Speaking of the Terra compared to those

The wall opposite the gun counter at the Ft. Cabela's is approximately 78 yards away. There is a good size antelope on that wall along with an eye chart. My experience has been thus: if a prospect is comparing a Nikon vs a Vortex in the same price range and glassing the wall, the vast majority pick the Vortex. When it is Nikon vs Leupold they always pick the Leupold. When comparing Leupold vs Vortex it is about 60/40 in favor of Leupold. Prospects are told that you really can't tell the true quality of the glass until you look through it in low light and very bright sunshine.

How do I know this? I don't have to answer that question.

Just wondering what you consider the lighting conditions to be in Cabelas?

Certainly not any hunting condition. Fluorescent lighting is not the best medium for judging optics glass.

I have some Leica binocs (10x40) and have had them for years. Many times over the years when hunting at twilight, just as the light was fading out, I could see the big buck in the binocs, but couldn't find him in the scope. Once I tried counting the deer from 'the big oak tree', where the monster buck was 5th from the tree. I could see that in the binocs but not the scope, but I could count the deer. So...1,2,3,4 and Bang. Shot a doe and caught major ridicule from hunting buddies. The point of all this is that with today's scopes I can see equally well with the good scopes (Leupold VX3 and Vortex PST) as I can with the binocs. That's just my gear, and if I upgraded the binocs to Swarovski, maybe I'd be back to 'can't see in the scope what I can see in the Swaros').

i still haven't decided, but i have been trying them out at various stores etc. right now for me... the clearest glass is leupold vx2 and nikon prostaff/monarch. i do like the vortex but in my opinion it seemed like it was not quite as crisp. also it seemed like around the edges when I'm looking through the scope that the glass has a little deflection. now i know that doesn't matter of shooting but it just bothered me.

which website?

You have to look a the 30mm tube Vortex scopes to see the 4-16 that is $309.99. Vortex is closing out this scope/reticle combination.

http://www.cabelas.com/product/Shooting/Optics/Riflescopes%7C/pc/104792580/c/104752080/sc/104535180/Vortexreg-Viperreg-HS-30mm-Riflescopes/1394449.uts?destination=%2Fcatalog%2Fbrowse%2Friflescopes%2Fvortex%2F_%2FN-1100246%2B4294749954%2FNe-4294749954%2FNs-CATEGORY_SEQ_104535180%3FWTz_l%3DSBC%253BMMcat104792580%253Bcat104752080%26WTz_st%3DGuidedNav%26WTz_stype%3DGNU&WTz_l=SBC%3BMMcat104792580%3Bcat104752080%3Bcat104535180

Ok, I will put my money where my mouth is:

I got a Vortex Viper 30mm 6-24x50 with the dead hold bdc reticle that I will trade anyone for a newer Leupold VX3 (needs to be 3.5x10 or 4.5x14 power).


Vortex are good scopes, but not even in the same conversation as Leupold, Swaro or Night Force.

I have spent countless hours out my back door at last light to test scopes, it isn't funny. A $200 Nikon Buckmaster was so noticeably better in this situation than a $600 Vortex. The same Nikon smoked the Zeiss Terra as well! Now, the Swaro and Leupold smashed the Nikon. I have posted my test results a couple times, so I am going to stop now.