For anyone considering purchasing a new Swarovski. Not a review. Just a purchase update for your consideration. Had I known this earlier.........
For 2 of my hunting rifles, I have purchased 2 new Swarovskis'. A Z5i and a Z3.
The Z5i 2.4x12x50 is now on my 30-06. Provided there are no quality issues - it will stay on that rifle.
The Z3 - same power levels as the Z5 - had the Ballistic Turret. The external, multi colored dot system on the elevation turret - Hopeful - I thought this would end a lot of my personal dialing confusion. The perfect, simple system. All those high expectations crashed when I discovered what it took with the elevation turret just to prepare it for sighting in at 100 yards ONLY - and then reassemble all the many pieces with the Swaro "chip" provided to keep everything tight. Holy cow!!! I am a patient man but all those (too many) steps with the small plastic chip with TINY ajustment knobs - sorry - just not going to do that. God bless those of you who can. I wish I could.
This morning, exchanged it - another Z3 - no BT - no dialing - has the BRH reticle to help me with hold-overs. Yeah - I know - well short of all the dialing advantages. KISS always seems to work better for me. LR target work comes a distant second to my hunting - so I'll live with the hold-over disadvantages.
Will post a range update in a few days.
Cheers Ya'll.
Too rich for my blood. I went with a Leupold VX5-HD for my primary hunting rifle. A friend and neighbor has Swarovski optics and I drool over them. But he did VERY well as a business owner, but I worked under business owners. Cannot fault you if you have the financial impetuous to go that route. You are fortunate.
"They couldn't hit an elephant at this distance." Last words of Gen. Sedgwik
The Swaro Z3's and basic Z5's aren't too spendy; just under $1k for a 4-12x Z3 and about $1100 for the basic Z5 2.4-12x. Leupold's pricing really isn't much cheaper depending on features/reticle you want. Yes a base mode VX-3HD 4.5-14x starts at $500, but if you want a fancier reticle and illumination you're now looking at $700 or better. The Leupold VX-5HD in a 3-15x starts at $900 for the base configuration and goes up to as high as $1600 for a more feature laden model.Originally Posted by Stumpkiller
"Life' is tough. It's even tougher if you're stupid." ~ John Wayne
“Under certain circumstances, urgent circumstances, desperate circumstances, profanity provides a relief denied even to prayer.” —Mark Twain
Thanks for the comment. You seldom hear much about Swarovski optics these days!
Am curious as to what you meant by this as the magnification levels simply can't be the same. One has a 3x mag range while the other is basically a 5x configuration.
Actually, most Z3s that I have priced are generally less than a VX5-HD. You must be thinking of the Z6/Z6i, etc.
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