Although it seems like a lifetime ago, I can still remember scrimping and saving every hard-earned penny to buy my first really nice riflescope. It was a Leupold 3-9X with an adjustable objective, which I quickly put to use in some informal long-range shooting. Its one-inch tube unfortunately ran out of adjustment at about 600 yards, and so I shimmed the mount to extend my reach as far as possible.

Using that scope, and a bunch of holdover, atop an old reworked Enfield I shot all the way out to 1200 yards. Driving a 180-grain .311 Sierra bullet just as fast as I dared, the old rifle shot quite well at 850 yards and okay out to 1000 yards. A couple childhood friends and I learned a lot as we cut our teeth on long-range shooting, and although that old Enfield is long gone, I still have that Leupold scope.

Today the company provides scopes for not only hunting and target shooting but also for law enforcement and government agencies and the military. This year Leupold has introduced some exciting new products, so I thought I would give you a close look at some of the most interesting ones.

Mark 4 3.5-10X 40mm LR/T M2 With TMR
The year 1981 was important for both Leupold and long-range shooters. It marked the introduction of the 10X 40 Ultra tactical scope. Subsequently adopted by the U.S. Army for use on the M24 sniper rifle, this scope was the genesis for Leupold's highly successful Mark 4 tactical scope line.

Since this first fixed-power scope was introduced, the Mark 4 line has expanded dramatically and now includes both fixed- and variable-power models with a number of options in a wide range of magnifications. Due to the Mark 4's rugged design, reliability, and high-quality optics, it was embraced by the law enforcement community as well as varmint hunters and long-range shooters.

Leupold's new 3.5-10X 40mm LR/T M2 has .5 MOA windage and elevation adjustments, a built-in bullet drop compensator, and an illuminated reticle with 12-position rheostat.

As good as it was, though, the Mark 4 line did have one shortcoming: its adjustments. Basically, you had two options, either .25 MOA adjustment multirotation M1 turrets or 1 MOA adjustment single-rotation M3 turrets with a Bullet Drop Compensator. Many shooters, myself included, felt neither was quite perfect.

On the one hand the M1 turrets, although very precise, were too fine for field shooting requiring multiple rotations to go from distance to distance. Under stress it was all too easy to lose count of clicks or end up one turret rotation off. The M3 turrets on the other hand, with their 1 MOA adjustments, were very fast and foolproof to use but a little too coarse. Many shooters wished Leupold would introduce a turret design that would split the difference between the two.

Well, with the introduction of the 1.5-5X 20mm MR/T in 2005, Leupold introduced a new turret design, called the M2, with .5 MOA adjustments and a Bullet Drop Compensator. The new design was a hit, so Leupold introduced a 3.5-10X 40mm Long Range/Tactical model with the turrets for 2006. Although this model was originally developed for the U.S. Army, it has all the features to make it a truly great scope for varmint hunters and long-range shooters.