Ok some of you have asked for it! Here’s my initial impressions on the Leupold MK4 10x40 TMR. I’ve had it since late October and it’s been faultless, if it’s good enough for the US military it’ll do for me! It is my first high end scope and it screams quality straight from the box.
In The Box
Included in the box (which is recyclable), is a sunshade, Butler Creeks, a Leupold cleaning cloth, allen key for the turrets and an instruction booklet - although ranging out to 800 yards and aim points for .308 cal isn’t much good for HFT!
Build Quality
Well up to the usual standard as it carries a full lifetime guarantee, for the life of the scope no matter who the owner is. The turrets are very positive to use and have ¼ moa clicks, once the turrets are set to zero they always return to where they were set. The scope body is thicker than other Leup’s which should mean it won’t alter zero in hot or cold, so far it’s fine in the cold and unless anyone wants to pay for me to test it in Australia you’ll have to wait until summer for the answer to that!
Optics
Now my eyes are pretty dodgey and my experience with scopes is pretty lacking so I’ll let others fill in the technical bits. The TMR ret is quite fine and to be honest I wondered if I’d lose it against dark targets. Once adjusted the ret stays in focus at all ranges although against black backgrounds it does sometimes blend in and get lost.
The clarity of the lenses is awesome with Leupolds multi coat 4 coating on. The depth of field is better than anything else I’ve looked through, I was at Redfearns earlier today and without altering my settings from normal I was able to track the pellet all the way to 55 yard knockovers!
According to the Leupold website the minimum focus distance is 50 yards, mine hasn’t been re parralaxed and can focus right down to around 6/7. The rumour is Leupold are reducing the minimum focus distance as more customers are using them on air/rim fire rifles as opposed to their usual application!
There seems to be very little px error, which according to others using them is a design feature Leupold have built in. I’ve never suffered with px error on my Walther Dominator as the cheek piece is in such a position that if my head isn’t in the correct position I can’t see through the scope anyway! I’m certainly missing less with it and being able to see where I miss helps!
The Ret
The TMR ret can be see here http://aycu06.webshots.com/image/410...2579597_rs.jpg. Having used an MTC Viper for most of the year I’m a fan of tactical style rets. The best or worst feature depending on who you are is the hole in the middle of the cross hair, although it definitely makes zeroing easier. There are plenty of aim points and if you’re so inclined you can bracket very precisely using the 0.2 mil marking as the mil spacings are true.
All in all I’m very impressed with it and so have everybody else who’s looked through it. It’s a lot of scope and the price reflects that as it ain’t cheap, luckily Andrea is very understanding and asked Santa to bring it as an early Christmas present!More details can be found on the Leupold website here http://www.leupold.com/tactical/prod...0x40mm-lrt-m1/ and anyone is welcome to have a look through it if I’m at a shoot.
Definitely recommended as an out and out HFT scope, the fact Sparky and 5 others from Quarry are using the mil dot version this season speaks volumes. Even if I’m not the greatest shot I can see where I’m missing!
I'm pretty sure Pete will add his thoughts and findings soon as he's far more clued up on optics than I am.
I've found out since writing the review that the TMR rets are getting very rare due to them not being popular in the states??!!!
Ryan
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