Thanks for all the replies.
I do like a full vertical crosshair. In 2006 I took a nice 156" whitetail on the way into my stand. It was on a very foggy, cloudy morning and my binos showed deer in front of me in the bean field I was crossing to get to my stand before light. Some of the deer were headed my way and I had nowhere to hide except to kneel behind the terrace I was near. After a short time the buck I was there for ended up stopping to see what I was at 30yds. I had him in the scope and it was legal shooting time (the first minute of it) but I couldn't see the crosshairs against his body so I put the vertical crosshair behind his shoulder and an equal amount of it above and below him and pulled the trigger. The muzzle flash blinded me as he ran off into the fog and I headed back to my truck to await full daylight so I could check the results of my shot. Once the fog burned off I walked out and found him about 60yds from where I shot him hit perfect with the 180gr Accubond. Anyway, I do want a full length vertical crosshair after that experience, it came in handy once upon a time.
I like the look and idea of the new Vortex scopes, thanks for bringing them to my attention. I think I'll probably buy something else though looking at the reticle choices. I checked the weight on the Zeiss, looks like it's heavier than the Swaro or Leupold. After stewing on it all day and reading this I'm actually kinda leaning toward stealing the Swaro off my 204 AR I predator hunt with for the Kimber and buying a VX-6 to put on it. I have another 30mm Burris PEPR I already, it would save some money and work just as good.
For what it's worth I've had the Swaro Z5 3.5-18x44 and the Leupold VX-6 3-18x44 side by side in a lot of conditions including low light. I can't really tell a darn bit of difference between them, both are excellent scopes. I realize the Leupold has a 30mm tube and therefore an advantage, but the Swaro is the more expensive of the two. Can't go wrong with either I don't think. The 264 win mag I whitetail hunt with has a Leupold VX-6 3-18x50 and I took my buck this fall, a 6yr old 10pt scored 152", in the last minute of legal light with it at 300yds. It was very warm during gun season this year and daylight movement was very limited. The thing I notice about scopes of this quality is that you can still see on higher powers, up to 8 or 10x, as it gets dark. The 10yr old VXIII 4.5-14x40's these replaced you couldn't use anything but 4.5x early or late. Optics have come a long way.
I do like a full vertical crosshair. In 2006 I took a nice 156" whitetail on the way into my stand. It was on a very foggy, cloudy morning and my binos showed deer in front of me in the bean field I was crossing to get to my stand before light. Some of the deer were headed my way and I had nowhere to hide except to kneel behind the terrace I was near. After a short time the buck I was there for ended up stopping to see what I was at 30yds. I had him in the scope and it was legal shooting time (the first minute of it) but I couldn't see the crosshairs against his body so I put the vertical crosshair behind his shoulder and an equal amount of it above and below him and pulled the trigger. The muzzle flash blinded me as he ran off into the fog and I headed back to my truck to await full daylight so I could check the results of my shot. Once the fog burned off I walked out and found him about 60yds from where I shot him hit perfect with the 180gr Accubond. Anyway, I do want a full length vertical crosshair after that experience, it came in handy once upon a time.
I like the look and idea of the new Vortex scopes, thanks for bringing them to my attention. I think I'll probably buy something else though looking at the reticle choices. I checked the weight on the Zeiss, looks like it's heavier than the Swaro or Leupold. After stewing on it all day and reading this I'm actually kinda leaning toward stealing the Swaro off my 204 AR I predator hunt with for the Kimber and buying a VX-6 to put on it. I have another 30mm Burris PEPR I already, it would save some money and work just as good.
For what it's worth I've had the Swaro Z5 3.5-18x44 and the Leupold VX-6 3-18x44 side by side in a lot of conditions including low light. I can't really tell a darn bit of difference between them, both are excellent scopes. I realize the Leupold has a 30mm tube and therefore an advantage, but the Swaro is the more expensive of the two. Can't go wrong with either I don't think. The 264 win mag I whitetail hunt with has a Leupold VX-6 3-18x50 and I took my buck this fall, a 6yr old 10pt scored 152", in the last minute of legal light with it at 300yds. It was very warm during gun season this year and daylight movement was very limited. The thing I notice about scopes of this quality is that you can still see on higher powers, up to 8 or 10x, as it gets dark. The 10yr old VXIII 4.5-14x40's these replaced you couldn't use anything but 4.5x early or late. Optics have come a long way.
