Leupold VX-Freedom 4-12×40 CDS Duplex Great 80 MOA Dial

Description

The Leupold VX-Freedom 4-12×40 CDS pairs a Custom Dial System elevation turret with a plain duplex reticle and the wider four to twelve power range. It arrived on our shelves titled only LEUPOLD SCOPE VX-FREEDOM, a name shared by a dozen different scopes. Barcode 030317028558 identifies it as Leupold item 180600, and we have retitled it so you can tell it apart from the rest.

The Leupold VX-Freedom 4-12×40 CDS Elevation Dial

CDS is Leupold Custom Dial System. You supply your cartridge, bullet, muzzle velocity and shooting conditions, Leupold machine a dial engraved in yards, and thereafter you range the animal, turn the dial to that number and hold dead on. No counting clicks with cold hands and no guessing at holdover.

The first dial is free with the scope, which is the main reason to pay the difference over a capped turret model. Two caveats worth saying out loud: the dial is cut for one specific load, so changing ammunition invalidates it, and it assumes a density altitude, so a dial made for sea level will not track in the mountains.

Neither caveat is a reason to avoid the Leupold VX-Freedom 4-12×40 CDS. They are reasons to order the dial for the load you will genuinely hunt with and then confirm it on paper. A verified CDS dial is the fastest and least error prone way to take a longer shot in the field, and it removes the arithmetic at the exact moment you least want to be doing arithmetic.

Why the Leupold VX-Freedom 4-12×40 CDS Pairing Works

Of the two CDS models in the VX-Freedom line, this is the one that makes the most sense. Dialling elevation is something you do for a longer shot, and a longer shot is exactly when you want twelve power rather than nine. The 3-9×40 CDS is a fine scope but the magnification and the turret are pulling in slightly different directions.

The Leupold VX-Freedom 4-12×40 CDS also carries 80 MOA of elevation travel against the 60 MOA of the 3-9×40. That extra twenty minutes is real usable range on a dial, and it is the difference between a scope that runs out of adjustment at distance and one that does not.

Leupold VX-Freedom 4-12×40 CDS Optics

Four to twelve power through a 40mm objective on a one inch 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 at the top, which is generous and means a hard recoiling rifle will not put the ocular into your brow.

The reticle is a plain duplex in the second focal plane. That pairing is deliberate: if you are dialling, holdover marks are clutter you will never use, and a clean duplex leaves the view uncluttered while the heavy posts still draw your eye to centre in poor light.

Twelve power is about the ceiling of what a one inch tube and a 40mm objective can deliver with a usable exit pupil. Push past that and the image darkens at exactly the hour you need it brightest. The Leupold VX-Freedom 4-12×40 CDS stops where it should rather than chasing a number on the box.

Leupold VX-Freedom 4-12×40 CDS Turrets and Build

Elevation is the CDS dial, windage a finger click turret, both at a quarter MOA per click with 80 MOA of total travel each. Parallax is fixed and set parallax free at 150 yards, so there is no side focus to manage mid sequence. The scope weighs 13.1 ounces over 12.49 inches.

Leupold rates the Leupold VX-Freedom 4-12×40 CDS 100 percent waterproof and fogproof and backs it with their lifetime guarantee. It is designed, machined and assembled in Oregon. Leupold publish no finish colour and no lens coating name for this model in their specification table, so we have not listed either as a manufacturer figure.

Leupold VX-Freedom 4-12×40 CDS Specifications

Buying from Mag5 Firearms

Mag5 Firearms is a family owned FFL dealer in Collegeville, Pennsylvania. Optics need no transfer, so the Leupold VX-Freedom 4-12×40 CDS ships straight to your door. Full manufacturer detail is published on the Leupold product page.

If you never intend to dial and shoot inside 250 yards, the Hunt-Plex versions cost less and suit that better. Browse our optics selection or call us and tell us the rifle, the calibre and the distance.