Best Scope for Baited Leopard Hunt at Night

[steve white]

+1 on the Zeiss 3-12x56 HT

 

[Nhoro]

So if I understand correctly for maximum light transition for my new Leupold 50 objective Fire Dot scope should be set on 7 variable?

That is correct in theory. But it is a little more complicated. Below 7, your scope has transmitted more light but your eye cannot use it. Your pupil is too small and excludes some light. And beyond 40, your pupil may only open to around 5mm. Meanwhile, you zoom, you are getting less light through the scope. Think of it like seeing a whole sheet of paper through the scope and then zooming to half the size. You would have half the light.

So somewhere around 7 should be the sweet spot where all the light from the scope enters the eye and the loss of light from zooming is least.

 

[Tucketed]

Also, and maybe it was said earlier. As you age your pupil accepts less light, it does not open as large as when young. It can be 30-40 percent less at 60 so all the potential light gathering is wasted.

 

[Mike Van Horn]

For night hunting coyotes, l use Leica, binoculars and rifle scope. What l have seen, best on the market

 

[dogcat1]

Swarovski Z6i 1.7-10x42 4ai reticle
Taken several with this.

 

[Philip Glass]

Looking for suggestions from you Cat Guys for best magnification range, objective size and specific brand/model for a night leopard hunt over bait.

Obviously, illuminated reticle or fire dot would be a must.

There is no doubt that the very best scope for leopard at night is the Swarovski Z8. The glass, illuminated reticle, and variable power up to 28x simply can not be beat.
I felt so confident last year on my difficult Zimbabwe leopard hunt with Dalton & York. Yes it is expensive but you will not believe the quality until you get and use one in low light. Leopard are not cheap and a wounded one is not only expensive but obviously dangerous.

 

[Beck]

I read somewhere that Meopta optics actually transmit more light than any other optic. I have no idea if that is actually true, you can find anything on the internet these days. But I did run a little experiment off of my back deck which did offer some results.

Keep in mind this isn't exactly a fair test given that the objective lens sizes are all different sizes, but results below:


Meopta Binos 50 MM objective lens finished first.
Leupold VX-5HD 2-12 x 42mm finished second
Zeiss 10 x 42mm finished last - which was disappointing as I was pretty proud of my new pair of binoculars