Don't hear much about Zeiss scopes anymore. Why?

You piqued my interest, did some research, you are right, seems the V8 is for the LR hunter with the SFP, BDC and 13MRAD/44.7MOA elevation. Stuck with the expensive ERA-TAC mount's single choice for 36mm tube with x-tall height (good for AR style flat top, but not traditional hunting rifle). Very tiny niche market, certainly not for PRS.

The positive side can get them new cheaper than a Razor Gen II. Or buck up for 7-35 ATACR. With ATACR or RazorII easy to sell if I don't like it. The V8 will be a hard sell.
redrams9 said:
I actually own two Zeiss scopes, the Victory V8s, in 4.8-35x60. They are amazing and frustrating at the same time.
The scopes have 36mm tubes and need special rings which are not common. I am using ERA-TAC adjustable MOA mounts on mine as the scope have limited elevation on their own, and I need to shoot out past 1km. Also their reticle choices are very weak, although I am quite used to mine now and it doesn't bother me.
Now the good; these have "hands down" the best glass I've ever looked thru. I own an S&B PM2, and the new Nightforce 7-35 ATACR, plus had a Vortex Razor II, and also a Nightforce Competition before, and to my eyes, none compare to the Zeiss glass.
I was so impressed with the glass, I bought another, even with the weak reticle.
The turrets are totally fine and easy to use, locking, and the Zero-Stop is resettable in 30 seconds, super easy to use.
These scopes are big heavy, even more then the Nightforce or S&B, and they were no cheaper either, especially when you factor in a 550$ adjustable scope mount.
So my opinion is that they are a niche scope, which some will love, and most can't live with their weaknesses.
My shooting is long distance, banging steel, where we are looking all day thru the scopes either shooting or spotting and the Zeiss has a crazy big eye box and relief plus great field of view, so they are not fatiguing at al, especially compared to my other scopes, that make you mentally tired by the end of a long shooting day.
Ymmv...
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The HD5's are incredible glass for the money. I have one Zeiss scope on my .338 RUM and a pair of Zeiss binos. Phenomenal glass all around and I don't even look at other binos any longer.
 
Tons of post on CGN about top end scopes like Razor, ATACR, S&B. PRS is talk of town, no mention of Zeiss.

Zeiss is not alive and well in CGN, do a search, few hits. Try searching Zeiss Victory.
bearkilr said:
Why would you say they're no longer popular, are you referring to posts on this site? Most optics posts here are about Vortex warranty. Zeiss is alive and well.
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To the OP - Zeiss has watered down their quality though tiering their scope lines and have diminished quality expecting the name to uphold the sales of cheaper Zeiss models.

Meopta R1 Tactic. and or any of the Meostar line. Yes they are heavy because they are built to last.

I have owned one for 11 years, an R1 Tactic, Mil-Dot. 1/2" groups at 200 yards with my 1900 action Husqvarna .25-06, 110 grain accupoint. Lucky or good.....No I am not that good, but the rifle and glass are world class!

Sure dump thousands on a Schmidt & B, German Zeiss, SWAROVSKI, Steiner, and then realize that the Meopta factory produces the glass for those brands....so a little online digging...

If you are still sold by the marketing bandwagon of Zeiss and or Leupold and Nikon...sure they are good brands, with legions and decades of users.....but if you want the most value, the very finest glass and todays scope engineering and design, consider a Meoptar Meostar from Czech. Just my personal opinion after a 35 year experience with scopes...

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I had a conquest that went bad on me. Sent away for warranty and got back a terra for replacement. It's ok, but in hindsight should have asked for my conquest repaired.
 
JMedical said:
I love my Hd5's. Zeiss just hasnt kept up with technology. No ffp, no prs style reticles etc. still amazing glass.
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The vast majority of shooters have absolutely no interest in ffp or prs reticles, so Zeiss has not bothered to include these features on their scope lines. Most of the people using Zeiss scopes are hunters, that don't want or need tactical type scopes.
 
stubblejumper said:
The vast majority of shooters have absolutely no interest in ffp or prs reticles, so Zeiss has not bothered to include these features on their scope lines. Most of the people using Zeiss scopes are hunters, that don't want or need tactical type scopes.
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I agree.... never had any use for all of the complex and "busy" looking reticles.... Also don't see the point of dropping a big chunk of money for quality glass only to clutter it up with a bunch of lines and circles.....
 
burnaby said:
Tons of post on CGN about top end scopes like Razor, ATACR, S&B. PRS is talk of town, no mention of Zeiss.

