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Leupold MARK 5HD 2-10x30

Leu just released what this scope should have been in the 4HD line with the 2.5x10x40. It's lighter doesn't have the ridiculous 35mm body with all the bells and whistles you'd want.
 
Leu just released what this scope should have been in the 4HD line with the 2.5x10x40. It's lighter doesn't have the ridiculous 35mm body with all the bells and whistles you'd want.
Depends what you’re after…

Length: MK5 is almost 1.5” shorter
Weight: MK4 is 3 oz lighter (no side focus, even though it has a larger objective)
FOV: MK5 has 23% wider FOV (makes sense, lower mag)
Price: MK4 is meaningfully cheaper
Reticles: both are stuck with TMR / illuminated TMR (no tree or BDC availabile)


For my use (mostly night hunting behind a clip on) the FOV, length, and side focus push me to the MK5. If I didn’t do night stuff the MK4 would be awesome too
 
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If NF or Vortex (via the AMG or Razor line) brings out a good 2-10 or 2-12 with a reticle besides a duplex I'd probably be all over that. We shall see...
 
If NF or Vortex (via the AMG or Razor line) brings out a good 2-10 or 2-12 with a reticle besides a duplex I'd probably be all over that. We shall see...

I almost gave up on that, so I use March 1.5-15x42 that ticks a lot of boxes for me.
I do plan to test the 2.5-10x42 Mark 4HD pending taking a look at it at SHOT. With the Mark5HD 2-10x30, I really liked it optomechanically, but I want a different reticle. TMR is a perfectly reasonable design, but I think they can do better.

ILya
 
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I almost gave up on that, so I use March 1.5-15x42 that ticks a lot of boxes for me.
I do plan to test the 2.5-10x42 Mark 4HD pending taking a look at it at SHOT. With the Mark5HD 2-10x30, I really liked it optomechanically, but I want a different reticle. TMR is a perfectly reasonable design, but I think they can do better.

ILya
Bummer, will look into the 1.5-15 a little more, sounds like the latest version of that is pretty good. Maybe Vortex or NF will surprise us with a similar optic with a better reticle!
 
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Bummer, will look into the 1.5-15 a little more, sounds like the latest version of that is pretty good. Maybe Vortex or NF will surprise us with a similar optic with a better reticle!
I wouldn't hold your breath, NF has the 2.5-20 so not sure if they’ll bring out an ATACR MPVO (I still think an NX8 1.5-12x42 with FC-DMx reticle would be a huge seller), Vortex seems to have the biggest gap right now, with the decision not to release an RG3 3-18 they literally have nothing in the MPVO range 🤷‍♂️ A Razor LHT 2-10 could wake things up and a light weight RG3 3-18 would be nice as well. AMG team is brewing something but no one knows what or when. Because I love to conjecture I’d like to think a well thought out Razor/AMG class MPVO is in the works but could be completely wrong. If Steiner tweaked their 2-12x42 to be a T6Xi with a well thought out reticle, but that seems to be the biggest issue with everyones MPVO’s (not named March or Athlon) they just don’t understand the FFP reticle that works at low mag. It’s frustrating cause we've been talking about it on the Hide for years and only a Chinese Athlon and Alpha class March have tried to address it leaving a huge gap in the midrange $1-$2k class market.

All that said, this Mark 4 2.5-10x42 with illuminated TMR could work, would rather have a better reticle but Leupold is about 5 years behind everyone else when it comes to innovative reticles…
 
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I wouldn't hold your breath, NF has the 2.5-20 so not sure if they’ll bring out an ATACR MPVO (I still think an NX8 1.5-12x42 with FC-DMx reticle would be a huge seller), Vortex seems to have the biggest gap right now, with the decision not to release an RG3 3-18 they literally have nothing in the MPVO range 🤷‍♂️ A Razor LHT 2-10 could wake things up and a light weight RG3 3-18 would be nice as well. AMG team is brewing something but no one knows what or when. Because I love to conjecture I’d like to think a well thought out Razor/AMG class MPVO is in the works but could be completely wrong. If Steiner tweaked their 2-12x42 to be a T6Xi with a well thought out reticle, but that seems to be the biggest issue with everyones MPVO’s (not named March or Athlon) they just don’t understand the FFP reticle that works at low mag. It’s frustrating cause we've been talking about it on the Hide for years and only a Chinese Athlon and Alpha class March have tried to address it leaving a huge gap in the midrange $1-$2k class market.

All that said, this Mark 4 2.5-10x42 with illuminated TMR could work, would rather have a better reticle but Leupold is about 5 years behind everyone else when it comes to innovative reticles…
Agreed on the 1.5-12 NX8, I saw somewhere that NF trademarked the NX6 but that could be as much defense as anything.

Something from the AMG team outside of the AMG 1-10 would be very interesting.

Steiner needs to put the T6Xi on a diet and it would be much more appealing.

Leupold needs to stick a reticle (PR2 or CMR-W) in their 2-10 and they’d have a winner! Seems like the reticle is the easiest part and they already had 2 that are feasible
 
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