Steiner H6Xi Hunting Scope Review: Practical and Precise

Elements of precision long-range shooting have impacted the hunting market over the last several years, and that includes optics. For decades, 3-9x40 scopes with capped turrets were standard equipment on hunting rifles, and only a handful of sportsmen had ever heard the term zero-stop, MILs or ballistic coefficient. An exposed turret simply meant you’d forgotten to screw the cap back into place. Today, however, the desire to improve a rifle’s maximum effective range has changed the look of our equipment, including the scopes they wear.

There’s sometimes a balance between precision and practicality, though. Today’s top tactical scopes are durable, precise and offer a shooter all the tools they need to make an accurate shot at distances deemed unimaginable for average shooters just thirty years ago. But they’re also large and heavy. That’s fine when you’re shooting from a bench that’s thirty feet from your parked truck, but the added size and weight of a tactical/target optic is a major burden when you’re hiking after elk or sheep at thin-air altitudes.

Steiner has found the ideal middle ground between precision capabilities and real-world practicality with the release of their H6Xi hunting scope. The American-made H6Xi borrows heavily from Steiner’s precision-oriented T6Xi tactical scope, offering that same level of precision in a much smaller, lighter package.

Precision Meets Practicality

Just how small and light is the H6Xi? The 2-12x42 that I tested measured just 11.5 inches long, and that makes it shorter than popular scopes like Leupold’s VX-6HD 2-12x42, Trijicon’s AccuPoint 2.5-12.5x42, Meopta’s MeoTac 3-12x50 or Vortex’s Viper PST Gen II 2-10x32. The Steiner weighs just 23.2 ounces, which beats the Vortex and the Meopta. The H6Xi is also considerably smaller and lighter than the tactical T6Xi upon which it’s based. Steiner’s T6Xi 2.5-15x50 weighs in at 32 ounces and measures 12.8-inches long.

The H6Xi is certainly light enough and short enough to make a sensible hunting optic, even on ultralight mountain rifles. Ultimately, though, it’s optical quality that’s most critical when choosing a hunting optic, and the Steiner doesn’t disappoint in that arena. These optics come with high-end Steiner HD glass lenses that are precision ground in Germany and shipped to the United States for assembly. It’s similar to glass you’ll find in other high-end European scopes and comes with multiple lens coatings to protect the lenses and cut glare and dispersion. The result is a very clear, crisp picture with excellent color fidelity and light transmission. I’ve tested Steiner optics (including the H6Xi) against high-quality U.S. and European competitors and the Steiner stacks up quite well.

One feature the H6Xi borrows from its tactical cousin is its first-focal-plane (FFP) design. FFP scopes have reticles positioned in front of the erector tube, which change in size relative to the magnification. This means the H6Xi’s reticle grows and shrinks depending upon the magnification (as opposed to more common second focal plane (SFP) scopes which have reticles behind the erector tube and maintain the same reticle size regardless of magnification setting), and that is beneficial when you’re using a scope with a BDC-style reticle such as the one found in the Steiner H6Xi.

Modern Hunter Reticle

The Modern Hunter Reticle (or MHR) provides stadia lines that serve as holdover points. Because of the FFP design, the holdover is correct regardless of the magnification. With more traditional SFP scopes, the stadia lines in a BDC reticle are only accurate so long as the scope is on high magnification. You may be presented with a quick shot at close range and not have time to adjust to full power. More likely, you’ll simply forget to adjust your rear focal plane scope to high power in the heat of the moment. With the H6Xi’s MHR MOA reticle (or the new STR-MIL reticle) your holdover and windage adjustments will be accurate regardless of the magnification.

The MHR reticle in the H6Xi I tested is well designed. Hunters need a reticle that allows them to shoot quickly and accurately at lower power yet provides the necessary point of aim correction for taking shots at extended ranges. I know of few better examples of what that should look like than the MHR. At low power—roughly 2x to 4x—the reticle looks like a fine duplex and provides your eyes with just enough information to make an accurate shot without cluttering the field-of-view. As you move up through the magnification range, the MHR reticle becomes more pronounced and the aiming points more visible. The stadia lines on the lower vertical arm of the reticle offer aiming points to a 10 MOA holdover, which is roughly equivalent to the drop of Hornady’s 6.5-Creedmoor 143-grain ELD-X factory ammunition at 500 yards. At low power, the Steiner reticle is free of distraction and perfect for fast, close shots. Crank the magnification up a bit and you have a built-in BDC system that will help you make accurate shots over a ¼ mile, without dialing, with most modern hunting loads.

With the scope’s exposed elevation turret, you can dial if you’d like, but I prefer having both options. The MHR reticle provides more holdover data if you max out the H6Xi’s 70 MOA of internal adjustment. More practically speaking, you have two options for making elevation adjustments. First (and fastest) are the holdover points inside the reticle itself. If you’re comfortable with those it’s a simple way to accurately account for proper holdover. If you simply love to dial or are stretching your shots beyond the limitations of the MHR reticle’s stadia lines, that’s also an option. For most hunters with modern centerfire loads, I’d say the MHR offers all the holdover you need for fast shots in the field.

