Leupold MK6, a tabletop review

[JGifford]

I hate table-top reviews, but this one doesn't suck too bad.

I have been searching for "the perfect" LPV for years. I started with the Nightforce 1-4 NXS. I value and still own it because of the very generous eyebox on 1x (nothing has ever come anywhere close), and the rugged dependability it offers.

However, I wanted to try a daylight visible illumination equipped optic, and really, 4x wasn't as much as I could have in an identical weight package, so 1-6 was on my list for sure.

I started with the ultimate option. Or so I perceived it as, at the time. The Kahles K16i of 3-gun legend.

The glass on it REALLY popped, and 1x was an absolute true 1x. Very VERY impressive, optically. What I did not like was the reticle, illumination, and form-factor. It seemed a bit bulky, even though the scale said it wasn't. The reticle had a large upside-down horse-shoe and a dot in the center with a mil-tree below the dot. All well and good, except that reticles like that distract me. I like a defined DOT. ONE THING to focus on. In short, it was a great "sporting" scope. It did not have a locking diopter, and the turrets were capped and offered mediocre "feel", had no zerostop function, etc. NO way to dial. The illumination was sufficient, but it was rheostat style, with no incremental increases, but rather a gradual ramp-up. It would shut off after 2 hours, so anyone doing patrol with it would be risking bringing a "dead" reticle up.

So, I sold the Kahles and went with Nightforce 1-4 for a while. It wasn't as true a 1x, and it wasn't illuminated as well, but you could dial, it had ZS, it was rugged as hell with a locking diopter, etc.

Enter a friend of mine "Would you like a MK6?" Sure I would! So, without much adue, the MK6 TMR-D arrived at my door yesterday, along wtih the MK6 ISMS LH mount.

The mount, I will say, is a thing of beauty. The MSRP is well north of $400, and street price hovers at $200. The machine work was clean, and it weighed 7.8oz. The Geissele Super Precision mount with 34mm rings, by comparison, did NOT have as clean a machine work, and weighed in at 7.2oz. Hardly worth the $150 street-price premium over the Leupold.

The scope only has 1 throw-lever/cat tail that fits it well. Leupold's. And it fits it FLAWLESSLY. It also fits your budged inversely to this, at a street price of nearly $150. Stomach it and buy it anyways, it's worth it.

Now on to the scope. The illumination DOES flicker if you move your head, and I will showcase this in video. It is a moot point in my mind, because if you're moving your head enough to dim it enough to matter, you're outside of the eyebox and getting bad scope-shadow, anyways. Bringing the gun up from low-ready, this is absolutely not an issue. Shooting around cover, it could become a SLIGHT issue, if one is to be honest, but nothing that would warrant deal-breaking.

Next question...is it daylight visible? Well, look at my photos and you tell me...


How is the glass on 6x? My opinion? VERY VERY GOOD. Not quite as good as my K16i was, but then, I have not really sat down and dialed in the diopter on this MK6 yet, and it's VERY good. One 1x in low-light, it is also very good, to my eye, doing better than one's naked eye in my apartment with only the smoke-detector blinking and my wi-fi box LED's for illumination.

Why is my over-all opinion? It's my favorite optic. It's tough as hell, you can either dial with the turrets or hold with the mils, the reticle "centers" as it's a lit dot at the crux of thick cross-hairs followed by fine one's, and on 6x I can see .223 bullet holes at 100 yards even with bad lighting (bright range, paper in the shade).

The scope-user interface is great. The turrets are Zerostop/locking, and the windage has a zerostop as well. You can dial left, or right, after depressing a button on the windage turret, which will "pop out and lock" the turret once you turn it back to zero from wherever you were (same for elevation, except you cannot "dial below zero". The turrets are a low-profile design, and have decent tactile feel. They are not the best I have felt, but they are better than the Kahles and on par with the Nightforce turrets I have felt for feel. The cat tail is a "must" on any scope, IMO, but once added, the zoom ring turns fluidly and stops positively, through a 180* articulation range, from 1 to 6 power. Over-all, this scope FEELS like it costs what it does. The Euro style locking diopter is a very nice touch, and allows you to lock in your settings so that they cannot be inadvertently bumped or the diopter turned by some fiddling idiot or rubbing against a sling or some other such. Same for the locking/ZS turrets. They lock on zero, and you must depress the button on the turrets to change zero.

All in all, I view it as a huge win, and at 26.8oz (mount, cat-tail, lens caps and optic) it only adds around 4-5oz over my Nightforce 1-4 (which has a 5.5oz mount), along with the nuclear bright illumination and 150% as much magnification. Here are the pictures and a short video:

Is it daylight bright? (photo taken at around 1pm CST, not a cloud in the sky, sun is as depicted. This thing is nuclear bright.)


Is it "true 1x" (not QUITE, but very damn close! About as close as anything)


What's the reticle look like on 6x? (even though my potato doesn't give a good accounting for the superb optical quality, Fence at @140 yards)

Brick structure at 190 yards:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7ogQfcLOwA
Not a terrible table-top review, was it? Certainly better than those damn "unboxing" videos people post!