Anyone miss out on killing because of glass clarity?

[762 ULTRAMAGA]

Hate to say it but I doubt there are many rifle scopes that can see as good as quality binos in low light. Just the way it is. To expect otherwise may be asking too much?

My mk5 and March FX sure can

 

[QuackAttack]

I had an older Leupold VX3 go to crap on a hunt. Nothing really happened to it…cold weather, turned the power up from 3 to 6 and it hissed. Still clear. Shot an elk and it was off by about a foot…after confirming zero days prior. Sent back and they said the erector had broken loose. No idea why…


Glass was perfect the whole time, super clear and bright.

 

[5MilesBack]

Hate to say it but I doubt there are many rifle scopes that can see as good as quality binos in low light. Just the way it is. To expect otherwise may be asking too much?

If it's also a quality scope, there shouldn't be any issues there. If you have similar quality for both......take 8x42 bino's and put the 42mm scope on 8 power, the view should be similar from a light standpoint. And anything under 8 power in the scope should be even better for brightness. If you're using a similar quality 50mm scope, then at 8 power the rifle scope should also be better than the bino's.

 

[eoperator]

Many years ago I had a group of 3 bucks that came out in the last few minutes of the day at about 200yrds. The cheap ass scope I had on my rifle was so dark I could barely make out the deer. I ended up shooting the smallest buck of the group mistakenly.
This event may have influenced my obsession of glass I have today.

 

[SDHNTR]

It does matter. I shot a cow elk this last fall I am convinced would have been really difficult, if not impossible, if not for my Swarovski scope. It was almost black dark, a small herd of about eight animals tightly packed together, And in thick dark oak brush. If it had been seconds later I don’t think I could have made an ethical shot either. Yet the results were a quick, precise kill.

To me, I want clarity/brightness AND Rugged reliability. I don’t want a damn tradeoff.

For that matter, while I also don’t want to, I realize I must currently accept some trade-off between those elements and weight. Which is unfortunate, and actually should be unacceptable too, IMO. I hold by my view that scope manufacturers simply aren’t trying to reduce weight and retain reliability because we knuckleheaded sportsmen apparently agree to continue to purchase 2 lb scopes! They don’t have to innovate.

In my dreamland, take a Swaro Z6 and make it tougher, without increasing weight. Use titanium as needed. Market it as the fancy “Ti” version and charge accordingly! We’d have the holy grail of hunting scopes IMO. People are already buying $3000 scopes anyways, and ones that don’t even work, as shown in The recent TT thread.

Or go the other direction with a NF NXS 3-15x50, with an improvement in glass and a titanium diet. You could arguably throw in a cleaner reticle choice too and we’d have perfect.

Now someone tell me why titanium is not a suitable material for scope construction.

 

[BjornF16]

Some of these misses (edit: no shot opportunity) seem to be more of inability to find reticle versus quality of glass…in the cases where you couldn’t find the reticle, would a different reticle design have made a difference?

 

[762 ULTRAMAGA]

Some of these misses (edit: no shot opportunity) seem to be more of inability to find reticle versus quality of glass…in the cases where you couldn’t find the reticle, would a different reticle design have made a difference?

No
For me it was the entire image washing out in low light.
I've used multiple scopes with illumination and I strongly believe it's next to useless cuz it effects the eyes ability to adapt to low light, and while the reticle becomes visible the target itself looks darker and obscure.
Good glass that gatherers light is the best fix in my experience

 

[Moserkr]

Never missed an animal through my scope due to the glass lol. But Im sure I didnt see a ton through my old cheap binos. One day i could barely see a young spike buck through my binos so i pulled up my rifle for a better look. It was quite early in the morning. My cheap vx-1 gold ring leupold scope was 100x brighter than my dark old bushnell cheapo binos. Wouldnt have shot that young buck anyway but it was an eye opener, and my eyesight isnt great either. Got some vortex vipers next, which cost me not seeing a bear at a mile away, then quickly stepped up to SLCs. Im very happy with them now and my scope is not too far behind. If it costs me a future buck ill eat my shorts now but Im pretty sure if I can see it at legal shooting light, the scope wont let me down.

