Leupold v Vortex Rimfire scopes

[Hatchdog]

Getting ready to welcome my next Henry BBS to the stable and I have been scope shopping for several days now. I have Leupold VX Freedom 2-7x33 scopes on both my Henry BBS’s that I have now and I really like that scope. One scope is a Rimfire and the other is a centerfire with the difference being the Rimfire has the parallax set at 60 yards and the centerfire’s is set at 150 yards. I did some testing this morning by setting the rifle in my gun vise and sighting it on a tree that was about 48 yards away. I didn’t hang a target on the tree but instead let the crosshairs find a piece of bark or other marking to use as an aiming point. I then did the “move your head” trick to see how much drift there was in my point of aim. As expected, the centerfire scope had considerable drift while the Rimfire had very little. I did all this as I was trying to decide between a Leupold centerfire scope and a Vortex Rimfire scope both in 2-7 that I looked at yesterday.

So, today I went to two other shops to check inventory and the second shop had both the Vortex and the Leupold 2-7 rimfires so I got to do a side by side comparison. The difference was more significant than I thought it would be with the Leupold being much brighter and more crisp. An interesting and slightly confusing find was that at 2X and looking at the post that holds the shops sign the Leupold had just a little bit more magnification. There was a black center to the brown signpost and it was noticeably wider with the Leupold.

In the end despite it’s price difference of $120.00 I went with the Leupy. I’m sure if I had put the Vortex on my rifle without checking the two scopes side by side I would have been just fine with it.

Interesting side note, last year this Leupold VX Freedom 2-7X scope sold everywhere, in store and online for $199.00. This year the same scope is $299.00 again both on line and in store. The centerfire model I looked at yesterday must have been old stock because it was still the $199.00 price. I was so tempter to save the money but my parallax test this morning convinced me to step up and do the right thing. The centerfire model I currently have on my BBS 357 will move to my X-30-30 when I find one. Then I’ll put a Rimfire on the 357.

[bandit1250]

You can use a strap wrench and remove the band on the objective and use the two notches after getting the band off to set your parallax at the distance you want it set. I use an old butter knife in the notches to turn the adjustment until I get it set for the distance I want it parallax free. I have a lot of center fire Leupolds on 22's that I set for squirrel hunting distances in the woods and some for 50 yd shooting at the range. Personally I will never buy a China made scope ever again. I will shoot peep sights before I give my money to Chinese companies.

[North Country Gal]

I'm seeing that same $100 or so price increase with the Leupolds over this last year. We recently picked up the Leupold 3-9x Rimfire with AO and will be using it on one of the air guns. One of the things I really like about the Leupold Rimfires is their smaller, compact size.

[Hatchdog]

I neglected to note the Vortex was from their Diamondback series which is in the lower end of Vortex’s price points. Same can be said about the Leupold Freedom series.

Bandit, thanks for sharing the adjustment method, I had read about that just yesterday morning. I’m liking the idea and I wish the budget would allow me to go back and buy that lower priced Leupold Freedom centerfire scope and make the adjustment you described. I’ll keep an eye on it and if it’s still there next month I’ll snatch it up.

NCG, in my research on the parallax differences I went back and read many posts here in the Scopes Topic. I read yours and others thoughts on the Leupold AO and having never seen one I checked it out. What an awesome piece of engineering for that scope. I don’t need 10 yard parallax but it’s a great that it’s available. Good job Leupold. As far as their size goes, like you that was important in my selection of a scope for my Henry lever’s. That less than 12” overall length looks great on these guns.

[Sir Henry]

Leupold will also adjust your parallax if you send them your scope and $20. I have never adjusted the parallax but have two that I would like to set at 25 yards.