For the life of me I cant find the magazine article I saw on the Leupold Rifleman scopes..  it was either in the Outdoor Life, field and stream, the NRA magazine or that free mag you can get at gun shops...

It was a good comparison telling the exact differences between the Rifleman and the other Leupold scopes (VX-II or Vari X- III I believe). One of the difference was the number of coatings on the lenses.  

Can someone recap which scope the compared the Rifleman to and what were the differences.

thanks

If I remember correctly, the riflemen are matte finish and have friction adjustments and no coatings.  The VX-1 has outer coatings and friction adjustments, the vx-2 has outer coatings and click adjustments, and Vari-x 3 has full multicoating and click adjustments.

I may be wrong though.

The Rifleman are the same scope as the "old" Vari-X II's (prior to 2001).  Magnesium Flouride lens coating throughout.  The VX-I's now have multi-coat lens coating on the external lens's.  Basically:
Rifleman: 82% Light Trans.
VX-I: 86%
VX-II: 86% (2001-2003) 91% (2004)
Vari-X III: 91-92% (1992-2003) ???? (2004)

Rifleman are the friction style adjustments...  

Sounds like Leupold is going the way of other manufacturers - make something cheap and of lower quality so you can sell it at Wal Mart and the like.

artical was in American rifleman NRA mag...

Zhukov,

I'll withhold judgment of the "Riflemen" series until I get feedback...but with aluminum vertical split rings and other low cost features on the scope, you may be right.  What I've learned is that the low end optics market is HUGE and very profitable.  The Big "L" is making a business move...but will it bite them in the rump?  Stay tuned.

Scott

I have eyeballed the rifleman 2-7x at a gunshop and it looks pretty good.  It has the simple friction turrets and a rather coarse matte finish.  Should be just the ticket for a hunting rifle.  Typical hunters pick a favorite ammo, set the elevation to be spot on at 100 or 200 yards and never move it again.  Remember most hunting rifles see less than 20 rounds per year.  

I am thinking of putting a 2-7x on a flat top 20" lightweight barrel AR15 for a walking varmint rifle. The whole rig being light and compact and quick.  For this application target turrets would be pretty much moot because there woulf be no time to turn dials on a running coyote.  Yes a 4x ACOG with the ranging reticle would be nice, but at $800 plus way out of my budget for this rifle.

I would like to hear from someone who has field tested one of the Rifleman scopes (or the VXI series) as to how they hold up after a thousand rounds.