Description
The Leupold VX-5HD 3-15×44 Wind-Plex is item 183851, and the thing the old title never told you is that it has no illumination at all. There is another VX-5HD Generation 2 3-15×44 on our shelf that does, and the two listings used to read identically.
Leupold VX-5HD 3-15×44 Wind-Plex or the illuminated FireDot version
Item 183851, this scope, carries a Wind-Plex reticle and no battery. Item 183850 carries an illuminated FireDot Duplex with eight brightness settings and a CR2032 behind it.
Everything else is shared: the 30mm tube, second focal plane glass, 1/4 MOA clicks, 85 MOA of travel in both axes, the CDS-SZL2 locking elevation dial, side focus to 50 yards, 13.5 inches of body. The unlit version is 0.2 ounces lighter at 19.9.
So this is a straight choice between a wind-hold reticle with nothing to fail, and a lit centre dot for low light. Neither is better; they answer different questions.
What Wind-Plex gives you
Wind-Plex is a duplex with wind-hold marks on the horizontal bar. It gives you a repeatable place to hold for a crosswind without the clutter of a full holdover tree, and it does not require you to learn a grid before the season starts.
The Leupold VX-5HD 3-15×44 Wind-Plex is a second focal plane riflescope, so those wind marks are calibrated at one magnification only. Find the power they are cut for and leave the ring there when you intend to use them.
There is no battery in this scope and nothing to switch on. For a rifle that lives in a truck or a saddle scabbard through a season, that is a real argument.
Turrets, parallax and travel
Elevation is the CDS-SZL2 locking dial with a revolution indicator and SpeedSet rezero; windage is a pop-up rezero turret. Clicks are 1/4 MOA, with 85 MOA of total travel each way, or 24.7 MIL, at 20 MOA per revolution and a 38 MOA dial travel limit.
Precision side focus adjusts parallax down to a 50 yard minimum. At 15x that dial matters; parallax error you never notice at 5x becomes a measurable miss at the top of the range.
No BDC dial ships in the box, but the turret is custom dial compatible and every VX-5HD Gen 2 is eligible for a free custom dial from the manufacturer.
Glass, size and mounting
Magnification runs 3x to 15x behind a 44 mm objective. Eye relief is 3.8 inches at the bottom and 3.9 at the top. Field of view is 37.8 feet at 3x, narrowing to 8 feet at 15x, per 100 yards.
The scope weighs 19.9 ounces and measures 13.5 inches, with 5.4 inches of mounting space split 1.3 inches front and 2.3 rear. That 1.3 inch front section is short, so check your bases before ordering rings rather than after.
Honest notes on the Leupold VX-5HD 3-15×44 Wind-Plex
A caution about photographs, ours included. Leupold serves one body photo across this scope and its Duplex sibling, and the filename on that image says duplex. The bodies are identical, so the picture is accurate, but do not take the filename or any product photo as proof of which reticle is inside. The reticle diagram on this page is the Wind-Plex.
Without illumination, the last ten minutes of legal light are harder work than they are with a FireDot. If that window is when you usually shoot, the illuminated version is worth the battery.
No finish colour, coating list or light transmission figure is published for this model. Retail listings quote all three anyway. We print what the manufacturer prints and nothing else.
Who this scope suits
Open-country hunters who hold for wind rather than dialling it, anyone who would rather not have electronics in an optic, and shooters who want parallax control and a locking elevation dial. The Leupold VX-5HD 3-15×44 Wind-Plex is designed, machined and assembled in the USA and backed by the lifetime guarantee.
Skip it if you hunt hard in low light, if you want a lit aiming point, or if a plain duplex suits you better than wind marks.
Leupold VX-5HD 3-15×44 Wind-Plex full specifications
- Item number: 183851
- Generation: VX-5HD Gen 2
- Magnification: 3-15x variable
- Objective lens: 44 mm
- Main tube: 30 mm
- Reticle: Wind-Plex, not illuminated
- Focal plane: Second focal plane
- Battery: none required; Motion Sensor Technology: no
- Eye relief: 3.8 in low, 3.9 in high
- Field of view: 37.8 ft at 3x, 8 ft at 15x, per 100 yards
- Angular field of view: 7.2 degrees low, 1.5 degrees high
- Click value: 1/4 MOA elevation and windage
- Total elevation travel: 85 MOA (24.7 MIL), 20 MOA per revolution
- Elevation dial travel limit: 38 MOA
- Total windage travel: 85 MOA (24.7 MIL), 20 MOA per revolution
- Parallax: precision side focus, 50 yd minimum
- Elevation turret: CDS-SZL2 locking, revolution indicator, SpeedSet rezero
- Windage turret: pop-up rezero
- BDC dial included: no; custom BDC dial compatible: yes; one free custom dial available
- Weight: 19.9 oz
- Total length: 13.5 in
- Total mounting space: 5.4 in (1.3 front, 2.3 rear)
- Objective length: 4.8 in; objective diameter: 2.1 in
- Warranty: lifetime guarantee
Manufacturer specifications are published by Leupold. Compare it against the rest of our optics range, and against the illuminated FireDot version of the same scope.
Ships from our Collegeville, Pennsylvania shop with the Leupold lifetime guarantee.
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