I'd like any real world opinions of these two scopes, specifically the meopro line versus the vx-3i.

I currently have a meopro 3.5x10x44 on my 7mag. Looking to replace it with a 4.5-14x50mm vx-3i to get a little clearer image at last light. I had a big buck step out 2 minutes before legal shooting light was over a couple weeks ago, overcast afternoon, and he never gave me clear broadside shot. I wasn't super impressed with the image through my meopro and could see him better through my cheap Nikon binoculars, thus my wanting a 50mm scope to maybe add a little clearer image at dusk and dawn. This is a long food plot with shots at the back end at 270 yards, closest shot would be about 100 or so.

I've also thought about meoptas optika 6 line, but they are hard to find in the configuration I want, and they weigh twice as much as the two aforementioned scopes.

Thoughts, opinions? When I Google search I get opinions all over the place, just wanted y'all's thoughts on the two lines.

I've had a bunch of higher end optics and my experience has always been that similar priced scopes perform similarly. If you are shooting over 200 yards you may want the magnification and objective increase but I would think it wouldn't be much of a decisive factor in those scopes otherwise.

A Meopro is pretty good in low light I would be surprised if the Vx-3i would be much better. The larger objective really won't make much difference in optical clarity.

I would check that the eyepiece is focused correctly and that your magnification is set at around 7 or less in very low light conditions. That might make a difference. Your eye can only take in so much light through the scope. You will always be able to see much better through a pair of Binoculars in this scenario. That won't change.

There will be varying opinions about this. To me, what really makes the difference in low light optics is both the image contrast and the field of view. The better the contrast and the larger the field-of-view the more I am able to see in the dark through a scope. Those 2 things usually cost money and are found in higher end European Optics.

You are not going to be able to see 270 yards in the dark to shoot the back of a food plot no matter what you do. I realize the legal shooting hours have changed and that would be considered night hunting.

Actually,you can but you need to spend about 3K . I know a guy who has shot several varmints after midnight and over 150 yards. Maybe it was only on bright nights but S&B is your huckleberry for low light.

I've got a PMII and yea... it's pretty good.

If you decide to sell the Meopta shoot me a PM. That 3.5-10x44 has always been one of my favorite scopes.

The plan is to switch the meopta to my steyr, which right now is rocking the free nikon scope that came with my savage 7 mag.

I really have not hunted evenings too much until this year, so my experience with last light situations and scopes is almost zero. Kinda sounds like based on the responses I won't see much of a difference in scopes under 1k and will have to actually spend some money to get a discernible difference. I was just surprised that my $150 nikon binoculars gave me much clearer view of this deer over the scope, but that sounds like a function of me possibly having the magnification up too high. I bet if I had backed it down to 7 it would have looked better.

I am going to pull the trigger on the vx-3i and do a side by side in my backyard right before dark, whichever looks better will go on the 7mag, the other on the steyr.

With equal exit pupil size (obj lens/scope power) the Meopro will slightly edge out the Leupold in low testing and contrast. At least they was my experience when comparing the two over the course of several evenings.

Anything over ~5mm in exit pupil size is essentially a waste b/c the human pupil can only dilate to about 5mm. For example a 1” 40mm scope on 7x will perform as good in lowlight as a scope with a 30mm tube and 56mm obj on 7x, assuming the same glass quality.

Cheaper binos will always out perform more expensive scopes (to a certain extent) in low light. The main reason being you are looking with both eyes and the binos are against your eyes and blocking out the stray light.

I used to be a real scope snob but I’ve come to realize decent binos are better than the best of scopes. All you really is binos good enough to judge the deer and a “reliable” scope to make the shot.

I don't see it!! I've tested this theory and found it not to be the case at all. Same glass Same model just different obj size. 44mm obj 50mm obj and then 56mm obj all tested on the lowest power 3 at extreme low light and the 56mm you could see 10x more at low light that the 44mm and a noticeable difference that the 50 mm obj. I was able to distinguish what I was looking at a lot better with the bigger sight picture as well.

After two nights of evening observation in the back yard I am ready to put the vx-3i on my 7mag. Some thoughts for anyone considering the same scopes I was:

Optical clarity is a virtual tie. I can pick out details at last legal light and minutes past legal light with both equally. Neither seems "brighter" than the other at last light.

The vx-3i has a better sight picture because of the 50mm objective. I can see "more" versus the meopro, which for my situation is going to be wide open clear cut food plot huntin', that's what I need on my savage. The reticle (duplex) on the vx-3i is noticeably thinner than the meopro. Good for getting a better view with less obstruction, but there is a downside.

The meopro has a fatter reticle (z-plex) and therefore it stays more apparent past legal shooting light. I could always see the reticle when swinging over dark woods well past shooting light, with the Leupold I would lose the reticle about 6 minutes past legal light. If I placed it over a lighter object, say deer color, it would show back up.

When placing the reticle over grass or anything with color the difference wasn't much, but when you tried to track something through a dark patch of woods the meopro was better.

Therefore I think my initial plan was sound and I am going forward. My steyr is a short barrel 308, ie my "woods" gun, so the meopro and it's ability to hunt in thick woods better with that massive z-plex reticle will go on it. The leupold, with it's superior sight picture and higher zoom ability, will be perfect on the 7mag where I am really stretching my shots out. I have one spot I can shoot 350, in theory, so the 14 zoom may come in handy one day.

It’s really more like actual physics than a theory, like climate change but I’ll play along.

What do you mean by “bigger sight picture as well”? (FOV isn’t relative to objective size and that’s definitely not a theory)