The illuminated center portion of the MHR reticle is powered by a single CR2032 battery housed inside the adjustment knob on the left side of the scope. The illumination adjustment, which shares space on the side of the scope body with the parallax adjustment knob, features 11 settings with intermediate off positions. The locking diopter ranges from +2 to -3 and there’s a capped windage knob on the right side of the scope body. The exposed elevation/capped windage turret layout has become popular with hunters and shooters alike. Traditionally, hunters have dialed for elevation but held for wind. The built-in correction lines within the scope make windage adjustments quick and straightforward.

The Steiner H6Xi’s 30mm main tube is made from milled 6061-T6 aluminum. Because of its short overall length, you may have to play with the scope’s position or buy taller rings, especially if you’re mounting it on a long-action rifle. Because the main tube is relatively short (it offers just over five inches between the ocular and objective bells for ring mounting, which is about an inch less than many competing scopes), the scope may make contact with the receiver of the rifle when using low rings. There’s only about 1 ½ inches of tube space for mounting the front ring so there’s not a lot of real estate for adjusting the scope to the front and rear. It’s better to check the scope with your rifle before buying rings to determine which height is best.

MSRP for the H6Xi 2-12x42 is listed at $2,299 and the larger 3-18x50 carries an MSRP of $2,529. That places the Steiner 2-12x42 within $50 of Zeiss’ Conquest V6 2-12x50 ($2,249), about $150 higher than Swarovski’s Z6 2-12x50 ($2,149) and a few hundred dollars above both the Leupold VX-6HD 2-12x42 ($1,799) and the Leica Amplus 6 2.5-15 ($1,499). When you price your optic alongside Zeiss, Leupold, Swarovski, and Leica scopes, it had better perform well. The Steiner certainly has the goods including precision-ground German glass. It’s assembled in Greeley, Colorado and backed by an impressive warranty.

Range Testing

By the time I tested the Steiner in early March, the brown earth of a gloomy February had turned emerald green and the sun was warm in the cloudless sky. Those are perfect conditions for testing the impact of glare on a riflescope. Scope companies like to tout light transmission, but how does a scope perform when the elk you’ve been chasing for months makes an appearance on a sunlit ridge? If your scope doesn’t effectively cut glare, you’ll lose opportunities on game. I know this firsthand having lost shots when the animal was backlit by bright sun.

Steiner’s lens coatings do an exceptional job cutting glare. I don’t recommend staring directly into the sun with any optic (or without one, for that matter), but targets positioned so they are backlit by bright sunlight are still visible with the Steiner. The H6Xi gets very high marks for glare reduction. It also does very well with regards to color fidelity and low-light performance, lasting as deep into the twilight as the other high-end scopes on that lofty list above.

The H6Xi has a fairly forgiving eye box and a generous 3.5 to 3.85 inches of eye relief so there’s room to get well behind the optic if you’re shooting a hard-kicking rifle. For field testing, I mounted the scope on an E.R. Shaw 6mm Creedmoor rifle and performed a modified box test to ensure that the scope tracks properly up, down, left, and right. And, as the photos illustrate, the point of impact moves accordingly when the optic was adjusted, which is an extremely important consideration when you’re dialing for elevation in the field.

I feel like the MHR is a very useful design for hunters. At low power, the appearance of a thin duplex allows for fast aiming on moving game like hogs or elk in timber. Dial the magnification up to 8 to 10, or max it out at 12 and you can shoot targets at long range, and at any magnification you choose; the BDC data will be correct throught the zoom range because of the FFP design. There’s a notion that long-range shooting requires 15x, 18x, or 20x top-end magnification. That’s not true. I’ve been to long-range shooting schools that require students to fire to 1,000 yards without exceeding 10x. Doing so eliminates the shake that’s more apparent at higher magnifications. It also teaches you that you can indeed make long shots on relatively low magnification. To my mind, the 12x top magnification on the Steiner is no disadvantage at all, and this scope should be suitable for game at any reasonable range.

The Steiner is a solid optic that performs well compared alongside top-end rivals like the options from Leica, Leupold, Swarovski and Zeiss. I’d go a step further and ask; why would you need a scope that’s larger and heavier than the lightweight, compact H6Xi for hunting? Do you like the added weight of a bulky scope, or does higher magnification make you feel more comfortable with long shots? I personally like the lightweight design of the H6Xi, an optic that borrows the best elements from its tactical cousins without adding extra mass. There are lots of hybrid tactical/hunting scopes on the market, but with the H6Xi, Steiner did a good job of combining the best elements from each design and rolling them into a single all-purpose hunting optic.

Steiner H6Xi Specs

• Magnification Range: 2-12x42 (tested), 3-18x50, 5-30x50
• Focal Plane: First Focal Plane
• Elevation: 70 MOA, ¼ MOA Clicks
• Windage: 70 MOA, Capped, ¼ MOA
• Main Tube Diameter: 30mm
• Main Tube Construction: Aircraft-Grade Aluminum
• Finish: Matte Black
• Illuminated: Yes
• Illumination Settings: 11
• Parallax Adjustment: Side
• Weight: 24.5 Ounces
• Length: 11.5 Inches
• MSRP: $2,299 (as tested)
• Manufacturer: Steiner, steiner-optics.com

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