Leupold Rifleman 4-12x40mm Riflescope (1") w/ Wide Duplex Reticle, Matte Black - 56170
- Thread starter Gary
- Start date
I have one of the gloss fine cross hair 4-12X Leupold's sitting orphaned at the moment. It made the trip back to Leupold in the early spring. The scope had been on a CZ 527 Lux in 223 Remington for a few years. Went to confirm the sight for gopher season and things started well and then went down hill rapidly. It started shooting differently located groups with the same aiming point. So it went back to Leupold and was replaced with a Redfield/Leupold 4-12X. I have 3 of the Redfield 4-12X's (CZ 452 American 17HMR, CZ 223 Carbine and the 223 Lux) and like the power range. Sort of like the 3-9X but with an extra1/3 more top end. About half my scopes are Leupold and like them a lot because they dont normally give me problems but recently the odds have caught up to me. The 4-12X went back a 6.5-20x on a Cooper 38 22 Hornet with a broken reticle and a 1-4X that right out of the box had black specs inside it. Normally if they make a trip back to Leupold it's because I've broken them. Sorry for the horror story, the nice thing about Leupold is that they will fix there products even if your not the original buyer. Mines a good scope I just have to find it a home.
Rick H
Well-Known Member
I am a big Leupold fan, but not a fan of high powered scopes. I have a 4-12 (not Leupold) on a HB .223 Savage and find I never use over 8 or 9 power. For me, the added magnification just adds unnecessary bulk and weight to the package and at the ranges I hunt at I really can't use the added power. My varmint caliber rifles carry 3-9 and most big game rifles 2-7 or 1-4. I sent a Leupold 4x back after beating a scoped action out of a glass bedded stock with a 2# hammer. (A long story and a learning experience as well.) The scope worked fine afterward but it rattled. I sent it back explaining what I had done and asked for a quote on repairing it. They sent me a brand new scope, total turn around was 10 days from the time I mailed it to the west coast.
Pretty shrewd of Leupold. Since that time I have purchased over a dozen, still own them too. Damned sneaky sales promotion program if you ask me. Seriously I have been well served by Leupold.
Pretty shrewd of Leupold. Since that time I have purchased over a dozen, still own them too. Damned sneaky sales promotion program if you ask me. Seriously I have been well served by Leupold.
Gary
SE Kansas
I checked with vendors on line and found the scope pretty much @ $290 + shipping. Fella I bought from (yep, I like Leupold scopes) sold it to me for a bargin. It's NIB with the shrink wrap intact. He has several over on another site and is willing to deal. If you'd like his info, send me a email. I hope this doesn't violate any rules, if it does please delete my post.
On varmint rifles I tend towards higher magnification. The low end of the varmint range would be 10X on up to 20X. I tend to prefer a fixed power scopes here but that keeps getting harder to do. For myself a 16X is the best compromise between magnification, mirage and eye strain. On variables as the gopher shooting day progresses the scopes magnification winds down to about 12x to ease eye strain. On hunting rifles the 1-4X and 1.5-5X Leupold variables are favorites. I do have a some 3-9X's on a 300 Weatherby and 338 Winchester and .22 rimfires. I've broken my Leupold spotting scope (fixed 30X) twice, once it blew over while on it's tripod right on to the eye piece ruining the lens, the other time I sheared the mounting plate off it some how when it was in the back pack. The lens was $25 to replace and no charge for the mounting plate. I also once fell over backwards stepping on a frosty log during spring bear and landed upside down turtle like in the crusty snow. My binoculars (9X45) were between the snow and backpack and ended up with a severely bent eye piece on one side. I forget the price but it was very reasonable to have the binoculars rebuilt. As you mentioned Leupold by honoring there warranties and reasonable repair cost keeps us coming back.
CZ93X62
Official forum enigma
Magnification and field of view are rivals. An increase of one has a corresponding decrease of the other within the same scope mechanism and same objective lens equation.
