Low light scope expectations. How much better are they than the Leica I might return?

[Tl15]

I never bought a Polar because I demand illuminated reticles for hunting black pigs in dark brush and the ridiculously stupid seperate illumination control that S&B uses confounds mounting the scope easily and looks incredibly impractical. When they fix that, I would consider buying one just to see what the fuss is about.

As to the Magnus, if you go by the product literature, the Fortis actually surpasses the Magnus line now in theoretical performance. That tracks considering how old the Magnus design is.

 

[KenLee]

A couple weeks ago europtic had some of the t96 marked way down. I’m not sure how the glass in the Leica er5 compares to the amplus but, I have a er5 4x20x50 & a leupold vx5hd 3x15x56. The vx5hd is the better low light & through the magnification range.

ER5 3-15x56 is just as good with light as the same VX5 HD, and more dependable. Amplus is a little better and has illumination.

 

[stevevan]

ER5 3-15x56 is just as good with light as the same VX5 HD, and more dependable. Amplus is a little better and has illumination.

Guess my experience is different. I have 3 of the 3.5-15x50 Leica Amplus6 scopes and they work real well past legal shooting light.

 

[KenLee]

Guess my experience is different. I have 3 of the 3.5-15x50 Leica Amplus6 scopes and they work real well past legal shooting light.

What did I say that was different than your experience?

 

[ChrisAU]

I used a 50mm Amplus 6 some last season and looked through a 56mm on a friends rifle. I can't fathom anything being noticeably better to the point that a no-shot scenario becomes a dead animal.

 

[Spoobs]

This thread might give you some ideas:

Low light comparison of 17 scopes

There are always constant threads of discussions about “glass”, low light use, etc of scopes here. The last couple of week I have gotten many more questions about it (due I believe to SWFA being back in stock), so while working with a couple of scopes on other things, I brought out 10 different...

rokslide.com

lol, I'm exactly his audience. The only model I see in here that's consistently highly recommended for low light from my research is the S&B 8x56. It's interesting to see this users report: "Conclusions at legal sunset: “glass” differences in the timber made no difference in ability to make a shot- none whatsoever with these scopes. Reticles however, made a very large difference."

If the 8x56 is a good as people say, it's likely the more premium optics are going to be similar.

If you don’t need to dial for range, the 8x56 Schmidt and Bender is as good as it gets.
The 2-10 Trijicon would be my best bang for buck pick. We can legally hunt one hour after legal sunset here in SC, and the Trijicon is a very popular scope for guys trying to stay in the stand till the very last minute.

Honestly I don't really care about BDC for my hunting rifle. I'd be lucky to get an opportunity to shoot pass 200 yards. The 8x fixed zoom is a problem for me tho, I suspect I'll mostly be around the 2-6x zoom range as I want large FOV.

Can you still get the magnus in the US?

Not from a retail distributor. I've seen one on gunjoker with the zeiss rail mount option, and there was a user here who had one for sale in the classifieds about 6 months ago. Pretty rare I see these on second hand sites.