Leupold VX-Freedom 4-12×40 Hunt-Plex Great 80 MOA Scope

Description

The Leupold VX-Freedom 4-12×40 Hunt-Plex is a second focal plane hunting scope built around a reticle Leupold designed specifically for the way most people actually hunt: fast at close range, with just enough holdover marks to stretch out when the shot is longer than you planned. Mag5 Firearms is a family owned FFL dealer in Collegeville, Pennsylvania, and scopes ship direct to your door with no transfer required.

The Leupold VX-Freedom 4-12×40 Hunt-Plex Reticle

Hunt-Plex is a duplex with purpose. The heavy outer posts draw your eye to the centre in poor light, and below the crosshair sit a small number of holdover marks rather than a cluttered ladder. It is a reticle you can read in the last ten minutes of legal light, which is when a lot of deer get shot.

Because the Leupold VX-Freedom 4-12×40 is second focal plane, the reticle stays the same visual size through the whole magnification range. The holdover subtensions are calibrated at one specific power, so read the reticle card that ships in the box and dial to that setting before you trust a holdover at distance.

Leupold VX-Freedom 4-12×40 Optics and Eye Box

Magnification runs 4x to 12x through a 40mm objective on a one inch main tube. Field of view at 100 yards is 21.5 feet at 4x and 10 feet at 12x. Eye relief is 4.9 inches at the bottom of the range and 3.7 inches at the top, which is generous enough to keep a hard kicking rifle off your brow.

That 4x low end matters more than the 12x top end for most hunters. At 4x with a 21.5 foot field you can find a moving animal in thick cover; at 12x you are looking through a straw. Buy the Leupold VX-Freedom 4-12×40 for the bottom of its range as much as the top.

Leupold VX-Freedom 4-12×40 Turrets and Adjustment

Both turrets are finger click at a quarter MOA per click, with 80 MOA of total travel in elevation and 80 in windage. That is a lot of range for a one inch tube and it means the scope will still zero on a rail that is not perfectly true, or on a rifle where you want to shim for extra elevation at distance.

Parallax is fixed and set parallax free at 150 yards. There is no side focus knob to forget about. Inside normal hunting distances the parallax error is small enough to ignore, which is the whole point of a fixed setting on a hunting scope.

The Leupold VX-Freedom 4-12×40 sits in the middle of the VX-Freedom range: more magnification than the 3-9×40 that most hunters start with, less bulk and cost than a 50mm objective model. On a deer rifle inside 400 yards it is arguably the most sensible scope Leupold builds.

Weight, Build and Warranty

The Leupold VX-Freedom 4-12×40 weighs 13.1 ounces and measures 12.49 inches overall. Leupold rates it 100 percent waterproof and fogproof, and the scope carries their lifetime guarantee. It is designed, machined and assembled in Oregon.

Weight is worth thinking about on a mountain rifle. At 13.1 ounces the Leupold VX-Freedom 4-12×40 is about an ounce heavier than the 3-9×40 in the same family. That is not much on its own, but stacked with rings, a bipod and a full magazine it is the sort of ounce that adds up on a long walk in.

One honest note on the spec sheet: Leupold does not publish a finish colour or a lens coating name for this model on their own site. Retailers commonly list it as matte black, and that is what the product photography shows, but we are not going to print a spec as manufacturer data when the manufacturer has not published it. Call us if the exact finish matters for a build.

Leupold VX-Freedom 4-12×40 Specifications

Buying from Mag5 Firearms

Optics need no FFL transfer, so the Leupold VX-Freedom 4-12×40 ships straight to your door. Full manufacturer detail is published on the Leupold product page.

If you are still choosing between reticles or between this and the 3-9×40, browse our optics selection and call us. We will ask what rifle, what calibre and what distance before recommending anything, because on a hunting scope those three answers decide it.