Owen Beardsmore of Cervus UK is a professional deer manager and stalking guide, who demands a lot of his kit. He needs a scope that will work flawlessly in all conditions – and he loves his Leupold VX-6 3-18×50 scope which he’s been using for the past year.
“The light gathering power of the scope is absolutely excellent,” Owen says. “I use it mainly at first and last light for deer management, so it’s got to perform. The lens coatings give great clarity for that deer that you’re trying to identify under some rhododendrons at very first light – it’s fantastic for that.” {% video_player “embed_player” overrideable=False, type=’hsvideo2′, hide_playlist=True, viral_sharing=False, embed_button=False, autoplay=False, hidden_controls=False, loop=False, muted=False, full_width=False, width=’1280′, height=’720′, player_id=’80994553495′, style=” %} Owen also finds the large magnification range useful – the 6 in ‘VX-6’ stands for 6x, meaning that the maximum magnification (eg 18x) is six times the lowest magnification (eg 3x). That’s a huge zoom range, and allows Owen to use high magnification for longer shots on the hill, but dial right back down for a close shot at a muntjac in woodland, for instance.
The new CDS-ZL2 (Custom Dial System ZeroLock 2) elevation and ZeroLock windage dial lock in place so they cannot be inadvertently rotated to their zero. A mere press of a button will allow the user to dial up two turns of elevation.
“When you set your scope up, get it on the range and put some shots in. Once you’ve got it fully sighted in, you can just adjust the dial for range, and quickly turn back to zero afterwards,” Owen explains.
He’s also impressed with the illuminated reticle, which has a high intensity setting for daylight, and can be turned right down for accurate shooting in dim light.
The VX-6 HD range of scopes starts at £1,875 and goes up to £2,750, depending on specification.
See more reviews of Leupold optics here.
