Leupold 4.5-14x50 Mark 4 LR/T 30mm in build job.

[UtahMike]

I'm building a rifle,  I have a left-handed Remington 700, in 270win that I bought in 83'.
It's been a nice rifle, however, after a steady diet of max. 130gr BTSP over the years, it needs to be blueprinted and while I'm at it I thought a new Shilen barrel in 6.5-284 or their abouts sounds like a good thing.  I think I've decided on the Leupold 4.5-14x50 Mark 4 LR/T 30mm Riflescope with PRW rings and a base to go with it.    Long time getting to question, huh,  what do people think of the Leupold LR/T scope.  I want to learn how to use the mil-dot reticle.  Is their a better way to go, for the money?

[Graybeard]

What will be the rifle's purpose in life? That will make a lot of difference in at least my comments on the scope for it.

[UtahMike]

Seems we meet again, I enjoy your comments...

 I don't know if I've mentioned it before but about 6 months ago I went blind in my right eye, I can still see a little out of it but the central vision is just gone, woke up one morning and it wasn't there. It's kind of changed my hunting and shooting in a couple of ways, I am left handed so that's at least one blessing. I was already totally disabled, from back surgery, surgery was great success but patient got worse. Throw in a little peripheral neuropathy and life’s a bowl of cherries, isn't it?

Finished b***** now.  The rifle is going to be a varmint rig and a rig to help me learn how to use the mil-dot reticle.  In the many years I've been hunting, I’I've always liked light, stable, quick rounds.  Since I have so much time on my hands shooting has become a big part of life.  Since hunting seasons are so limited, I have been spending a great deal of time out in the deserts of Utah, open range scrub, picking out coyotes, jacks and as time goes on, more and more, long range targets.  I need the brightest, clearest, scope I can afford to purchase.  The rifle might even do triple duty for an antelope or two.
 By the way thanks for the reminder about the warranty,  I called them and they said send it back, no questions asked.  I went ahead and put a 3.5x10AO Leupold on the rifle.  I'll let you know how it works out, again another long range rifle I'm getting finished.  My reloading bill is going out of sight.
I don't know if this gives you enough information to comment but let me know.   Thanks, Mike

[Graybeard]

For your stated uses the 4.5-14 power range should work out well. I'm not convinced the MK4 line is worth the extra bucks tho. Leupold now has within the VX-III line a group of 30 mm tube 4.5-14s with a variety of reticles and they will put into their scopes any reticle you want for a small charge. They aren't cheap either but I think sell for considerably less than the MK4 line and even have the side focus knob rather than AO feature.

Now up until I went on a prairie dog shoot back in June I'd have said the side focus was a gimmick not worth the trouble. Now I won't. In fact I'm thinking seriously of getting one for my new Rem. XR-100 in .22-250 before I go for prairie dogs again. Personally I'd like to try the Leupold varmint reticle they've just come out with. I like the dot reticles and used them on both rifles on PDs in June.

Just looked over the Leupold MK4 offerings and realized they actually have what amounts to three different scope lines in the MK4 line up at three distinct price points. Which of them were you considering? The lower priced one really is pretty much same as the scope I was mentioning. The other two are much higher.