Re: which is the better buy?
SFWA by a ways... Better glass, and really stepping up in the market as a 'better quality name'. As much as Leupold has made efforts in the past two years to change their new reputation of 'riding the name' I don't think they've come far enough yet to warrant it. In fairness though, I am not at the cutting edge of seeing their new scopes at work yet either. Just what I still see in stores, which hasn't impressed me. Not when I can go USO and beat them in price and literally go miles further in quality.
Others, have given them the thumbs up in this category. Most notably our leader, LL. If your serious about dropping that kind of money on a scope you might PM him and ask his thoughts on what they've done to improve. Again my take is what I see in stores. That could be up to 5 yrs. old in inventory. So, they may have stepped up the quality, I'm just not in a position to see it.
Make a fair judgement on what YOU see.