wildcat junkie

The same thing happened in Indiana once inlines and scopes came to the fray. ML seasons used to be for those that were willing to learn how to care for and use traditional equipment. Now it's management tool and a cash cow for corporate interests.

I just sent you a PM.

You hit the nail on the head with that comment. https://www.forbes.com/sites/frederickallen/2011/12/21/germany-builds-twice-as-many-cars-as-the-u-s-while-paying-its-auto-workers-twice-as-much/?fbclid=IwAR3Q0pO-vfRtLrLC1KspQ9Wsq3ySYYfDsOaRvPz5RJPSZlMDH_JM09z_Vj4#1f984e626b78

The higher end Nikons are very good and so are the Japanese built Weavers.

If you have to skimp, buy a less expensive rifle. A savage AXIS with good optics will perform better under a wider range of conditions than a Weatherby with a Tasco scope. 1st thing I did when my son''s friend bought a Savage Axis 2 with a "package" scope was sell the cheap glass on e-bay and mount a dependable Leupold VX-2 3-9x40 on it.

Zeiss and Kales offer moderately priced models for the American market with 1" tubes. My Kales was the "American" 3-9 x 42 offered at around $500 several years back, but unfortunately, they discontinued that model. $500 is about my budget limit. One can get some pretty good glass in that price range if you aren't looking for a bunch of superfluous bells and whistles.

Some of these are not German, but European nonetheless. They still reflect German optics quality. Zeiss Kales (Austrian) Swarovski Leica Meopta (Czechoslovakia) Schmidt and Bender Minox (now owned by Leica but still managed independently) Sieiner

Once 3-4" of snow covers up other food sources, cottontails will concentrate on hedge apples.

Me either, but Japanese glass isn't that expensive. The German stuff in the other hand is. My 3-9 X 42 Kales is amazing in low light. I can see spikes on a buck at 250 yds in a narrow shooting lane in my woods way past legal shooting hours. Can't say the same for my Leupold scopes. That being said, the Leupold's do well enough for me.

Here are the Leupold rings as they were made when I started buying them 50 years ago. Now, a few years back, they decided to "improve" them. Who is making these decisions?

The Japanese and the Germans make the best "glass" as defined by the lenses themselves..

I did when they started putting a hideous logo to the top of their rings. It fell on deaf ears of course I now buy Burris rings. Trying to compete with cheap chinese scopes marketed by Vortex is driving Leupold down a road that I fear will be the end of them.

The now discontinued VX-2 3-9 X 40 weighed 11.4 oz and was never classified as "compact or lightweight". The VX 3 3.5-10 X 40 is 1.1 oz heavier and the 2.5-8 X 36 is even .2 oz heavier.

OK here ya go. Top is the 3-9 x 33 VX-2 "Compact", bottom is the VX3 3.5 1 10 X 40. How Leupold can call the 3.5-10 x 40 a "compact" is beyond me. Lightweight is not synonymous with compact. Besides 12 1'2 oz didn't used to be call lightweight The 2.5-8 X 36 is about the same size as the 3-9 X 33

Ah, the old myth of the 50mm "light gathering" objective lens.

I don't know why Leupold is calling the 3.5-10 x 40 a "compact scope. It isn't by any stretch of the omagnation a "compact' scope.. I don't know who is running Leupold these days but whoever it is, they don't know much about their products as far as real world. Probably some with a lot of college but little real knowledge about the product.. I own both a 3.5-10 X 40 and a 3-9 X 33 "Compact". I will post picture side by side for a comparison.

Get the Leupold with Standard duplex reticle. Sight in 2 1/2" high at 100yds. With a 140 gr polymer tipped boat tail bullet at 2800 fps, you will be 3" high at 150 yds, 1/2" low around 250 yds and 3" low at around 280. The top of the fine crosshair gap will be within be zero at 100 yds if you want to shoot something small at that distance. The bottom if the fine crosshair gap will be zero at about 325 yds.

"Hedge Apple" is extremely common in Southern Indiana. Mention "Osage Orange" and nobody knows what you're talking about.

You need to work on your reading comprehension. I highlighted the appropriate text so that perhaps it may assist you. I would think that nearly 3 decades and over 1,000,000 miles on a myriad of interstate as well as secondary roads covering perhaps 25% of the contiguous united states might give me a bit more insight than someone that repeatedly drove a similar route over the course of "several years.

You've obviously never been the SE Ohio.

During the 1990S my wife and I traveled extensively up and down the East Coast from Buffalo, NY to Ocala. FL and the Eastern Midwest from Grayling, MI to Eastern KY during late February to late August. We had a traditional archery business and hit all of the big traditional only shoots as vendors. We pulled a big 3500# pop-up camper over interstates and secondary roads. I also drove semi during the late '70s early '80s. Virginia had the best roads IME and NY was a close second. West Virginia, Georgia and parts of Pennsylvania and Indiana had the worst

What sort on retirement income do you have? While NC doesn't tax SS, it does tax all other forms of pension income. NY does not tax pensions.

Hedge Apple.

Hedge Apple is excellent Cottontail forage once 3-4" of dense snow is on the ground. When I hunted Cottontails in S Indiana we used to key in on Osage Orange with thick ground cover near by. The Beagles would soon be baying on some hot bunny trails.