I couldn't wait for the construction to finish on the rifle range so I used the pistol range to zero the scope. Its got multiple bays with targets to 50 yards and two bays with targets at 100 yards, but that's all there is. You can't access the 200-500 yard berms from there. I don't know how people zero a scope with just a few shots. It took me 12+ to get where I thought the rifle was really going to hit where I put the crosshair at 100 yards. Then I shot a series of 5-shot groups with 140 grain Nosler RDF bullets with 42 grains of H4350. That gave me velocities of 2750 fps which is the fastest velocity I've gotten out of this rifle.
The Leupold is everything you'd expect a scope at this price point to be. The image is bright and clear with no hint of chromatic aberration or distortion, all the way to max magnification. The eye box becomes smaller as the magnification goes up, but even at the upper ranges its manageable, The PR2 reticle is excellent for long range shooting with enough information to be useful, but not so much it obscures the target. I am surprised by how small the reticle is at lower magnifications. Even with the scope adjusted to up to 10-12, the center dot is hard to pick up if the target isn't light or a solid color. I knew that'd be the case with a first focal plane scope, but it still came as a surprise how small it was. Its definitely made for longer ranges and higher magnification. The reticle presents hash marks as 1/2 height and alternates between up and down so there is plenty of empty space within the reticle. I thought the lines were thicker and clunkier than on the Arken. There is 100 MOA of internal adjustment in the Leupold, about the same as the Arken. When you are at 7, this is pretty much what the reticle looks like.
I like the turret arrangement and action on the Arken SH-4 better than the Leupold. Its not that the Leupold isn't good, its just that the Arken is better in my opinion. The turrents are larger, the clicks are louder, and the tacticle feel is more pronounced. I also don't like the covered windage knob. I like to dial in both, not dial elevation and hold wind. I'm pretty sure I'll eventually lose that cap. The clicks are audible, just not loud, and the feel is crisp, just not a high amplitude feeling as you spin the turret. You can order custom turrets from Leupold, based on your gun and that's a nice customization feature. I don't know where the scope turrets are supposed to be adjusted as it comes from the factory, but the elevation turret must have been at one end of the range because I had to release the zero stops to adjust it down enough to center it on the target. That confused me at first as I hit a hard stop with the rifle still shooting a little above the center of the target. The parallax/side focus adjustment is excellent- smooth and precise. The Arken is marked closer than the 75 yards the Leupold is marked, but I was able to focus the Leupold at 50 yards anyway.
I didn't get to shoot at any distance so I didn't adjust elevation or windage to compensate today. I'll address those after I get to try them out.
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