For the most part I think Leupold makes scopes fairly light in weight for their power. A rifle has a better feel for offhand shooting without a heavy scope on top. That is, it seems more stable and wants to stay right-side-up. I have a 7MM STW with a light fiberglass stock a 3.5-10 x 50mm scope. Between the light stock and scope mounted in high rings it does not have a good feel for offhand shooting. Other rifles of mine have lighter, lower mounted scopes and feel much better shooting offhand. Anyway, I am a Leupold fan. They make scopes with good eye relief and ruggedness and in addition light weight. In my opinion these are all characteristics for hunting scopes which are much more important than slightly better optical properties.