Good, could be great - Leupold FX-II Ultralight 2.5x20mm Rifle Scope, 1in Tube, Second Focal Plane (SFP)

This is a kind of scope that I feel deserves much more attention than it is given. Why? Because it is extremely compact, rugged, and useful while still being affordable. It also has unique applications where it is well suited.

I have this scope mounted on a Mossberg 464 (30-30 WCF) using Weaver Grand Slam medium steel rings and Warne two-piece Weaver-style bases. A very solid all steel system. This type of lever action rifle poses a few challenges to mounting scopes. One is that it is hard to mount a scope low enough to get a good cheek weld and not interfere with the rear sight, the hammer, or ejecting brass. Scopes with large optical lenses will interfere with the rear sight, and scopes with large ocular lenses (many variable power or high-magnification scopes) will interfere with the hammer. This FX-II Ultralight, however, fits this rifle perfectly.

I use this rifle for deer hunting in Southern Indiana. Forests here tend to be dense, and while the hunter can sometimes take long shots (out to 200 yards or so), more often than not deer will be encountered at very short ranges under 50 feet. With any magnification much beyond 4x, at these ranges, the field of view will be so narrow that it can be disorienting. These encounters can be so sudden that there is hardly time to make a good shot let alone mess around trying to adjust scope magnification. I have a 1-4x Leopold VX-I which is shaped similarly, and I leave it on 3x for this reason. 2.5x, surprisingly, offers careful observation at about 200 yards. I am able to easily tell if antlers are present, for example. After all, 2.5x is more than TWICE the magnification of your naked eye. I really don't feel that the low magnification is a liability with this scope in any way for deer hunting in Eastern woods.

Unlike other Leupold centerfire scopes, this scope is adjusted to be parallax free at 100 yards (all other centerfire Leupold scopes with fixed parallax setting are at 150).

Like all other Leupold scopes, it is absolutely a good overall scope. Everything works properly, it is rugged, it doesn't fog, etc. It is worth the money, in my opinion, to spend a little more on the Leupold vs comparable foreign made scopes that might turn out to let you down in one or more ways.

My only criticisms of this scope are that it seems to suffer (along with the whole of the FX series) neglect from Leupold. Despite being a FX-II, its clarity, brightness, etc. don't really seem any better than my VX-I series scopes (I have a 1-4x and a 2-7x). I would like to see all the attention and technological improvement Leupold has put into its variable scopes find its way to the fixed ones too, especially considering that they are priced similarly. It is why I give it only 4 of 5 stars.

Also, I don't really like the wide duplex reticle. I like how the crosshairs are relatively thick, so they contrast well against dark woods, and I have no problem seeing them during legal hunting hours, but the thick part of the reticle bar is so distant from the center point that it's not very useful for ranging or estimating holdover, which are the reasons for duplex-style reticles. I feel that either a regular duplex or the the heavy duplex found on my VX-I 1-4x would be a better fit, and this is the reason why I keep my VX I 1-4x on my 44 Mag rifle, which has a lot more drop than 30-30, and requires holdover even at moderate ranges. However, the wide duplex does offer a slight advantage at the range, where the wide duplex will not obscure large paper targets that a regular duplex may. For this reason, this scope might actually make an excellent squirrel rifle/rimfire scope, particularly with the new faster, flatter rimfire cartridges.