E.g., have you ever wondered why binoculars are generally given magnification multiplier/objective lens diameter relationships that are a base-5 equation? 7 x 35mm, 8 x 40/42 mm, 10 x 50mm? The explanation is that the human eye's pupil can only admit a "light pencil" of about 5mm on average. The light pencil transmitted through these binos is the ideal/best possible potential for light transmission in a given illumination situation through that magnifying medium. Light transmission is as critical as magnification for target resolution at distance. You cheat yourself out of resolution potential with over-magnification in a scope lacking the objective lens diameter to draw in all possible light. THIS is why FBI Sniper Schools recommend the Leupold Vari-X 3.5x-10x X 50mm rifle scopes for agencies to equip their marksman rifles with--enough magnification for body shots to 300 meters (or more) at full mag without loss of light transmission. Magnification matters, surely--but so does field of view, and light transmission & image resolution does too. NO FREE LUNCH. And that shrinking light pencil? It doesn't shrink in linear fashion--it shrinks geometrically. Remember that area of circle calc--3.1416 x radius/squared.
Choose your glassware wisely. I have a dozen scopes in service, about 1/3 of my rifles wear glasses. One is 6 x 18 x 50mm, and it spends most of its life between 8x and 10x. 2 are 4 x 12 x 50mm, one is a fixed 12 x 50. The rest are 3 x 9 x 40, 2 x 7 x 33, one each 1 x 4 x 20 and fixed 4 x 20. Some are Leups, some Redfield and Burris, and two old Weavers. My biases are STRONGLY toward field of view and brightness.
E.g., have you ever wondered why binoculars are generally given magnification multiplier/objective lens diameter relationships that are a base-5 equation? 7 x 35mm, 8 x 40/42 mm, 10 x 50mm? The explanation is that the human eye's pupil can only admit a "light pencil" of about 5mm on average. The light pencil transmitted through these binos is the ideal/best possible potential for light transmission in a given illumination situation through that magnifying medium. Light transmission is as critical as magnification for target resolution at distance. You cheat yourself out of resolution potential with over-magnification in a scope lacking the objective lens diameter to draw in all possible light. THIS is why FBI Sniper Schools recommend the Leupold Vari-X 3.5x-10x X 50mm rifle scopes for agencies to equip their marksman rifles with--enough magnification for body shots to 300 meters (or more) at full mag without loss of light transmission. Magnification matters, surely--but so does field of view, and light transmission & image resolution does too. NO FREE LUNCH. And that shrinking light pencil? It doesn't shrink in linear fashion--it shrinks geometrically. Remember that area of circle calc--3.1416 x radius/squared.
Choose your glassware wisely. I have a dozen scopes in service, about 1/3 of my rifles wear glasses. One is 6 x 18 x 50mm, and it spends most of its life between 8x and 10x. 2 are 4 x 12 x 50mm, one is a fixed 12 x 50. The rest are 3 x 9 x 40, 2 x 7 x 33, one each 1 x 4 x 20 and fixed 4 x 20. Some are Leups, some Redfield and Burris, and two old Weavers. My biases are STRONGLY toward field of view and brightness.
Glaciers
Alaska Land of the Midnight Sun
I have 2 of the Leupold 4 x 12's on a 260 Remington and a 6x47 Sako. I find them to be a good compromise between field of view and magnification. Leupolds are a favorite in my herd. For dangerous game rifles my favorite is the discontinued vx6 in 1 x 6 - 30 mm tube, having a field of view I've not found on any other scope. On the low end it's 110 feet and clear as a bell. Spendy scope, but field of view and brightness, nice. I have 2 X 7 and 1 X 4 Leupolds on Marlins and other lower power cartridges, 35 Remington, 30-30, 44 Mag, 45-70. The vx6 1 X 6 replaced a 1 X 4 Leupold on my 458 X 2. Leupold also made the vx6 in 2 x12 and 3 X 18, never did come up with the money for one each of those before they were discontinued. The 4 X 12 Leupold is a very nice scope and I will probably pick one up for a 30-06 I favor. I do like Leupolds.
I've got one setting on the shelf that I pulled from a rifle I took in trade. There is no adjustable objective so precise work with your 22lr up close will be a bit dicey. I believe parallax is set for 100 yards. OK scope for hunting medium size game. Flies at 25 or groundhogs at 300 will be iffy.