Zeiss is not alive and well in CGN, do a search, few hits. Try searching Zeiss Victory.
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Those aren't common hunting scopes. The discussion on high end scopes here always centers around turrets,zero stop, mil-dot, ffp, blah, blah, blah. Seems people here seem to think that for a scope to be worth over $1000, it has to look like it came off a Navy Seal's rifle. CGN isn't the optics authority. Zeiss is still very popular for high end hunting scopes, the market isn't centered around our tiny online community here.
 
Conquest line had all sorts of issues and replaced with junk...much better options in Bushnell right now. I had 2 Conquest scopes that crapped out, after that I went with Bushnell LRHS scopes and am much happier.
 
mwic98 said:
I had a conquest that went bad on me. Sent away for warranty and got back a terra for replacement. It's ok, but in hindsight should have asked for my conquest repaired.
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Some how this just sit quite right with me.
Weren't the Conquest a higher end scope than the Terra's?

Superbrad said:
I agree.... never had any use for all of the complex and "busy" looking reticles.... Also don't see the point of dropping a big chunk of money for quality glass only to clutter it up with a bunch of lines and circles.....
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:agree:
 
Thanks for the clarification, should have posted this in the first place to avoid the confusion.
Agree the Zeiss scopes are targeted to LR hunters. The rage nowadays is PRS with FFP, XMas tree reticles, MRAD, Zero stops...; Great for those that actually do PRS.

Apparently with Zeiss owning Schott they get first crack at picking out the best. Am looking seriously at getting a Zeiss scope cause realistically my usage aligns with LR hunting and not PRS. Any links on sites that are optics authority for high end hunting scopes like Zeiss?
bearkilr said:
Those aren't common hunting scopes. The discussion on high end scopes here always centers around turrets,zero stop, mil-dot, ffp, blah, blah, blah. Seems people here seem to think that for a scope to be worth over $1000, it has to look like it came off a Navy Seal's rifle. CGN isn't the optics authority. Zeiss is still very popular for high end hunting scopes, the market isn't centered around our tiny online community here.
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I just picked up a Zeiss HD5 5-25-50mm in a trade and I'm looking for a little advice on what rings to use, I'm putting it on a M14 ARMs 18 Mount, I'm hoping I can get away with Medium rings. Anyone have any insight on the rings I should go for? Thanks!
 
scott_r said:
Conquest line had all sorts of issues and replaced with junk...much better options in Bushnell right now. I had 2 Conquest scopes that crapped out, after that I went with Bushnell LRHS scopes and am much happier.
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You clearly had a bad experience with Zeiss and I understand how you feel. The only issues we had with the old Conquest models was that several years ago some foreign matter was found inside a few we had. Other than that there were an excellent price for the level of performance and rarely were any returned to us. Phil.
 
P of PDent said:
You clearly had a bad experience with Zeiss and I understand how you feel. The only issues we had with the old Conquest models was that several years ago some foreign matter was found inside a few we had. Other than that there were an excellent price for the level of performance and rarely were any returned to us. Phil.
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I will say they were great glass, I actually still use my Zeiss Conquest 12x50 binos all the time but the scopes I had just didn't hold up...maybe I got a pair made on Monday lol
 
NHunter said:
To the OP - Zeiss has watered down their quality though tiering their scope lines and have diminished quality expecting the name to uphold the sales of cheaper Zeiss models.
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Just like so many other manufacturers have done, when the sales of higher end *anything* are not generating enough profit. Dilution of the brand to appeal to a wider and more lucrative audience, while watering down the exclusivity of the brand.
 
Aren't the Terra models built in China?

The only Chinese product I'll consider buying is the SKS rilfe!
 
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