Surprised no one said Leupold MK4 12-40x
Love mine, can spot trace and mirage well
I actually had the chance to peer through one of these very nice little scopes last week
It has a lot of great options, if you're carrying it in the field.
It's small field of view can make it quite difficult to get the object to be viewed, visible, especially at high magnification. Other than that, it was sharp and clear and the mil dot reticle can be a real aid for judging distances past 300 meters.
In all honesty, I would spend the money on a good quality range finder, with at least 7X magnification.
A long time back, I bit the bullet and put a couple of K down on a Swarovski with a Habicht SD HD 80 mm Objective lens and a detachible 20-60X eyepiece, with a 22mm aperture lens. It was close to the best available at the time and it's still excellent, especially under low light conditions, where IMHO it beat out the Leupold.
For ''my'' purposes this scope does everything I've ever asked of it. It will even accept a camera
The drawback is that it's BULKY, but not overly heavy.
My days of hiking to the top of a mountain after a fly in are over, so this scope's size isn't an issue.
Nowadays, I just use the 7x Swarovski rangefinder for just about all of my hunting needs.
If I were packing in, way off the beat trail, I wouldn't feel the least bit deterred with the Leupold. Even at its highest magnification, the images are sharp, right out to the edges. I'm not all that enamored by the size of mil dot reticle. IMHO, it's to large.
Going cheap on glass that can make or break a hunt is a recipe for frustration. Buy the best glass you can afford, especially if you're a serious hunter.
