Leupold VX-4HD 3-12×40 Hunt-Plex Great 14 oz 30mm Optic

Description

The Leupold VX-4HD 3-12×40 Hunt-Plex is the lightest scope in the VX-4HD line and the only one without a custom dial. At 14.6 ounces on a 30mm tube it is aimed squarely at a rifle you carry rather than one you drive to a bench. Mag5 Firearms ships optics direct with no FFL transfer.

The Leupold VX-4HD 3-12×40 Hunt-Plex Has No CDS Dial

This is the detail most listings get wrong, so read it carefully. The Leupold VX-4HD 3-12×40 Hunt-Plex has plain pop up rezero turrets. It does not have a Custom Dial System turret, it does not have a locking dial, and Leupold state it is not compatible with a custom BDC dial either. The other VX-4HD models on this site all do have CDS-ZL2 dials.

That is a deliberate design choice rather than a downgrade. A hunting scope with a Hunt-Plex reticle is meant to be held, not dialled, and stripping out the dial mechanism is a large part of why this one weighs six ounces less than the 4-16×50 versions.

It does mean you should not buy the Leupold VX-4HD 3-12×40 Hunt-Plex expecting to order a yardage engraved turret for it later. Leupold say plainly that it is not CDS dial compatible, and that is the sort of thing worth knowing before rather than after.

The Leupold VX-4HD 3-12×40 Hunt-Plex Reticle

Hunt-Plex is a duplex with purpose. Heavy outer posts pull your eye to the centre in poor light, and a small number of holdover marks sit below the crosshair instead of a full ladder. It stays readable in the last ten minutes of legal light, which is when a great many animals are taken.

The reticle is second focal plane, so it holds the same apparent size right through the zoom range and the holdover subtensions are correct at one specific magnification. That power is printed on the card in the box. Set the Leupold VX-4HD 3-12×40 Hunt-Plex there before you trust a holdover at distance.

Leupold VX-4HD 3-12×40 Hunt-Plex Optics and Weight

Three to twelve power through a 40mm objective on a 30mm tube. Field of view at 100 yards is 33.5 feet at 3x and 8.4 feet at 12x, with eye relief of 4.0 inches low and 3.9 high. Quarter MOA clicks with 65 MOA of travel in both elevation and windage, and parallax fixed at 150 yards with no side focus to manage.

Fourteen and a half ounces on a 30mm tube is genuinely light. A 30mm tube usually means weight, and here it means adjustment range and a robust erector without it. On a mountain rifle the Leupold VX-4HD 3-12×40 Hunt-Plex is the VX-4HD to have.

The tradeoff against the VX-6HD line is magnification range and illumination rather than glass quality. If you want a six times zoom or a lit reticle, that is a different scope. If you want the lightest 30mm hunting scope Leupold currently make, this is it.

Two Leupold VX-4HD 3-12×40 Hunt-Plex Specs Leupold Contradicts

First, illumination. The specification table carries a row reading Reticle Type: Illuminated, and another reading Illuminated Reticle: No. There is no battery, no switch and no brightness setting published anywhere on the page, and the product name contains no illumination reference. We have listed the Leupold VX-4HD 3-12×40 Hunt-Plex as not illuminated, which is what everything except that one stray row says.

Second, the adjustment range. Elevation is given as 65 MOA and also as 289 centimetres at 100 metres; windage is given as the same 65 MOA but as 189 centimetres. Those two metric figures cannot both be right for the same MOA value. We have published the MOA numbers, which agree with each other, and left the centimetre conversions out.

Leupold VX-4HD 3-12×40 Hunt-Plex Specifications

Buying from Mag5 Firearms

Mag5 Firearms is a family owned FFL dealer in Collegeville, Pennsylvania. Optics need no transfer, so the Leupold VX-4HD 3-12×40 Hunt-Plex ships straight to your door. Full manufacturer detail is published on the Leupold product page. Leupold publish no finish colour or lens coating name for this model, so we have not listed either.

If you want a dial, the 4-16×50 CDS-ZL2 versions are in our optics selection and are six ounces heavier. Call us and tell us what the rifle is for, because that decides it rather than the spec sheet.