Staff Scope Review:Leupold Mark 8 1.1-8 CQBSS Review

Click below to read Leupold Mk 8 CQBSS review.

“The best carbine optic on the market?”

By: Chad L.

Hello shooters:

I am very excited to tell you about my first day in the field with the new Leupold Mk 8 CQBSS 1.1-8 front focal plane scope. I really hoped not to start my review with the clichéd “I could tell it was good when I opened the box“, but; let me tell you – I could tell it was good when I opened the box.

Let’s start with the tube body itself: It is large, 34mm in fact, which I assumed was to get more light in and allow more elevation travel.. I had no idea how right I was until heading out to Best of The West this morning with Charles and Adam. The wide body (and hopefully you can judge this from the pictures) delivers incredible light transmission, edge to edge clarity, and flawless color. We had a truck full of rigs out there with high-end optics from S&B, NF, USO, et al.. and this scope held it’s on with our quick “set them all to 8x and line them up test”. And trust me as a licensed pilot with 20:10 or better vision, and have always considered myself a good judge of optical quality – this is really good glass.

Now, let’s talk about the main reason you, I, or anyone else would be willing to spend $3K+ into an optic. The main reason I wanted it was because of the versatility this scope offers. No doubt, it’s not a small scope, but then again it’s able to replace two other optics at the same time, my Aimpoint on a LaRue mount, and my 3.5-10 Mk4 MR/T illuminated scope w/ARMS rings. So the way I see it, it’s smaller and less to hall around that those two combined so it is a win.

Sure many will argue “but I can have this and that combined.. for the same price!” fair enough, but is it going to be as rugged, as optically excellent, and function as well without the need to use QD rings and worry about losing zero, or be as good at each role?

Let me also talk about the knobs for a moment. They are amazing, offering 10 Mils of travel with each elevation knob revolution with auto-locking pinch and turn adjustment which I am told Leupold is getting a patent on, as they should. It really works well and the clicks are firm and audible in 0.10 mil increments. The scopes are available with 7.62mm or 5.56 BDC dials as well as custom shop options I am tol .

I really liked the Horus vision H-27D reticle with a cleverly integrated 5 MOA holographic dot. The front-focal plane allows you to zoom out to 1.1 power and the all you can see is the donut and the horizon line.

What was that you said? “But Chad, that’s just too expensive.. I can buy this and that” Sure, it’s not cheap – but I’ll argue that a single tool able to perform multiple roles is better than having to swap tools for different roles. That argument holds just as true when you are in a 3-gun match when you have to engage long-range targets just seconds after close-range targets, as it does in life-and death situations. A fitting analogy would be like having a race car w/slicks and rain tires, but in a fantasy world where a single tire was a sticky on dry pavement as the slicks and as good in the rain as the grooved tire. I would have thought it was impossible until I received this scope last week.

Show me another scope that makes a 5MOA holographic donut reticle that’s so bright we had to back it down of it’s highest setting in the South Central Texas sun at high-noon, that you can – with the flick of a wrist – have a 1000+ yard brilliant FFP reticle piece of glass for long range work with edge-to-edge clarity that is this well made at any price, I dare you.

If you are curious about this piece, please check out Leupold’s website for the Mark 8 1.1-8x24mm CQBSS Front Focal scope and tell them TGR sent you:

http://www.leupold.com/tactical/products/scopes/mark-8-riflescopes/mark-8-1-1-8x24mm-cqbss-front-focal/

I assure you, it is worth checking out!