Leupold VX-5 HD Tracking (Opinions on Huskemaw?)

Joined
Oct 24, 2015
Messages
1,614
Location
W. Wa
Here’s my VX5HD experience. About a month ago I posted that my custom .300wsm quit shooting. It’s a 3/4-7/8 moa rifle. Just like that it was a scattergun. By that I mean 5-6” at 200 at best. Checked the stock, crown, mounts, etc.....

Decided to put the VX5 on my Barrett 30-06 and try it, Friday. The Barret is 3/4 moa rifle with my eyes.
I had some issues getting it dialed at 100. Went out this morning at 200 and again i had a scattergun on my hands. Two different rifles.
Came home and put my VX3i back on the Barrett 30-06 and went back to the range. It’s right back to 3/4 moa.
This will be the second time I’m sending the VX5 back to Leupold. First time was because right out of the box the reticle was canted.
Take from this what you will. I hear people say, so what their warranty is great. They will fix it.
You know what, I’d rather have a product where I don’t need to use the warranty this much. Especially when this happens 3 weeks before a hunting trip west. Thankfully I have another rifle.
Agreed. Warranties are nice and all but if it’s the main selling point for an optic I’m gonna take a hard pass. I don’t care if you’ll replace my scope under your no fault warranty for it being in a house fire(that’s why I pay for homeowners) - I’d rather have a scope that works.

Read the fine print on those no fault warranties - I haven’t found one yet that will reimburse you for your tag fees, call your boss and get you more pto, reimburse travel costs, pay for ammo to get the rifle sighted back in. When you find one let me know!
 

JLane330

Lil-Rokslider
Joined
Apr 21, 2020
Messages
242
Location
Albuquerque, NM
Looking at the reticle on the box, how do you hold wind?
I've been thinking about this a lot lately as I shoot my VX5 more at longer ranges. I used to just hold left/right in inches, but the SIG 2400ABS doesn't output in inches. This is probably more important than I realized and will need to figure something out. Any ideas?
Here’s my VX5HD experience. About a month ago I posted that my custom .300wsm quit shooting. It’s a 3/4-7/8 moa rifle. Just like that it was a scattergun. By that I mean 5-6” at 200 at best. Checked the stock, crown, mounts, etc.....

Decided to put the VX5 on my Barrett 30-06 and try it, Friday. The Barret is 3/4 moa rifle with my eyes.
I had some issues getting it dialed at 100. Went out this morning at 200 and again i had a scattergun on my hands. Two different rifles.
Came home and put my VX3i back on the Barrett 30-06 and went back to the range. It’s right back to 3/4 moa.
This will be the second time I’m sending the VX5 back to Leupold. First time was because right out of the box the reticle was canted.
Take from this what you will. I hear people say, so what their warranty is great. They will fix it.
You know what, I’d rather have a product where I don’t need to use the warranty this much. Especially when this happens 3 weeks before a hunting trip west. Thankfully I have another rifle.
Thanks for sharing this. I have a muzzleloader that I've been having a terrible time sighting in with a brand new VX5 on it. The ML was bought from a friend of a friend, and he claimed incredible accuracy out of it at 600 yds (it's bedded, muzzle brake, Arrowhead ignition, etc). I chalked it up to it being a ML, etc, but after many outings to get it figured out, it's all over left/right, then up/down, etc. We aren't even dialing the scope, just shooting at 200 yd zero. I've checked the entire rifle over several times, can't find anything wrong. Thing is, when I bore sight it (looking thru the barrel at a target 150yds away), the scope is sighted exactly where I'd expect. So, inconclusive. I should try swapping the scope one day to eliminate the scope. I've been assuming it's the loads/sabots/bullets/etc, but maybe not.

I have 4 total VX5's and the other 3, so far, have been spot on. My other ML wears one too and shot a 1.25" group at 300yds with it a week ago. That scope seems to dial perfectly with that rifle out to 600 yds (furthest I've shot it).

I love the optical quality of the VX5, as well as the FireDot. Overall the scopes are about perfect for me except this nagging questionable duability. I want something rock solid vs a good warranty. I work too hard to put myself one good animals to blow a shot due to faulty equipment.

I've seen several other brands (Nightforce, Vortex, Huskemaw, Meopta) mentioned as good alternatives, but they all seem to have their faults (optical quality, weight, size, etc). Not sure what to do long term...
 

Flyjunky

WKR
Joined
Jun 22, 2020
Messages
1,437
Very interesting thread here. I think quite a few things are going on when threads like this pop up, regardless of brand, product, etc.

Every company has it's problems and those problems are magnified on message boards. I'm guessing that some of the people who are bringing up their problems on this thread have also brought those problems up on other boards as well....its common practice, which leads to more threads in searches on google.They also tend to have the loudest "voice". The other issue is that you rarely have people start a thread solely because they've had a great experience with a certain product...the old adage of bad news travels like wildfire while good news travels slow. Also, as has been mentioned above, take into account the number of products that company has sold, simple statistics are hard to argue with. The more you produce and sell the more likely you are to have some bad products. I find it interesting that some people on here are saying they would rather go with vortex, well, I've read a ton of negative things about Vortex scopes, yet. I would be willing to be the number of their scopes sold in "turret/long range" category is much less than Leupold. We could keep going with this but I think we get the point.

Now, I'm not saying all this because I'm some Leupold zealot. Actually, I only own 2 Leupolds, VX5-HD, VX6-HD. I also have 2 NF as well, both NX8's. I haven't had a single problem with either of the Leupold scoped rifles and those rifles have had the most rounds down the tube. Matter of fact, the VX5 rifle is on its second barrel, 28N with 1163 rounds and, yes, the turrets get used a lot. Until I personally have a problem with Leupold I'll keep pulling the trigger with the upmost confidence, same with NF.

Take all the info you get on the internet with a grain of salt, the only thing you can really trust is your own personal experience.
 

CC

FNG
Joined
May 7, 2012
Messages
82
Location
Dillon, MT
Wanting to scope a lightweight 300wsm. With all the post on the Leupold not tracking I don't want to take a chance. I have a light weight rifle and want to put a scope on it to match. What would you recommend? Swaro? Dang... I really liked the Leupold.
 

Bater

WKR
Joined
Apr 2, 2020
Messages
468
Wanting to scope a lightweight 300wsm. With all the post on the Leupold not tracking I don't want to take a chance. I have a light weight rifle and want to put a scope on it to match. What would you recommend? Swaro? Dang... I really liked the Leupold.
Razor LHT, lightweight and tough.
 

Bater

WKR
Joined
Apr 2, 2020
Messages
468
I’ve got a few V4’s as well, another great lightweight scope w/ solid guts for dialing
 
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