It’s been awhile since I last did an optic review.  I haven’t been immune to the Great Ammo Shortage of 2020 to where I can do my typical 1,000 round test.  As many have had to adjust, I’ve had to curtail my test shooting to about half of what I used to do.  Everything else being the same, I’m not connected to Leupold in any way and consider myself neutral and fair when reviewing stuff that I buy.  Overall, this optic has been everything I wanted, but it does have its shortcomings which I’ll get to in a little bit.

First, let’s start with the positives. When I was building my AR-10 I did some research into what LPVO I was going to mount and came up with a list of criteria it would need to meet, and I feel the Leupold Mark 6 1-6x20 meets all those criteria and then some.

The first thing I was looking for was an overall weight savings with the scope and mount.  I had previously run an Eotech Vudu 1-6 which weighed 22 oz. in a Warne Ramp 2 mount that was 8 oz. (1/2 lb.).  The reason why I was looking for this was because I really noticed the weight difference and change in handling characteristics when I changed out the Vudu for another optic.


So I ended up saving half a pound in overall weight by switching to the Leupold and Scalarworks LEAP mount.  While it doesn’t sound like much, I think there is something to be said about good design and how it affects perceived feel when it comes to weight and balance.  A mechanical engineering friend told me that people often mistake weight, or something being heavy, as being durable, when in fact that additional weight is just a backstop against bad design and poor engineering.

When you get behind the scope, you’ll see what I find to be one of the best reticles out there.  The CMR-W 7.62 reticle with BDC:



You’ve got a BDC out to 1200m for a 175 grain freedom seed traveling at 2575 fps.  There are wind holds for crosswind as well as a range estimator.  I realized that some will find the Christmas Tree style reticle too busy and cluttered for their liking.  The center dot is 0.15MIL which is nice and tight for those precision shots.

When you have the scope at 1x the center horseshoe and dot combo is small and is close enough to a red dot for short distance shots.  The Mark 6 is a First Focal Plane (FFP) optic with a very good “true” 1x.  The reason why I say is it’s “true” is because as with most if not all LPVO’s 1x is not really a 1x.  Within say self-defense ranges (30 feet and closer) there is a degree of magnification at 1x.

That aside, the clarity of the glass is amazing and the image is flat with no bending of your sight picture towards the edges.  I tend to shoot with the optic at 4 or 5 power and even then, the eye box is very forgiving to the point where I’m comfortable pulling off snap shots with the optic.

This is where the first of the scopes shortcomings starts – the illumination.  The illumination is nothing to write home about.  At 1x it works perfectly, at magnification, you really need to have your eye at the perfect distance to really see the illuminated reticle.  It’s because of this, I don’t run the illumination during the day, and just us the etched reticle instead.  Illumination in first focal plane optics has often been their Achilles heel, and the Mark 6 is no exception. 

I personally tend to do a lot of work range wise in the scope, meaning I don’t fiddle with the turrets to make adjustments between shots.  I’ll use the holds in the reticle to make my adjustments which just makes sense to me given all the information you can gather from it.  So in the end I’m ambivalent towards the turret system.  It’s cool that all you have to do is depress a button and make your adjustments, but honestly, I’d be just as happy with capped turrets.

Making magnification adjustments are super easy to do with the scope lever, but it’s an additional cost.  For the price of the scope, I think Leupold should have included the throw lever with it, otherwise that’s an additional $125.  If you have super long fingers or hands and can just man handle the adjustment ring, you probably don’t need the lever to be honest. 

If you’re in the market for an intermediate LVPO and aren’t turned off by the price give the Leupold a look.  Just know that if there is anything that goes wrong with your scope, Leupold has a well-earned reputation of taking care of their customers, so don’t fear.





Weight: 17 oz
Length: 10.3”
Reticle: CMR-W 7.62 (MRAD)
Eye Relief: 3”- 4”
Focal Plane: First
Magnification: 1-6X
Price: $2859 @ Leupold   
$2199 @ Optics Planet
FOV @ 100 Yds: 19’


A couple of “Pro” opinions on the scope you may find helpful:

Nice write up. I had one a while back on my LMT MWS. The CMR-W was decent enough to guesstimate distance and shoot out to around 900 yards, when KR-3 had the fat man-sized steel spinners.

Y'all got a lot bigger budget for optics than this retired olde farte.

Awesome write-up!  Thank you for sharing!  Wish there were more reviews like this on optics of this range. 

1000 round evaluation with .308 is quite a bit of "work".  I used to own an LMT MRP and that was an accurate gun.  Mine was the 12" monolithic rail model, so it was pretty damn heavy, but a great gun.  I have a couple of buddies with the MWS and they are pretty sweet. 

The Leupold Mark 6 1-6 was pretty high up on the list when I was searching for an LPVO.  Overall, I went with the NF for 1-8 and a few other reasons, but from what I read, the Leupold Mark 6 is awesome.  I would later find out a shooting instructor that I've taken a number of carbine classes with has the Mark 6 1-6, but he rarely shoots it. 

Weight is def something I notice after shooting with the NF for a while.  My NF is 25% heavier than the Mark 6 and I definitely feel it.  I also have a pretty darn heavy mount as well.  There have been a few shooters with LPVOs in recent carbine classes and they all noticed how their LPVO guns are noticeably heavier than their guns with a red dot.  I think my LPVO setup is about 1 lb heavier, but I definitely felt it after a couple of carbine classes. 

The "flatness" is one aspect of quality glass that I now pick up, and never really noticed before.  I mean I've shot with Vortex Strike Eagle and a couple in that price range and they seemed decent, now that I've been shooting with the NF for a while, I notice the edge distortion more.  It doesn't really bother me or think it is a significant negative for the most part, but definitely appreciate that in higher quality optics. 

The illumination was a key consideration for my choice of LPVO, and I was initially leaning toward the Vortex Razor for it's reputation for "close to red dot" illumination.  Seems like similar to the Mark 6, the illumination is more "difficult" at higher magnification.  To me, it seems quite sensitive to head position side-to-side as opposed to eye relief.  I don't really use the illumination at higher magnification though.  Actually, most of my shooting with the NF so far has been at 1x with illumination, but I have been meaning to do more shooting with higher mag range.  Waiting for travel stuff to calm down for a "longer range" course on the mainland. 

Again, good stuff.  Hope you are able to complete your 1000 round evaluation soon. 

Great write-up. More reviews and evals

Nice review. 

The Vortex Razor 1-10 is out.  Saw HGS had one in stock.  I know at least one member was gearing up to get one.