I killed the vast majority of the big game animals I've harvested with a Leupold 2.5-8 of one iteration or another. At one time I must've had around a dozen of them. They were all used in set it and forget it capacity, no dialing. Some of them had trouble getting sighted in, but once you got it where you wanted it, they usually held. Did have one go bad on a 35 Whelen. Was on there 15 plus years and had been shot and used a lot. All of a sudden groups opened up. Put NF 3-10 on it and groups were nice and tight again.
So, I wouldn't make a statement that one won't serve you well, but I will state that I've moved on and haven't carried a Leupold of any configuration for some time. While I only had trouble with 1 2.5-8, I had bigger troubles with other Leupolds. IME, there's better options out there.
You won't likely find a rugged scope that meets your weight requirement, but then, I don't know how a few more ounces can really be that impactful on the ultimate efficacy of a scoped rifle. Not saying I care to carry more weight than I have to; however, I do care to carry a scope that's going to consistently put the bullets where I need them to go, and, based on the scopes I've had good luck with, reliability seems to come with a weight penalty.