 

[roosiebull]

Never missed an animal through my scope due to the glass lol. But Im sure I didnt see a ton through my old cheap binos. One day i could barely see a young spike buck through my binos so i pulled up my rifle for a better look. It was quite early in the morning. My cheap vx-1 gold ring leupold scope was 100x brighter than my dark old bushnell cheapo binos. Wouldnt have shot that young buck anyway but it was an eye opener, and my eyesight isnt great either. Got some vortex vipers next, which cost me not seeing a bear at a mile away, then quickly stepped up to SLCs. Im very happy with them now and my scope is not too far behind. If it costs me a future buck ill eat my shorts now but Im pretty sure if I can see it at legal shooting light, the scope wont let me down.

i remember one year glassing up a buck a little over 300yds away in pretty good light one afternoon with some leupold gold ring 10x42's.. for the life of me, i couldn't tell if it was a big forky, small 3, or decent 3 point, watched it for probably 90 minutes... i got behind the rifle a couple times, and killing it would have been no issue, but didn't want to because it was mid season (rifle blacktail) that buck cost me 3 days of hunting to finally determine it was a smallish 3pt i didn't care to kill.... the scope was similar quality (vx-2) and it was way sufficient....

my upgrade from those was SLC in the same specs, and were night and day better. i was going to keep the gold rings for leaving in my pickup, but i was ruined... crazy enough, those binos sell used for way more than they are worth, so that was nice.

in contrast, this year i was glassing into the sun, with a haze of fog to really glare things out, and the buck i killed was 315yds, and even with the crappy glassing conditions i knew exactly what the buck was i was looking at.... nothing to note through the scope either, there was 2 bucks there, and couldn't see much antler detail through the scope, but i was on relatively low power, and used body size and face color to determine the right buck... crappy scenario for glass, and glass quality on my scope not great, but it was plenty fine for killing that buck.... lesser binos would have possibly cost me that buck because of the scenario (little crab claw forky hunted that big buck down and attacked him) and there is no way i would have shot a buck as early as it was in the season if i didn't know for sure it was a big blacktail.... i was npot ready to fill my tag at that point, but i also couldn't pass that particular buck.

if i didn't know exactly what i was looking at, i would have passed him knowing he was fighting a buck i thought was a spike for the first few minutes of watching him... he may have looked good still, but without knowing for sure, i would have assumed he looked bigger than he was, because big bucks don't fight 1.5yr old crab claw forkies.... the scope wasn't a factor, and the scope was nothing special in terms of "glass"

i appreciate good glass, but i don't recall ever appreciating good glass in a scope. if i can see what i'm aiming at, i'm good.... not many things i like more than sitting behind good glass on a tripod picking country apart though, the better the glass is, the more fun it is.... scopes just need to aim at stuff for me.

i think a big objective would benefit me more than better glass in a scope, but the big objective would only improve my life in a very niche way that's not worth it to me. when i'm hunting, i'm always on scene early, no matter what i'm hunting (and late in the evening hunts) but just rarely find myself shooting in low enough light to matter.

 

[Moserkr]

@roosiebull We are thinking along the same lines. Im horrible at judging bucks, and eyesight is below average, so im starting to get into good glass. The SLC’s definitely ruined me too lol. As ive mentioned in other posts, side by side with my buddies NL pures, I didnt feel under-glassed at all. Spotting scopes are what is really allowing us to step our game up for identifying how good an animal is beyond just legal or not. One day Im sure I will upgrade that lowest grade gold ring rifle scope but its been doing great for me so I cant complain.

I also have my grandpa’s old .30-06 semi-auto rem 742 woodsmaster in iron sights. That cost me two small bucks this year since I had to identify with binos first and couldnt get the rifle up in time after confirming legality. Normally wouldnt shoot a young buck but i dumped as much money as that rifles worth into it so it shoots, and being grandpas, I owe it at least one animal. Also just fun knowing at close ranges it is a point and click weapon off hand like pheasants with a shotgun.