Best Riflescope $500 range

[Telemark]

What model Zeiss is it Telemark? I have a Zeiss Diavari on my old slug gun. It's over 25 years old and I'm just worried it's taken too many 3" punches over the years.

Wish I could remember. I bought it on sale right before deer season several years ago, and I lost the packaging pretty much straight away.

 

[Turkish]

There is a pretty big variety in meopta and zeiss lines IMO, some lighter, some clunkier. I will agree that the Optica5 and 6 lines are pretty ugly playing on the "tacticool" trend but i try not to let appearance overrule function. Meopta was actually the manufacturer of the original Zeiss Conquest line (rebadged meopta meopro and also same as the cabelas "euro" line) which probably sold more scopes than any of the conquest v4 or v6 lines currently available which are manufactured by Light optical works in Japan.

RE the rokslide reviews - what i've seen over the years is guys are really happy with the conquest v4 glass but have had some zero retention issues. The Optika6 scopes seem to have slightly more favorable reviews from the zero retention standpoint but it would be a big assumption whether or not that translates to the Optika5 line. I think either would be a nice option for a midwest hunting rifle.

The OG Conquest Meopta were (and still are) fantastic scopes.

I think paid $300 for my first Conquest. I had to pay 2.5x that to find a pair of binos with the resolution of my Conquest scopes.

 

[Wind Gypsy]

I know the original Conquest/Meopta/cabelas euro scopes were very popular and great optically for the $. I've heard great things about the optical quality on the V4 conquests too, I'd assume they edge out the optika5 in that regard.

Zeiss makes some great products. I just happened to be disappointed with the 2 i've purchased. I got a Terra 3-9x42 when they first came out (probably lowest end zeiss scope ever offered) and it was junk. Eye relief was very short and varied a lot by magnification setting. Eye box was very tight and the optical quality just wasn't good.

I had Conquest HD 10x42 binos for a while ($1k MSRP ballpark IIRC). While the resolution was very good, the depth of focus was awful. When glassing out west a guy had to constantly be making fine adjustments with the focus wheel to get a clear picture. It was way worse than any other decent binos I recall using. This wasn't something that stood out in the store but was painfully obvious in the field. The eyecups cracked easily too. Had to replace a couple of them.

 

[Mortenson]

I ended up buying the Zeiss V4 scope. Looked through several brands at BP and just liked how it performed. Matched it with American Rifle Company rings on a Murphy Precision 1-piece stainless steel base. I cleaned every component and used blue loctight. It's mounted and ready for the range, just need to find time between now and next Friday. The screws on the ARC rings called for 55 in lbs of torque which is a pretty good turn on the fat wrench. Thanks for the discussion.