I'd heard it was a 7mm exit pupil diameter, that's why the 7X50mm binos and the old German 8X56 mm scopes. My varmint rifles get used on bright sunny days so my 6.5-20X 40mm scope with a 2mm exit pupil diameter at 20X work just fine. I dont come from a shooting family. When I began getting interested in shooting all the writing I read stated you would never need more than a 4X scope on a 22 Hornet an 6X- 8X on a 222 and 10X-12X on a 220 Swift. I tend to disagree. I shoot 8 Hornet rifles all glassed. One a CZ Full Stock has a 1-4X Leupold. The serious Hornets as opposed to a walking rifle get more glass. My Contender pistol uses the 2.5-8 Leupold E.E.R. at twice the old 4X recommendation. Then there's a fixed Redfield 10X a Leupold 12X a15X Weaver two 6-18X's one Redfield one Leupold and a 6.5-20X Leupold. The 6.5-20X scopes are as large as I go. I'm not a big fan of mirage. As far as scope size in the gopher fields I'm considered under glassed. My last 220 Swift still has a 6.5-20X scope or the same as the Hornet and my last 22-250 still wears a 12X. Both these could stand more glass but that increases mirage. On a bright field a small exit pupil isn't an issue, in a police hostage situation in unknown light conditions it would be.
I really like the size, weight and optics of my Leupold scopes, but the adjustments not so much. I'm no turret twirler, but when I adjust for a different load I don't want to have to adjust several times to make the changes. Recently mounted and sighted in three scopes for my son, VX-Freedom 2-7x38?, VX-3I 2.5-10x 42, and a Nikon Buckmaster 3-9x40. The Nikon took less than half the ammo to get sighted where I wanted it. The Leupy's were not enough, then too much. Gets tiresome even for a set and forget guy like me. I've had to send several back for repair over the years, yes they fix them, but shouldn't need to.
I'm another that prefers the lower powered scopes. I have a 6.5-24 on a heavy barreled prairie dog rig and a 4-12 on a 22-250 sporter, but everything else is 3-9 and under. I really like my 2-7 and 2.5-8 Leupy's as hunting scopes, even for open country antelope rigs. Keep thinking I'll pick up a 1-4 for lever action deer rifle as my eyes get too bad for the receiver sights I now use.
Ian
Notorious member
good stuff.
What eats my lunch is small exit pupil at high magnification...a direct function of objective lens diameter divided by magnification.
For a hunting rifle with a 200-yard range I find a 3.5-10 x 50mm is about right. If the glass has high-transmission coatings it will be bright and clear in low light and I won't have to squirm my face all over the comb chasing that tiny image.
Much of the hunting I do is strolling/stalking large acreage and for that the variable magnification is priceless. The last time I was out stalking pigs I had a group of about 20 nearly run me over at full gallop, fortunately I had the scope dialed back to about 5 power which is my standard mode and worked very well to snap-shoot one pig at 20 paces quartering toward me and another at about 75-80 quartering away. All I had time to do was drop my shooting sticks, shoulder the rifle, and flick off the safety. That first shot (picking the pig out of the group and then finding the kill spot) would have been tough on 10 power, but a useful 10-power from a high-quality scope with illuminated dot reticle is perfect for twilight sniping at long range off of shooting sticks or a rest of opportunity. So much capability in 16 ounces from Leopold or Vortex.
On the Rifleman line, I will choose Virtex Crossfire over those any day. The lowest line of Leupold that has clear glass at full magnification is the VX-3i series.
What eats my lunch is small exit pupil at high magnification...a direct function of objective lens diameter divided by magnification.
For a hunting rifle with a 200-yard range I find a 3.5-10 x 50mm is about right. If the glass has high-transmission coatings it will be bright and clear in low light and I won't have to squirm my face all over the comb chasing that tiny image.
Much of the hunting I do is strolling/stalking large acreage and for that the variable magnification is priceless. The last time I was out stalking pigs I had a group of about 20 nearly run me over at full gallop, fortunately I had the scope dialed back to about 5 power which is my standard mode and worked very well to snap-shoot one pig at 20 paces quartering toward me and another at about 75-80 quartering away. All I had time to do was drop my shooting sticks, shoulder the rifle, and flick off the safety. That first shot (picking the pig out of the group and then finding the kill spot) would have been tough on 10 power, but a useful 10-power from a high-quality scope with illuminated dot reticle is perfect for twilight sniping at long range off of shooting sticks or a rest of opportunity. So much capability in 16 ounces from Leopold or Vortex.
