ABSOLUTE best low light scope would be a German or East Europe FIXED 4x with 42-50mm objective. NO variable scope will beat them.

I'm fine with a nikon 3x10x50 prostaff .
Imo ,,,, you really wanna worry about low light . Get a good set of bino's so you can judge the rack and and age better

I've bought 2 Zeiss Conquest 3-9 x 50's and one 3-10. Paid $350-400 each. Not a much better deal anywhere I know of.

Somebody on here had several nice scopes for sale. One was a 8 x 56 Kahles. That one would be hard to beat but I think he was around $6-700. Worth it though.

I’m kinda partial to Meopta in that price range.

I never see new deer at first or last light. All our mature deer get killed about 4:00 pm for some reason.

Can't go wrong with the leupold

The 5 and 6 have the same glass. I have had both and couldn't tell a difference.

Leupold uses glass sourced from Asia even on scopes “made” in Oregon. That being the case, there’s no reason not to get over the mental block of made in the USA, and look at other comparable options (or better) in the marketplace. In particular, Athlon Optics has very strong choices in the $400-$600 range. These will be China made, but backed by a Kansas company whose executives left Bushnell to start Athlon. Personally I think Leupold is still living on the name it built many years ago and not putting out market leading products currently.

The old zeiss conquest scopes people loved were made by Meopta. That’s why zeiss changed the lineup a few years back (when the Meopta contract ended). Even zeiss has some Asian sourced products now.

I've always been a Nikon guy but not the new Nikon, the older (the original buckmasters scopes and the Monarchs). I'm curious which model Nikons you're comparing to because I've been thinking about going to Vortex due to a scratch on my Nikon Buckmaster 3-9x50.

I had an older Nikon Buckmaster 3-9×50 on a rifle I sold. My son has a Prostaff 3-9x40 and ive had a Nikon M308 on a .308 Rem 7005R that now wears a Vortex Viper the Viper is clearer than any of the 3 IMO. For the price the Diamondbacks are not bad either I use one that is 3-12x42 on a .308 Steyr prohunter it is noticeably better in low light than the Nikons but still behind the Viper in lowlight. when I sit with my son his Prostaff blacks out about 5-10 minutes before my Diamondback the Viper takes a few more minutes but the rifle its on is so heavy i dont like carrying it unless im going strait to a shooting house.

I have an older Zeiss Conquest (they supposedly changed things a few years back). It’s really good in low light. I’m not a huge fan of the Leopold vx scopes. I compared one side by side with much cheaper scopes and couldn’t tell any difference in low light, including a Vortex Diamondback that was 1/3 the price. I haven’t looked through a monarch scope, but their binos are really good also.

Have quite a few Leopold scopes and like them alot. The best low light I've seen is a Kahles or a Leica. Hard to find one for 500 though. If you look at Euro optic enough, you will catch them on sale. They will still be over 500.

Buy once, cry once. I currently hunt with a Leica 3-15x56. If you spend alot of time hunting, you might as well have some nice stuff. Deer no longer look like fire ants in the scope at dark in these big bean fields.