Leupold VX-5HD Firedot reticle issues

I was looking to set a VX-5HD up n a rifle today to help pass the lock down blues and on looking through the reticle i noticed that one bar of the duplex FD reticle was growing fur. I had this happen in a kahles scope about 20 years back that had a silver wire reticle. Rang Leupold / Nioa and they send send in in for a fix. Looked at my other one with the firedot reticle and bingo, same thing happening with it also but not as advanced. I live on the coast but...lots of people do and they should be 100% sealed. Apparently the firedot reticles differ from the non illuminated ones which are etched? Any others seeing this problem. Scopes are not new but a little disappoint to have it happen.

Definitely covid related!

Mate just got his VX5 duplex back from being fixed for the second time by leupold for the reticle going fuzzy like that.

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Originally Posted by stagstalker

Mate just got his VX5 duplex back from being fixed for the second time by leupold for the reticle going fuzzy like that.

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Did he know what causes it?
I had never heard of this happening with VX5s or Leupolds in general.
I suspect it must be losing its gas...or how else could this 'fuzzy' reticle happen?
Like the OP, I had a steel tubed/Alum bell Kalhes which had this fuzzy reticle but those scopes were known to leak and have this issue.

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Originally Posted by Hermitage

Did he know what causes it?
I had never heard of this happening with VX5s or Leupolds in general.
I suspect it must be losing its gas...or how else could this 'fuzzy' reticle happen?
Like the OP, I had a steel tubed/Alum bell Kalhes which had this fuzzy reticle but those scopes were known to leak and have this issue.

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Not a clue unfortunately

It's not limited to the firedot reticle as I've had the same thing happen on a VX5 2-10 non firedot. I was told it's paint bleed.

Attachment 172116

Is this similar to what you are talking about? It has been really starting to bug me but had no idea what it was.

I hope this doesn’t put people off leupys. This scope has operated flawlessly apart from this.

Would have thought the reticle being etched into glass would make this a non-issue?

That’s it , present on 3 of the lines. but it can get worse. The reticle technology differs by reticle and whether or not it’s illuminated. Some reticle are more prone to it because of this. I was starting to glaze over after he said yes we’ll fix it and cover postage. Leupold guy also said they see it in the now discontinued VX-R scopes.

I might have something similar on my VXR patrol 3-9
the mill dots were a bit grainy last time and I thought it was just out of focus
ill have to take a closer look

Pretty sure I have that on my Vx5 HD firedot aswell. I just thought it was my eyes going funny. Will pull it out today and have a look. Its been like that for a while and still dials and does everything else perfectly.

Just had a look. Its definitely got some fuzzy bits on the horizontal cross hair. Not as bad as the photo shown on here, but not great for a $2000 scope.

oh man..... Turns out the my VX6HD has it as well.

Just like every other VX5 / 6 owner I just raced out and checked mine......phew, all good

Mystery solved, at least we now know what “HD” stands for ..... Hairy Duplex