leouold vs. nightforce

[farmerjohn]

Hi folks.
Several years ago my son got me started back shooting composition again doing 600 and 1000. Naturally I got out one of my Leupold 36X scopes,mounted it on a new savage 6.5X284 and started shooting. They all laughed at me and told me I had to have a night force 42 power instead of my antique. So I went with night force. Two years and 4 new night forces on all our rifles later we got into point blank shooting to have some more fun and found the night forces to heavy for LV rifles. We bought new 45X Leupold's for our point blank guns and last week we happened to be sighting in a new 6 dasher while we were working up some loads for our ppc's. We had the 42X NXF right beside the new 45X Leupold and to me there was no comparison at 1&200 yds, the Leupold was far better! I'm thinking of trying one on my 1000 yd. rifle, any input from anyone? JF

 

[300ulta210]

I hope my post is not to far off base anyway I have a lupy it's not the scope you have it's just a 6.5x20x50 but what really bothers me is I have no zero stop that's why when I'm old and gray I will hopefully have enough money then, to sell my lupy and get a nightforce so I don't have to worry about loosing zero.I really wish leupold would feature this option but I herd it's patened.do you worry about dialing up and down in competition?Does the fixed power nightforce scopes have the zero stop on them also?

 

[farmerjohn]

I don't think that the zero stop is available on any thing higher than the 5X22, they told me that i could not get it on my 42. We just zero the cap at 100 yds. and go up 12 min. for 600 or 24 to start at 1000. I have a couple of night forces that I may put up for trade after I try the 45 leupold on my long gun.JF

 

[farmerjohn]

Taildrag,
Sorry I did not read your post close enough. Our scopes are 12X42 NXS's, Idon't think that they build a high power fixed scope. I have a 5X22 NXS that I ordered with a fixed stop and all it amounts to is a clutch affair that you lock the adjustment so it cannot go down past a certain point. It can only go up from that spot and then you zero your cap at that spot. I hope I'm making myself clear.

 

[Brodie]

I've been reading a lot of different forums and it seems that the BR line of nightforces tend to have clearer optics than the NXS line. Not sure why this would be.
I think the difference that most people see is the nightforces have more reliable tracking than leupolds.....generally.
Anyways, hope this is the case my new nightforce should be here in a coupe days.

 

[ChuckMiller]

Same Experience here, all by buddys have Nightforce scopes on their heavy Bench rifles with me being the lone holdout with the Leupold 45 Comp. Between relays I sat behind my friends NF after shooting mine all day and it was night and day difference. I invited them to look through mine and all of them had 2 comments, the Leupold had a larger field of view and they couldn't tell any difference in clarity/resolution. To a man they all had to go back and forth several times before I could literaly drag that omission from them. Their final statement,'it has to be better because it cost more'.

 

[Rust]

Well, the real weakness of a fixed power scope for long range shooting,1,000 yards) in the middle of the deep south in July with the humidity up and the mirage running hard is the fact it is a fixed power.

The real utility of the 12-42 BR Nightforce is that it is a variable, the highest power variable of good quality available at anywhere near a,for me at least) affordable price. So that is what tops my 1,000 yard rifles.

If Leupold made a variable in the 45X range, made their turrets a little more repeatable, improved the side parallax adjustment and installed their recticules a little more squared for around the same money I'd surely consider one. They don't.

This from someone who has bought Leupolds for the last forty years.