Thanks everybody for your thoughts and contributions.

I am sorry for my late replies, I had been away on an acupuncture course for the week and there was no internet!! It was like living in the bush... kind of nice really.

Bigmaxx: Thanks for the feed back. Glad to hear they have held up for you and given good service.

Hommer: Your worries about the tight fit are SPOT ON. I have the 4 screw qd warnes and there isn't enough length on the 2.5x8 to get it mounted...... i need another 1/2 inch or so. That is where the Ziess looks like it will fit.

Xausa: I agree totally with using a scope connected to a rifle as binoculars. That is to say, don't point your rifle at something you are not prepared to destroy. I think that only makes sense. Also, love the idea of lowest possible ring mounts and I use a straight tube on a Rem 7600 whelan carbine for that reason.....However I REALLY wanted a qd set up with this rifle. You can certainly argue if that is a good idea, i know i did befor i purchased the warnes. There lies the problem, if you want qd's, the lowest set (the one's i purchased) are considered "mediums". Bugger, i thought. Then it dawned on me that if I had clearance anyway (unavoideble really) , why not go with a larger objective lens for the benefits that this brings. It just plain didn't make sense to have a neat straight tube sitting high up on the barrel. I also will get away with a higher scope mount as the stock design gets my head up high on the stock..... might have something to do with the overall height of the iron sights (they seem tall to me) on this rifle.

With some people saying the fixed 2.5 and 3 power leupolds are fine scopes for similar rifles I figured that variable range would work OK, providing there was a QD scope mechanism.

I also plan to take it Sambar hunting which although not ideal in that role either will get me some actual hunting trigger time which can't be a bad thing. Time to find out if those 350 grain hornady round noses are up to the job...... I will have them moving at a reasonably sedate 2450fps. Similar to a serious 375 with similar levels of recoil and trajectory out to 250 meters or so. Yes i realise the sd/bc difference will be there. On light skinned game though it should be interesting.

Thank you again,
Marlin45