I’m looking a purchasing a new scope for hunting. Specifically a Leupold Mark 5HD. However, I’d like to know if anyone has taken a good look in a low light (hunting) situation and been able to make out a discernible difference.
44mm vs 56mm
- Thread starter Shane8820
- Start date
As a fellow Alabamian, don't buy a Leupold... I know we grew up hearing how it was the best thing in the woods, but things change.
What is your max budget, and what magnification ranges are you wanting, and I can help you find something better than the Leupy...
Hello Shane, I can give you some guidance if you wanna give me a call tomorrow at 916-628-3490. - Richard
This is your perfect hunting scope, and the glass is absolutely phenomenal. Better than the MK5HD, IMO... I have the 6-36x56 version, and it's an incredible optic. The 4-25x50 is a perfect compromise for weight, length, magnification, glass quality, and features. It's great as a crossover scope, and will work equally well in the woods, as it will be on a range shooting steel. The specs are on the website below, and I think you'll like what you see. The field of view and lowlight performance of the S3 is incredible, too. Contact @Euro.Connor here on the site, and he might can probably get you hooked up with an even better deal.
Zeiss LRP S3 4-25x50mm .1 MRAD FFP ZF-MRi #16 Riflescope 522675-9916-090
FREE SHIPPING on Zeiss LRP S3 4-25x50mm .1 MRAD FFP ZF-MRi #16 Riflescope 522675-9916-090
www.eurooptic.com
The 3.6-18x44 Mk5 is quite bright, and I had no problems shooting 45 min before or after sunrise/set with the one I had. It was pretty comparable to my 4.5-27x56 Gen 2 Razors that I had at the time.
As another option, the 4-16x42 ATACR is also bright enough for legal daytime hunting, and can be found for sub $2k in the PX.
As a curve ball, I’ve seen some ZP5s (both 3-15 & 5-25) in the PX for $2k or less. They are at the upper weight limit for me, but worth considering.
As another option, the 4-16x42 ATACR is also bright enough for legal daytime hunting, and can be found for sub $2k in the PX.
As a curve ball, I’ve seen some ZP5s (both 3-15 & 5-25) in the PX for $2k or less. They are at the upper weight limit for me, but worth considering.
Some people say that only youngsters with very good vision can reap the benefits of extra light transmission and that most peoples eyes cant get all the light transmitted through a standard 40mm objective. Wondering if light transmission is a marketing hype?
It depends on what magnification. Some scopes have what's called a field stop that limit exit pupil at lower magnifications, manufactures will do this to overcome some optical limitations (limited DOF, stray light, etc.) due to other design criteria (like shorter focal length scopes). But setting aside limitations to exit pupil, the average human eye can open up to around 5-7mm (this is affected by age and how good an individuals eyes are) in lower light situations which means that is the amount of light (exiting the eyepiece) that one can take advantage of (but having a larger exit pupil can help with a scope being more forgiving, we call this eye box which is different from exit pupil but the two have a relationship with each other). So let's say you have a 3-18x56 scope and a 4-16x42 scope and you're in a low light situation, you decide that a decent magnification to shoot at and still obtain decent PID is 10x, the 56mm scope is going to give you an exit pupil of 5.6mm while the 42mm scope will give you an exit pupil of 4.2mm - you do the math, which scope and objective size has the potential to be "brighter" in low light situations given the same magnification? This is why many people choose the larger objective as it allows them to use higher magnification in low light situations without losing brightness or the ability to get a good sight picture. Now, if you say that you feel confident taking a shot at 5x magnification, you've now doubled your exit pupil size thus making the difference between the two objective sizes less of an issue, but if you go up in magnification to say 15x now you're stressing both but certainly the smaller objective is going to cause your eye to struggle much more.
@koshkin has an excellent video on eye pupil vs exit pupil
