Rifle Scopes Leica PRS 5-30×56 with PRB Reticle
- Thread starter dghboy315
- Start date
I'm not a scope whore, nor have I tried everything that's come down the pike. But I was one of those Leupold fudds at one time (through the 80's-90's anyway) and then I got to hunt with a Zeiss one year. Dropped Leupold like a bad habit. Learned about what real glass was all about and what good turrets were. Anyway, I still have an old (early 90's) Leupy on one rifle and compared to my Magnus, it's like looking through a car window with limo tint. And mushy turrets that remind of eating lumpy mashed potatoes.
If I had a Magnus on every hunting rifle, well, I could do worse.
If I had a Magnus on every hunting rifle, well, I could do worse.
Fair point but Leica seems to run better sales than S&B’s “Hey guys we knocked $15 off that scope you’ve been looking at.”
I hear you, but sometimes EO has demos they sell and at least once a year they have a good sale on S&B. I’m guessing Leica goes on sale more because they don’t sell as many. Another mfr to watch is Blaser, their Infinity scopes are supposed to be very impressive and they have a 2.5-20x50 and 4-20x56. If they get a reticle with mil hash that 4-20 will have great appeal. IWA is right around the corner but I’m not holding out too much
Look like it's in stock at Europtic. Got an email the other day. Price seems very competitive. Would like to see one in person.
Glass may be on par but the turrets are not - at least from SHOT show. Not the they were bad, just not as good. Don't get me wrong, I plan to try one out.
Very impatiently awaiting @koshkin to give us a preliminary turret, tracking, & glass first impressions................................
I was told dealers are expecting them any day. Actually I was told a second shipment of these will be coming in 2-3 weeks.
I currently have a Razor G2 4.5-27 EBR-7C and need a second scope. I was thinking about a Cronus but Lowlight confirmed what I kind of already new (good glass matters).
I want German Glass, but I don't have TT, ZCO, or SB budget right now. I'm spread thin being new to this and having to buy everything. I'd been giving Minox serious consideration, but then this new Leica comes out.
I like the size & being new to precision rifle, I really appreciate the uncluttered & somewhat simplified reticle. I also like the fact that it's .2 mil hash marks both horizontally and vertically, while switching to .5 out on the tree. Maybe with a few years, training, and a few matches under my belt it would leave me wanting. See I'm already thinking up good excuses to upgrade down the road ?
The field of view specs on this scope are pretty impressive, but a little misleading. Seeing as there stated in yards, but at 100M (109yards)
I was told dealers are expecting them any day. Actually I was told a second shipment of these will be coming in 2-3 weeks.
I currently have a Razor G2 4.5-27 EBR-7C and need a second scope. I was thinking about a Cronus but Lowlight confirmed what I kind of already new (good glass matters).
I want German Glass, but I don't have TT, ZCO, or SB budget right now. I'm spread thin being new to this and having to buy everything. I'd been giving Minox serious consideration, but then this new Leica comes out.
I like the size & being new to precision rifle, I really appreciate the uncluttered & somewhat simplified reticle. I also like the fact that it's .2 mil hash marks both horizontally and vertically, while switching to .5 out on the tree. Maybe with a few years, training, and a few matches under my belt it would leave me wanting. See I'm already thinking up good excuses to upgrade down the road ?
The field of view specs on this scope are pretty impressive, but a little misleading. Seeing as there stated in yards, but at 100M (109yards)
I'm not new to the sport but I am new to high end scopes. I'm having a really hard time not justifying the ZCO but that's what makes me interested in this scope! I'd love to see how it stacks up to the minox across the board and see where it stacks up with the zco and TT optically.
They were in stock for several days while the email sat in my in box.
I just purchased an NX8 so I didn't order one plus I'm waiting on reviews.
- Apr 17, 2019
- 139
- 91
I got a few on hand currently and will be messing with them extensively throughout the day. Feel free to give me call or shoot message if ya'll have any questions. And yes, they list at $2,699 but as I always, if you want to talk real pricing just give me a call.
I do not think it will compete with the ZCO and ZP5; however, I would be pleasantly surprised if it does. ILya is getting one and has extensive experience with all alpha scopes in this class so I will await his thoughts on how the Leica PRS stacks up against other alpha scopes.
I am really interested to see what you have to say about this scope once you have compared it to others. I had the opportunity to mess around with it at Shot Show and again at the Western Hunting Expo, but those were both indoors and I didn't have any other scopes to compare it to. I am fairly interested in it if it presents well against other top tier scopes. I know the turrets are not as good as my TT turrets, but if everything else is comparable, then I may be grabbing one of these instead of another TT.
Hoping optically holds its own with the ZP5. Hoping to compete with TT or ZCO, especially at the price point, not holding my breath.
That is a good way to summarize. I love my Leica binos, as well as a pair of 15x binos that a buddy has. Super clean, bright and natural to my eyes. Important details have a 'pop'. Maybe that is because they are binos (vs a mono tube scope). I really want to like this scope because of my positive experience with the brand. I'm excited to hear about the good reports on the Leica hunting scopes.
Was thinking about features this one has that the ZP5 and my current Premier 5-25x don't have, including:
- an extra 5x on the upper mag range (30x vs 25x)
- another 4 mils of come up (28 vs 32), which is valuable to me with some of the 2500+yd shooting I do every once and a while
- more modern reticle vs my XR Gen 2. I especially like the 'clean' upper half for observation, as I often wish I had more clean real estate.