On the Rifleman line, I will choose Virtex Crossfire over those any day. The lowest line of Leupold that has clear glass at full magnification is the VX-3i series.
CZ93X62
Official forum enigma
No free lunch.
The only people with 7mm pupils are using cocaine or methamphetamine. It is nice that a lens system can transmit a 7mm exit light pencil, but you'll need a special set of chromosomes to resolve that extra light. Or CNS stimulants.
A lot of products get designed around The Mythical Average Person--cars, clothing, rifles, and the scopes for same. My thrust here is NOT to make recommendations, but to give the guidelines that have directed optics development for a long time. End users gravitate over time to certain "majorities"--in variable-power scopes, 2x-7X/3x-9x/4x-12x seem to dominate, esp. 3x-9x. A decent rifle scope is an expensive item, and a buyer needs to know the advantages and limitations each glassware option can enable. A mind toward environment and conditions of usage figures highly as well. I and most others use very different tools for long-range varminting than we do woods-stalking for deer. We can--at the same time--evolve our tools to the job at hand while adapting ourselves to the tools used and environment of use. It is not a discrete exercise--it is holistic and quite flexible.
The only people with 7mm pupils are using cocaine or methamphetamine. It is nice that a lens system can transmit a 7mm exit light pencil, but you'll need a special set of chromosomes to resolve that extra light. Or CNS stimulants.
A lot of products get designed around The Mythical Average Person--cars, clothing, rifles, and the scopes for same. My thrust here is NOT to make recommendations, but to give the guidelines that have directed optics development for a long time. End users gravitate over time to certain "majorities"--in variable-power scopes, 2x-7X/3x-9x/4x-12x seem to dominate, esp. 3x-9x. A decent rifle scope is an expensive item, and a buyer needs to know the advantages and limitations each glassware option can enable. A mind toward environment and conditions of usage figures highly as well. I and most others use very different tools for long-range varminting than we do woods-stalking for deer. We can--at the same time--evolve our tools to the job at hand while adapting ourselves to the tools used and environment of use. It is not a discrete exercise--it is holistic and quite flexible.
The 4-12X power range works like Ian's 3-9X pig scope. At 4X power if you jump a coyote while walking in the field of view allows a running shot. It then allows at 12X for a realistic 300 yard shot at a target that's smaller than a water bottle. That's a pretty good set of options. The 12X power setting at 300 yards being equal to the 4X setting at 100 yards. The 4-12X by 40 mm Leupold offers a 5mm exit pupil at 8X. My hunting rifles use lower power or no scope. I have no open sighted hunting rifles but half a dozen that are peep sighted (7X57mm, 30-30, 348 Win, 35 Rem, and two 45-70's) but only three scoped big game rifles. A 375 H&H with a 1.5-5X Leupold and two 3.5-10X Leupold's one on a Remington in 300 Weatherby and the other on a Ruger 338 Winchester. In a big game rifle I'll take field of view over magnification, when the targets tiny and far away I want the advantage offered by higher powered scopes. Oddly enough I have two open sighted varmint rifles (25-20 and 32-20) and a single peep sighted varmint gun in 218 Bee. The old 7X50mm binos and 8X56mm twilight scopes may have allowed for some misalignment with the eye. Leupold made a 6X42mm scope that sold as a twilight scope also. It may well be that the manufacturers figured more exit pupil was better than not enough. In a low light situation the 1.5-5X by 20mm scope even when set at 5 power with a 4mm exit pupil will appear brighter than the naked eye.
Ian
Notorious member
4-12x40 is a no-go for me. 3.2mm at full value isn't enough to justify the extra magnification for my eyes. No point it making it big if the resolution and brightness is poor. But, lots of people have better eyes (and higher-quality "video cards" between their ears) than I do and can make more with less. Last scope I bought was a Leupold 3i 3.5-10X40 and it REALLY needed to be a 50mm, but the low weight and low mounting capability of the 40 on the particular rifle and action length/barrel profile with which it was partnered made such a fabulous fit combination for me that I compromised on the objective diameter.
RicinYakima
High Steppes of Eastern Washington
Can't help you; last new Leupold I ordered was a 6X40 when they quit making the higher quality fixed powers. Took almost 6 months for delivery, but I can see rock chuck heads at 300 yard in daylight and hit them with my CZ .223.