It's primarily going to be used for hunting prairie dogs out to 200 yards or so. I understand it probably won't make a difference between a hit or a miss, but with that argument why buy any expensive glass when you could buy the same power scope for a lot less and it won't determine a hit or a miss.
Do you notice a huge difference between the 5HD and the Freedom? I was at the sporting goods store with the 3HD and the Freedom and couldn't tell a huge difference if really any at all. I was told the difference is when you're outside in low lighting and behind the scope for a long amount of time that you would notice. I don't know how true that is but that's what everyone has told me!
Oh I'm not at all saying that good glass quality is unimportant. I'm saying lots of folks overestimate the importance of glass quality in a rifle scope, while underestimating the importance of mechanical reliability. Ideally, you get both. There are not a ton of scopes that do that well though. Trijicon does. SWFA would be by most people's estimate a step up in mechanical quality and a step down in optical clarity. Nightforce (or Trijicon Tenmile) would be a way to bump both mechanical and optical quality up from those Trijicon Credo's. Lots of options for great glass quality but questionable at best mechanical reliability including Leupold, Vortex, Athlon, and even some very premium priced options. This is what most of the buyers in the market ask for (glass quality and features like illumination, zero stop, etc), and to paraphrase what I think was a Mencken quote, they get it good and hard.
Low light there will be a difference, but with my eyes that only buys me a few minutes anyway. I'll say nobody I've ever known has had a Leupold that lost zero. The Freedom as well as some of my others have endured some seriously rattle your kidneys loose boat rides and plenty of 1000 mile drives ending deep in national forest roads or BLM cliche roads with horrible blade chop with no issues. I rarely ever dial anything so can't really speak to the dialing but the few times I have they returned fine. Some of these scopes are pushing 30 years old, old VX-Ls were my favorite. My son shot his first antelope two years ago with the rifle my father zero'd for me in 1992 with a Vari-X III and hasn't been touched since. That ammo he used was 15 years old too lol..
