It will be interesting to see how fast it sells, with a brand new ~$3,500 Z8i 1-8x24 as a baseline.
The selling point of the Z6i 1-6x24 EE is the 4.72" eye relief, compared to the standard Z6i 1-6x24 or Z8i 1-8x24 3.74". An additional inch is huge, as opposed to an 8X magnification on a straight tube DG scope, which seems bizarre to me. To what purpose? To the best of my knowledge, few PH will let you shoot at a Buff, Ele, Lion, etc. past 100 yds, and at that distance, and for this type of hunts, field of view is more important than magnification, hence all these 8X (or even 6X) scopes are typically used at 2X to 4X anyway.
And this is where there is no free lunch. Of course you pay for the additional eye relief with a reduced field of view, even Swarovski cannot bend the laws of optical physics. In this case 1 additional inch of eye relief costs you a 20% reduction in field of view: 16ft instead of 20ft at 100 yds at 6X. But if the scope is used at 2X to 4X, the 60ft to 80ft field of view at 100 yds (I am speculating) is still plenty enough, and at 1X, the difference (127 ft vs. 120ft at 100 yds) is practically irrelevant.
Of course, anyone can gain an additional inch of eye relief from any scope by simply installing it as forward as mechanically possible on the rifle (double or bolt) because having a sharp edge sight picture does not provide any shooting benefit over having a sight picture with a fuzzy black ring edge, but I expect that -- as usual -- practical considerations will not weigh in buying decisions...
I am with
rookhawk, I think that it will sell at some point, because there are enough wealthy folks on AH who will not blink at an additional $1,500 in order to get a "perfect" sight picture, even if it is practically irrelevant.
The market is apparently not huge, though, otherwise one would assume that Swarovski would have continued to make EE scopes...
As to the gouging concern, I do not think that it applies here,
Bighorn191, this is not a first necessity item, even on a DG rifle (a standard 1-6x24 will do the job for half or a quarter of the price). The more applicable concept here is supply & demand: impossibly low supply does trigger high prices. The trick, of course, is to make the rare offer known to the also rare demand. If anywhere, AH is the place.