- something of a 'tool-less' zero change (maybe not as good as the Premier/TT)
Don't know if that is all worth an upgrade (I have nearly 10 years on my Premier and nothing is wrong with it) or if there are other upgrades this one offers.
My prediction:
-Solid design optically
-Useable reticle
-Useable turret feel with solid tracking
-Great no frills scope with all the necessary features
-Solid design optically
-Useable reticle
-Useable turret feel with solid tracking
-Great no frills scope with all the necessary features
I think that's what we're all thinking. But to what extent is the question. If it's no frills but absolutely kicks butt on the main features then this could become a great scope. But we'll find out soon.
So in addition to my list above (post #177), I'm looking for:
- glass as good as Minox/Premier
- good rugged design that can take a lot of bumps over multiple years w/o loss of zero and/or high probability of repair
- perfect tracking
I don't scope hop - I own them for years (10+yrs) and will only upgrade if there are material improvements or my current kit takes a dump. On my second point - ruggedness over multiple years - I would be willing to take a leap of faith with Leica given my experience with the brand (7 years with the LRF binos) and if owners of this specific Leica scope report that the design 'looks' rugged.
This great no frills scope exists already with all the features noted,
sure you can say there several that fit the bill, but in this case we have this
sure you can say there several that fit the bill, but in this case we have this
I would be pleasantly surprised if this list holds up, but I'm not holding my breath. The Minox ZP5 offers me almost everything I want in a scope, the ZCO ZC420 is the only one recently introduced to get me to think about switching. The 5-30 intrigues me, but I'd prefer wider FOV at the bottom instead of higher magnification at the top, but I have different requirements over what this scope was specifically designed for. At the end of the day I'm hoping Leica knocks this out of the park and opens the door for another alpha class scope at a fantastic price.
Any of you dealers get some time behind this scope yet? I am ready to pull the trigger on something soon. Was going to buy another TT from my buddy for $3750 new, but I would still like to save the $1k+ if this scope holds up fairly well to the TT. I know the turrets aren't as good because I have messed around with them, just wasn't able to compare it side by side to another alpha scope.
That's a good point. To convert 100m to get 100y FOV the equivalent would be:
Leica 5-30 FOV at 5x 100yds - 24.7 ft
ZCO 4-20 FOV at 4x 100yds - 28 ft
TT525P/ZP5 5-25 FOV at 5x 100yds - 22.8 ft
ZCO 5-27 FOV at 5x 100yds - 21.0 ft
Previously the TT/ZP5 had one of the widest FOV for the alpha class 5-25, but the Leica is very impressive as it bests the TT/ZP5 by almost 2 ft at 100 yards and the ZCO 5-27 by 3.7 ft. I do like that more manufacturers are going to wide angle eyepieces similar to the Burris XTR III scopes and March's new FFP High Master scopes - 5-42x56 and 4.5-28x52. I would love to see more manufacturers look to improve FOV throughout the range of their high magnification scopes.
Leica PRS scope is here. I will take a closer look over the next few days.
Turrets are definitely better than what I remember from the samples they had at SHOT.
ILya
Turrets are definitely better than what I remember from the samples they had at SHOT.
ILya
Lol
I suspect he’d get lynched if he doesn’t.
I suspect you are right.
I will most certainly compare it carefully against whatever is on hand.
ILya
I did. Some parts of it I kinda get. Some make no sense to me. I should probably ping him and see what the rationale behind some features was.
That having been said, when I evaluate a scope, the reticle is not really a part of how i think it stacks up. Now, if I do not like the reticle it will not be something I add to my list of recommendations, but that is a different thing.
To be fair, I need to do some shooting with it to be certain, but off hand, the open center is interesting and should work fine. The primary vertical and horizontal stadia with 0.2 mrad hashes are in-line with modern expectations. I would prefer then to be a little more symmetric horizontally, but a good number of reticles out there are not symmetric, so I am in the minority here.
The tree is what gives me a bit of trouble. First of all, it goes all the way down Horus-style for more than 30 mrad. I am sorta on the record that this is useless. If they restricted the tree to 10-15 mrad, I'd probably like it a lot mroe. Also, there are those horizontal lines every 10 mrad below the primary that go all the way to the edges. I do not understand their purpose. Are they for quick visual reference of every 10 mrad? Under what circumstances do you need to quickly make a shot that requires 20 or 30 mrad of holdover with the reticle?
The tree is based around 0.5 mrad grid. I would probably prefer to have it based on 0.2 mrad like the primary stadia, but that is really a personal preference. If you only use the tree infrequently, keeping it sparse is not a bad idea. However, if you use the tree infrequently, why do you need the whole 30+ mrad tall mosquito net?
Now, Leica's simpler Ballistic reticle is perfectly reasonable and I would not hesitate to recommend that. With PRB reticle, time will tell.
ILya
I agree the Ballistic reticle appeals to me and would work for me. I look forward to your review.
I didn't like the reticle until i realized that it was illuminated. Illuminated it works pretty well at 5x. I'd buy one.
It is a very nice scope, but it is no Tangent Theta, nor should it be at $2k less. I am trying to bracket it with scopes that are a little more expensive and a little less, but honestly, it kinda depends on what I have on hand. The most direct competitor price-wise is Leupold Mark 5, which I happen to have here and like a lot.
ILya
