i recently purchased the viper hs 2.5-10x44 for my .204. I was scared of the thin lines, but that was until i took it outside and looked all over the place with it, the lines never blended in with anything i looked at. The eye relief is huge on it as well. When i bought it, there was a guy who had recently come back from an african safari trip that has the same scope i bought, he claimed that one of the gentlemen in his hunting party had a very expensive swarovski, and they often swapped thier rifles back and forth to compare the optics, and the only difference was the swarovski was marginally better in the first and last 10 minutes of daylight. if those moments matter to you i guess i would pass on the vortex and look at something nearly 2-3x the price.