's - period. They laughed at our Swaros!

Interesting. Which Leica model was the winner?

 

[BigDon]

Interesting. Which Leica model was the winner?

10x42 Geovid with laser range finder

 

[iiiNelson]

The Vortex UHD models are also really good in a pure binocular… and I'm generally not a huge fan of their optics. They aren't bad but they are usually a noticeable step down from the German big 3 on their premium offerings. The Vortex UHD are different and are one of the few options of their's (a few of their Razor scopes are pretty nice too) that I'd recommend if you can get them for a good price. If you're prior MIL they give a really nice discount that allows one to get them for an extremely fair price.

In any case good luck. I'm also not the biggest Leupold fan (terrible experience about 20 years ago) but I've heard that they have different management and have become a lot more customer friendly since. I've considered some of their newer scopes but never pulled the trigger. I've bought Swaro Z3/Z5, Leica Amplus 6, US Optics older LPVO (which needs a repair actually), etc. since then.

I can see more Leica and Swaro scopes in the future… those are my preferred brands right now on hunting rigs.