My VX-6HD arrived today thanks to Tillsonburg Gun Shop. Turns out they're site sponsors, I didn't even know until today. I took the scope to the range to run a quick .223 ladder and my first impressions were quite good. A few quick observations through the first 50 rounds:
- The glass is very bright and has very good definition. Definitely on par with my NXS scopes, even a bit better, I'll have to shoot them side by side to know for sure.
- Total weight was 21.7 oz with flip caps and throw lever installed. That's 1/2 oz less than a Nightforce NXS 2.5-10x42, also with caps and lever. It's also a whole 10 oz lighter than the 5.5-22x56 it replaced. Leupold advertises 19 oz, I'm guessing that's without the caps and lever.
- This scope is quite big, especially for the weight.
- There's not a lot of room for the front ring on the tube, something already mentioned in other reviews. If you don't have a rail you definitely don't have a lot of adjustment room.
- Eye relief and eye box are truly excellent. It advertises a constant 3.8" eye relief and it delivers. When looking through the scope, going from 3x to 18x doesn't change the eye relief one bit. Amazing.
- Turrets are very nice. The clicks are on the lighter side but nothing mushy here. The NXS compact remain the undisputed king of turret clicks though.
- The Zero Lock is amazing. It's the easiest system to set I've ever used. Find your zero, remove the turret and the turret goes back in to the zero position, no fiddling to line up marks. Same thing for the windage turret.
- For the elevation turret, it's not possible to go below zero. So if you set a 200 yards zero, you can't dial down for 100 yards. When zeroing the scope on a 20 MOA rail, I had to take off the turret to bring the zero down.
- The elevation turret allows no more than 38 MOA of adjustment. The turret locks at 38, after 2 full turns, no matter if you still have room in the scope. Hunters won't mind, long range shooters maybe not so much.
- Also, something I've never seen on a scope before, the turrets don't move out when you turn them. Even after 2 full turns the elevation turret doesn't go up at all.
- The firedot is amazing. It truly is daylight visible, and very visible at that, like a perfectly set red dot, not blotchy at all.
- The in-reticle level is a very nice feature. Makes shooting without a level a breeze. Once the feature is turned on it remains on, even after you turn the scope off and back on. You can turn it on and off by pressing the button for 15 seconds. It's going to remain on for the foreseeable future. I put a fresh battery in, I'm curious how long it will last.
- The flip caps are very nice, definitely the nicest caps I've ever seen come with a scope. Bikini caps sound ###ier but they're not even in the same league.
- The included throw lever is quite nice, but on the larger side. It clears the bolt on 18x but there's not a lot of wiggle room left.
That's all I can think of for now. Next range trip I'll have it side by side with a NXS 2.5-10x42 and will do a direct comparison.
I've read the glass in the VX-5HD is the same. If that's the case, that would make it the nicest glass for the money by far.
Well, illuminated B&C would be haveing it all.
