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When I’m squared up to a buck or a bull, most of my shots are behind a bipod or kinked up in an improvised shooting position, usually some variation of prone.
The demands on my rifle scope in these situations differ from when I’m on a bench at the range or slow-firing from standing or sitting positions. In those controlled situations, I can get squarely behind my scope, adjust the magnification to the target, fine-tune the eyepiece focus, cheat my cheek up or down the stock to get the proper eye relief, and feather the parallax.
Compare that deliberation to my Montana antelope hunt this year, in which I ran down a dry prairie wash to cut off a buck that was walking with his herd on the blind side of the upwind ridge. I popped out of the wash, deployed the legs of my bipod, and made the 200-yard shot just as the buck passed through a narrow window between obscuring sagebrush. I have no idea if I was fully aligned with my scope.
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Eyebox forgiveness is an element of optics that we don’t often talk about, because it’s not easily measured or quantified. But you probably notice its opposite: a stingy eyebox. Optics, whether binoculars or rifle scopes, with unforgiving eyeboxes essentially go dark unless your eye is directly in line with the exit pupil, which is that circle of bright light that you can easily see if you hold an optic at arm’s length and look at its eyepiece. One of the more esoteric parts of optical engineering, eyebox design takes its dimensions from the magnification adjustment module, eye relief at various magnifications, the eyepiece focus control, and even the erector lenses that focus the image at various magnifications. In rifle scopes, add the reticle lens to the equation that determines how square shooters must be to their scope.
Forgiving eyeboxes allow users to move their heads — and eyes — from side to side without losing sight of the image. The best minimize eye strain caused by squinting, allowing users to spend more time behind their optic, an essential consideration when you’re talking about optics for hunting.
I mention all this about eyeboxes because I’ve been hunting all season with Zeiss’s new ultra-premium rifle scope, the V8 NA model in 2.8-20×56, and it has perhaps the largest and most forgiving eyebox of any scope I’ve hunted behind. In hunting situations, that means I’ve been able to make ultra-quick target acquisitions even when I find myself in a hasty, improvised shooting position.
- Magnification: 2.8 to 20 power
- Field of View at 100 Yards: 46 to 6 feet
- Eye Relief: 3.6 inches
- Parallax Range: 54 yards to infinity
- Vertical adjustment range at 100 m: 72 MOA
- Lateral adjustment range at 100 m: 46.5 MOA
- Adjustment per click: 0.25 MOA
- Tube Diameter: 30 mm
- Weight: 28 ounces
- Length: 13.8 ounces
- Price: $3,900
A Redesigned Premium Scope
The second-plane V8 has been on the market in various configurations for a few years. The 8 in its name describes its 8-times zoom ratio. I hear you: 8 times 2.8 equals 22.4, not 20-power, but that math problem is a small quibble for me. These scopes — there’s also a huge 4.8-35x60mm model built on a 34mm tube — were introduced to the U.S. market in September with new features designed to appeal to North American big-game hunters and long-range shooters, and should be showing up on retailers’ shelves this month.
These are abnormally big scopes for me, especially that 60mm whopper. I tend to like low-magnification second-plane scopes with smaller objective lenses for my walk-about hunting rifles, but the new Zeiss I tested, the 2.8-20×56 model, is both much smaller and much larger than its configuration indicates.
Smaller because, given that big magnification range and huge objective bell, you’d think this would be a 3-pound behemoth. Instead, it’s built on a 30mm tube and weighs 28 ounces. Mounted on my Browning X-Bolt Speed 2 rifle chambered in 6.8 Western, I’ve hunted with the Zeiss across the West this fall for pronghorn, elk, mule deer, and whitetails and have found it to be nimble, durable, and versatile.
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The scope is larger than its configuration indicates because of the exceptional image it delivers. Made with Zeiss’s top grade of fluoride Schott glass, its image is crisp and vivid at higher magnifications and at lower magnifications is a marvel of low-light brilliance. Both V8 NA models feature left-side parallax control.
The scope’s illumination is worthy of singular attention. The illumination module is on the eyepiece, just aft of the magnification dial, and powers on with the push of a top-side button. The module then has a rheostat intensity control that allows users to dial up the illumination from barely visible to blazingly daylight bright. In my configuration — my V8 has Zeiss’s Advance Hunting Reticle (AHR) — the pinpoint red fiber-optic dot provides an instant and precise aiming point. At the scope’s maximum magnification of 20X, the center dot subtends less than 1/8 inch at 100 yards, smaller than a .17-caliber bullet hole, but the dot is sharp and vivid against any background.
The module has both time and angle sensors to automatically shut off illumination when the rifle isn’t deployed to maximize battery life.
The AHR reticle is a good combination of a duplex’s speed and a milling reticle’s precision. Hashes on the east, west, and southern stadia represent 10 MOA of windage and elevation in 1 MOA increments. The windage turret is capped; the exposed elevation turret, tuned to .25 MOA click values, contains Zeiss’s Ballistic Stop for quick return to zero. Turret clicks are pleasantly positive, providing tactile feedback, and the turret indexing is sharp and easy to see.
One of the details that gives the new Z8 its “NA” designation is that the turrets turn clockwise for down elevation and left for windage. The European designations of the V8 have turrets that turn counterclockwise to achieve the same reticle movement. Looking at the package as a whole, the NA model is designed to enable long-range hunting, however you define that.
The combination of world-class glass and European design and manufacture isn’t cheap. The 2.8-20×56 model I’ve tested, with either a German #60 duplex or Zeiss’s AHR reticle, retails for $3,899. The 4.8-35×60 version with the choice of those two reticles retails for $3,999.
But as a pure big-game hunting scope, with glass that’s better than in my binocular or compact spotting scope and a fast, intuitive aiming system that’s made even better by its large and extra friendly eyebox, the Zeiss is in a class by itself.
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