Rifle Scopes : New Leica ER 5 Riflescopes !!!

I started recording my impressions while I still have them (here).  I will add more as I go along.

The scoop on ER5 scopes so far is as follows:  

- the glass is brought from Europe (from the Portuguese factory, I think)

- the design is done by Leica in Germany

- most of the mechanicals are made in the US (the tubes and all that are machined here)

- the assembly is done in the US

SHOT is not the best place to evaluate optics, but I liked what I saw with the ER5.  Overall quality is good, eyerelief is forgiving and weight is under control.  There are some specifics with the design that will make this basic chassis a good basis for a variety of scopes in the future.

Some of the reticles are newly designed and I was very happy to find out that some of the feedback from last year registered:  I complained that on some design the thick bars are so far apart that they are almost useless in low light.  On this scope, none of the reticles are ultra thin and there is clear consideration of how usable these will be in low light.

I have a lot of mileage with ER scopes and I doubt that these are as good.  However, they are not far off.

If I were to guess, I would say that the overall design intent of these scopes was to be better than Zeiss HD5.  It is hard to say without a side-by-side comparison, but the ER5s are nice scopes.

Of particularly interest to me is the 1.5-8x32 model that weighs only 12 ozs and looked really good.  However, I will likely look at one of the large models as well.  If a particular confiuration is of specific interest, let me know.

ILya