Rifle Scopes Some Zeiss Conquest questions

[Heronion]

Needing a dual-purpose hunting and mid-range target shooting scope, looking at maybe a Zeiss Conquest. A few questions:

1) How is the overall glass quality of these scopes compared to others in price range (looking at $350ish for 3-9x and $600ish for 4-14x)?

2) How well or how much better than other scopes do these work in low-light situations?

3) Is there a purely GLASS quality difference in the more expensive Conquest line scopes or is the added price simply feature like mag, reticle, etc?

Thanks for any info you guys have,

Brian

 

[grmroper001]

Re: Some Zeiss Conquest questions

Have a conquest 6.5-20. It's a purely subjective question to try to answer but to my eyes the glass is noticibly better than my leupold vx 3 or my sightron sIII. I very much like the low light performance of my conquest

 

[BobD]

Re: Some Zeiss Conquest questions

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: bpnelson</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Needing a dual-purpose hunting and mid-range target shooting scope, looking at maybe a Zeiss Conquest. A few questions:

1) How is the overall glass quality of these scopes compared to others in price range (looking at $350ish for 3-9x and $600ish for 4-14x)?

<span style="color: #FF0000"> The 3-9 in my opinion is optically superior to most everything in its range (starting around $300. I feel Trijicon's Accupoint and Leupold's VX6 are excellent options when you start looking at some of the more expensive Conquest line
</span>
3) Is there a purely GLASS quality difference in the more expensive Conquest line scopes or is the added price simply feature like mag, reticle, etc?
<span style="color: #FF0000"> No, the reticle and turrets change the price substantially. The lower variables look great, especially for the money</span>
Thanks for any info you guys have,

Brian </div></div>

 

[Hondo64d]

Re: Some Zeiss Conquest questions

I have three Conquests, and have had very good results with them. Image quality is noticeably better to me than my previous Leupolds. In fairness though, my last Leupolds were Vari-X IIIs and an FX-III, not the newer ones.

What I really like better in the Conquest than other scopes I have tried are the very crisp reticles. I believe they are etched as opposed to the Leupolds I have used being wire reticles. The conquest reticles have been very black and crisp for me in all conditions, whereas the Leupold wire reticles, can pick up a copper colored hue in some lighting conditions.

I also like Zeiss' target turrets. They are relatively low profile, positive, audible and repeatable. If your scope doesn't come with them, Zeiss will install them for $80 each. While I haven't used any of the really high dollar optics like Nightforce or S&B, I have not found my conquests w/ target turrets lacking in any shooting I have done with them which includes ranges out to 800 yards.

My latest is a 3-9 that I had Zeiss put their #4 reticle and target turrets on. What a great hunting scope! Reticle is great for close range low light and long distance precision both. I have the 3-9, a 3.5-10, and the 4.5-14, and for a hunting scope I think the 3-9 is the best. The eye box on the 3-9 is more forgiving than the others and the image exceptionally bright. The 3.5-10 and the 4.5-14 are very nice too, but when all are set on the same magnification, not any better than the 3-9. The increased $ are just not justified to my eyes, especially between the 3-9 and 3.5-10. The 3-9 conquest has got to be one of the best bargains out there in a hunting scope.

Edited to add that when I was zeroing my 3-9 Conquest recently, I was easily able to see .264 bullet holes in my targets at 100 yards with the scope set on 3x. Maybe that's not unusual, I dunno, but I was VERY impressed.

John