I recently had a great opportunity to try out Zeiss’ new V3 Lineup of Rifle Scopes on a beautiful ranch in Oklahoma. While I had always known about the scopes that Zeiss makes, I honestly think of them as a photo and video lens company first, given my background as a photographer and videographer. Nonetheless, Zeiss invited me out to a media event last week to show off these optics and let us writers get some trigger time behind them.
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The establishment that hosted the event was the Cross Bell Ranch and from my understanding this is a very historic ranch in Oklahoma. The ranch itself was around 54,000 acres, giving us plenty of room for long-range shooting activities.
The Zeiss team started things off with a presentation outlining the five core ideas behind the V3s, and they said the aim is to be a good, more affordable option for around 70% of buyers, without dropping the quality. They have done plenty of research into what people want from scopes and how they perform, and we got to handle pre-production V3’s. They felt nice and balanced, and were comfortable to hold, giving a good first impression before we even shot.
The next morning, we were shooting. We used centerfire rifles and also tested the rimfire scopes (I was really impressed with those at about 150 yards). The way all the V3s felt from the lower-end ones to the better ones, showed Zeiss’ usual attention to detail. These aren’t just basic scopes, but can enable hunters who want better accuracy and dependability in the field to really think about getting one.
Looking through the 18x scope, I did notice a bit of color fringing in the treetops when sweeping around, and this is pretty normal when you push a scope’s zoom that far. But generally, the picture was good, showing that Zeiss still provides very good glass for the money. Then we switched to 6.5 Creedmoor rifles for really stretching the legs of the optics and my personal shooting skills.
After lunch, we spent the afternoon comparing the various V3’s to scopes from other companies. They were all on tripods, and though the zoom levels weren't quite the same, we could really compare how they handled parallax, contrast, and how much light they let in. I always love doing side-by-side comparison testing like this, and I appreciate Zeiss letting us do this. Later in the afternoon, I tested the lower-powered scopes (2.5-10x magnification) and hit targets at 700 and, unbelievably, 1,000 yards with some serious calculations and a bit of luck. This was beyond what I expected and really showed the quality of the V3’s engineering and Zeiss’ obligation to still provide these scopes with great glass if they will bear the Zeiss name.
Day two started like the first, but the weather forced us to go back to the shooting range. We resumed with .22s, then went back to the 6.5 Creedmoor, and confirmed what we’d thought before about how the scopes performed in different situations. The last bit of shooting was with steel targets against the pretty scenery of the ranch, which made the shooting not only more realistic but also engaging.
Thinking things over, my testing of the V3s showed how much progress Zeiss has made in making good-quality, reasonably priced scopes for all sorts of shooters. The V3s have that famous “Zeiss glass”, and they’re very good, but you do get what you pay for. There are compromises in these scopes, and don't get me wrong, they have some flaws, but I'll make my final call on them once I get a few production models in hand.
I do believe they will be a strong choice for serious hunters or shooters who want more performance without the huge cost of top-end scopes. My time in Oklahoma has convinced me that the Zeiss V3 optics are very capable. They’ll make shooting better for a lot of people and add a new level of refined, affordable scopes in the market. I’m interested to see how they are received by shooters and hunters in general. Zeiss will be sending me a few scopes to write full reviews on in the near future so look out for those where I can really dive into more specifics on each model and what I like and don’t.
In the meantime let’s look over the technical specifications for each of the upcoming models, right out of the Zeiss catalog!
Product Highlights, Features, and Details Overview
Brighter Viewing Experience from HP Optics with ZEISS Bright™ Technology
Delivering at least 90% light transmission to the eye
High-Performance (HP) optical system
Fully multi-coated lenses for better light transmission and color fidelity. Hydrophobic lens coating for repelling water, dust, dirt, and fingerprints.
Repeatable, Positive, and Tactile turrets and adjustments
ZEISS Transferable Limited Lifetime Warranty and Transferable Five-Year No-Fault Policy
Reticles SFP:
Plex-style #6
XRR #84
Elevation Turrets in MOA
External with Ballistic Stop
Waterproof: submerged up to 3.3 feet (1 m) for 1-hour
I’m looking forward to getting to grips with a couple of the new optics in my own time to dig in and bring you guys some informed perspective, but in the meantime, from the details above, let us know which of the new Zeiss models you’re excited about!