About 18 months ago, in mid 2012, I received an email from Leica with links to information about their Magnus riflescopes. I'd subscribed to Leica's sport optics pages so I would hear if they developed a Rangemaster laser rangefinder that met my wish-list of features. 1600-B anyone?
I didn't think Leica was still in the riflescope business, since it had dropped distribution of the 25mm tube models that Leupold was assembling for them. I clicked the links and read about Leica's ER range of 30mm tube scopes with long eye relief and then the illuminated Magnus scopes. Another link took me to the Leica Hunting channel on Vimeo. I hadn't seen hunting videos online before and it was a bit of an eye-opener. Even a bit confronting at first. Not for me as a hunter - all experienced hunters know what it's about - but in terms of how non-hunting folk might feel when such raw and explicit imagery is presented. Hunting isn't for everyone - fair enough - but here on the internet a close representation is there, right before anyone's eyes. Hmmm..
At the time I was having trouble with my 'big' gun, a Remington 700 Mountain Rifle in 30-06. I noticed it wasn't shooting accurately one day when I had my kids out hunting with me, when we came across a couple of foxes. I hadn't missed a pig with this rifle for years, but I missed those two foxes, sitting still and watching us, at 60 and then 120 meters. That put a frown on my brow, which got worse when I missed another a week later. At the next opportunity I settled down and fired some carefully sighted shots at paper. I usually do as little of that as possible. After chasing a dozen bullet holes all over an A5 sized card the recoil from that light rifle with 180gn Ballistic Tips made me give up. It wasn't grouping around a minute of angle like I thought it should. It was more like saucer of angle. What's wrong?
Could it be the scope? The Leupold 2-7x32 that had been on the rifle since I'd bought them new had worked well for 25 years. Or so I thought. It cost a fair penny back then when I was saving for a house and was a nice step up from the cheapies I used as a student. But with the seed of Leica's email well planted, the Leupold was found guilty without a fair trial. Such is the luxury of being judge, jury and executioner when it comes to one's own stuff!
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Regards, Rick.